Featured Blog Posts – April 2010 Archive (16)

Ford Credit Earns $528 Million in 1Q

Higher auction values and lower provisions for credit losses powered Ford Motor Credit Co.’s earnings last quarter, despite a decline in loans and leases outstanding.

The Ford Motor Co. captive earned $528 million last quarter. By comparison, it lost $13 million in 1Q09.

Ford Credit managed $90 billion of loans and leases as of March 31, down from $95 billion at yearend 2009. The decline stemmed, in part, from the transition of Jaguar, Land Rover, Mazda, and Volvo… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 27, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Obama Glosses Over Regulators' Deficiencies

It was what President Obama left out of his speech today that deserves the most notice.

I had the privilege of being at President Obama's speech today on financial reform in New York. The speech took place in the Great Hall of Cooper Union, a free college in lower Manhattan. The Great Hall has been the site of legendary speeches in the past, including…

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Added by JJ Hornblass on April 22, 2010 at 3:12pm — 2 Comments

Credit Union Exec Joins AFRS Speaker Roster

Roger Douville, assistant vice president of A+ Federal Credit Union, will participate in the Fraud session at the upcoming Auto Finance Risk Summit, to be held May 11-12 in Dallas.

Executives on the panel will discuss policies to help ferret out fraud and minimize losses. The group will outline how to assess critical fraud risks, design a prevention program that works, and offer a run-down of post-fraud protocols.

The AFRS speaker faculty includes executives from… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 21, 2010 at 1:00pm — No Comments

Chrysler Offers First Post-Bankruptcy Look at Financial Performance

Despite a $4 billion loss since exiting bankruptcy last year, Chrysler Group LLC is on the rebound.

The company, under management control by Italy’s Fiat SpA, posted a $143 million operating profit for the first quarter, compared with an $895 million loss for the June through December 2009 period.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne expects Chrysler to hit all the strategic targets outlined last November, including breaking even on an operational basis and selling 1.1 million cars… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 21, 2010 at 10:55am — No Comments

Traffic Jam

Aggressive incentives drove more than 30 million visitors to auto manufacturers’ sites in March, prompting OEMs to notch the greatest monthly web activity growth among the sectors monitored by comScore Media Metrix.

Overall, traffic among automakers’ web sites shot up 23% last month, as potential car buyers researched incentives and vehicle options. Community and “green” sites came in second (up 20%), while news/politics sites placed third (up 18%).

While GM scored the… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 21, 2010 at 2:51am — 1 Comment

Another Green Chute: Subprime Auto Brightens

Even subprime auto finance is showing up green as the economic recovery amps up. KBW last week lowered its investment rating for AmeriCredit Corp. not because the company is doing poorly, but because the investment bank says it is doing too well. KBW's assessment prompted the i-bank to turn in a positive report for subprime auto finance. An excerpt:

The subprime auto finance…

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Added by JJ Hornblass on April 19, 2010 at 7:52am — 4 Comments

Have Regulators Found a New Bullseye?

I was perusing a speech given a few days ago by Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin before the Council of Institutional Investors and discovered an odd, off-hand reference to auto finance that deserves attention:

As anyone knows who has ever had to wade through the jungle of mortgage disclosure forms when…

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Added by JJ Hornblass on April 16, 2010 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment

Invitation to Participate in the Auto Finance Forecast

Every quarter AutoFinanceNews.net and sister publication Auto Finance News conduct the Auto Finance Forecast, which gauges activities and sentiments in the automotive lending and leasing market. We invite your participation here. Results will be made public at in Auto Finance News and on AutoFinanceNews.net.

Those who respond by April 20 will receive a… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 15, 2010 at 11:30pm — No Comments

Chase Boosts Auto Portfolio in 1Q

Chase Auto Finance originated $6.3 billion of auto loans last quarter, up 12.5% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, its auto portfolio grew 10.4% during the same period, to $46.9 billion.

Parent company JPMorgan Chase attributed the increases to “marketshare gains in prime segments and new manufacturing relationships.”

Last week, Chase announced that it had signed a multi-year private-label agreement with Mazda North American Operations, creating a captive called Mazda… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 14, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Mercedes-Benz Financial Scores With Mobile App

Mercedes-Benz Financial touts its iPhone app as “the coolest way to make a payment.” And it’s no wonder: Since launching the app in October, 3,000 people have used it — to the tune of $2.5 million in lease and loan payments.

So far, 11,000 people have downloaded the app, and 7,800 have visited the newly launched Mercedes-BenzFinancial.com/mobile web site.

Using the app,… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 12, 2010 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment

USAA, Turner Acceptance Execs Join AFRS Speaker Faculty

Mehran Chirehdast and Andres Huertas, risk managers at USAA and Turner Acceptance Corp., respectively, have joined the roster of stellar speakers at the upcoming Auto Finance Risk Summit.

Chiredast will participate in a discussion entitled “Refining Your Risk-Management Tools.” The panel will address topics including must-have analytics, perfecting the cost-benefit analysis, and strategies for seeking out the most effective risk-management solutions.

Huertas will join… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 9, 2010 at 11:55am — No Comments

Getting Delinquencies Back on Track

Consumer loan delinquencies are on the mend, dropping in eight of 11 loan categories, according to the American Bankers Association.

Marine loan delinquencies fell 58 basis points to 1.63% in the fourth quarter of 2009, while bank card delinquencies dropped 38 basis points to 4.39%.

On the auto side, 30-day late payments improved 10 basis points for direct loans, to 2.04%. Remarkably, direct loan delinquencies have declined to below-historical norms.

What’s… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 8, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments

GMAC Scores Thor Financing Deal, Second in 3 Weeks [UPDATED]

GMAC Financial Services scored its second private-label financing deal in three weeks yesterday with the announcement that it will make retail loans on behalf of Thor Industries.

Last month, GMAC announced that it would provide financing for Saab.

Thor makes RVs, and GMAC will finance new and used RVs for the company,…

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Added by JJ Hornblass on April 6, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

Rental Car Companies Revamp Remarketing Strategy as OEMs Offload Risk

In the past year, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. has shuffled the mix of its rental fleet, adding Ford, General Motors, and smaller foreign companies to an inventory that was historically 90% Chrysler vehicles. It has ramped up its direct sales force, cross-training the team’s 20 members. More importantly, though, the Tulsa, Okla.-based rental car company has made significant strides in its online remarketing efforts, a critical move at a time when fleet operators face the task of… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 2, 2010 at 4:05pm — No Comments

Dictating Consumer Demand

The Transportation Department and Environmental Protection Agency signed final rules today that set fuel-efficiency standards for model-year vehicles 2012 to 2016. The upshot: By 2016, cars and trucks should average 35.5 miles per gallon, nearly 10 mpg higher than what they’re getting now.

Granted, the mileage targets will vary by manufacturer, based on their specific mix of vehicles. Automakers that build more small vehicles will have higher targets than those that produce more… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 1, 2010 at 3:48pm — 2 Comments

Chrysler Profits on the Horizon?

Chrysler Group LLC is on track to break even this year — and could possibly generate a profit, CEO Sergio Marchionne told reporters at an auto forum in New York this week.

Marchionne expects Chrysler to sell 1.1 million vehicles in the U.S. this year, up from 931,000 last year. The anticipated sales will come without aggressive incentives, which Marchionne deems “unwise and unhealthy.”

"It takes a long time to build brand equity," he said. "We can't risk… Continue

Added by Marcie Belles on April 1, 2010 at 12:09pm — No Comments