CDK says it’s brought a small group of car dealerships back online after massive weeklong outage

Vehicles for sale at an AutoNation Honda dealership in Fremont, California, US, on Monday, June 24, 2024. The hack that's disrupted business at thousands of car dealerships in North America is now in the process of getting resolved, the targeted software provider CDK Global said.

CDK Global said Wednesday that it has been able to bring a “small initial test group” of car dealerships back online, a week after a crippling software outage left thousands of car sellers across North America at a standstill.

“We have successfully brought a small initial test group of dealers live on the Dealer Management System (DMS), and once validation is complete, we will begin phasing in other dealers,” a statement said.

The company said it’s also working to bring additional applications back online, such as its customer relationship management and service solutions, as well as its customer care channels.

Dealerships have been grappling with with submitting their month-end financial reports during the system outage, so CDK said it created a resource center with “commonly used documents and forms to support their sales and service efforts.”

Auto dealerships use CDK’s software to manage everything from scheduling to records, and CDK said Saturday it has begun restoring its software.

On Tuesday, CDK said it doesn’t believe its systems will be back online before June 30, a major blow for dealers in the middle of a busy car-buying season. However, the company has suggested several times that a fix is in order, only to then say that its systems would remain out of commission longer.

A systems outage caused by a cybersecurity incident has paralyzed nearly 15,000 car dealerships across North America since last Wednesday.

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