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  "documentTitle": "Credit Acceptance Corporation (CACC)",
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  "authorName": "Citron Research",
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  "sourceTypeSlug": "short_seller",
  "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller",
  "presentationDate": "2026-03-01 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide uses a 'moat' narrative to explain why the company's business model is defensible against competitors like Carvana and DriveTime.",
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      "text": "The dealer wins when CACC wins. That alignment of incentive creates switching costs that no competitor — not Carvana, not DriveTime, not Capital One Auto — has been able to replicate.",
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      "text": "Bank regulatory frameworks cannot accommodate the Portfolio Program structure — structurally unavailable to most competitors\nUnderwriting accuracy compounds from 30 years of loan-level performance data — a data moat no new entrant can close\nPortfolio Program vs. Purchase Program mix is the most important operational metric in the business; current mix optimizes for long-term spread capture with reduced upfront risk",
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      "text": "The CFPB withdrawal is not just a legal win. It is a policy signal. The CFPB's enforcement budget has been cut, its leadership replaced, its most aggressive proposed rules shelved. The entire regulatory apparatus that had subprime auto lending in its crosshairs is being dismantled. This is a multi-year operating tailwind worth 1–2 turns of multiple by itself — and almost nobody is writing about it.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "Everyone focuses on the buybacks. The legal resolution. The new CEO. Fine — all valid. But the most durable competitive advantage in this business is sitting right in front of you and almost never discussed: approximately 15,000 active dealer relationships built over three decades.",
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      "text": "These are not customers. They are economic partners. CACC's Portfolio Program gives dealers a residual interest in the performance of their own loans. The dealer wins when CACC wins. That alignment of incentive creates switching costs that no competitor — not Carvana, not DriveTime, not Capital One Auto — has been able to replicate. You cannot acquire 30 years of dealer trust. You build it one funding decision at a time, including during 2009, 2020, and 2022, when everyone else pulled back. CACC did not.",
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      "text": "Competitor | Threat Level | Why They Cannot Replicate the Moat",
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      "kind": "title",
      "text": "The Deregulatory Tailwind Beyond the Settlement",
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      "text": "30 Years of Dealer Trust. Nobody Talks About This.",
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      "text": "Why No One Can Copy This",
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      "kind": "title",
      "text": "II. THE COMPETITIVE MOAT",
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