Auto Lending News Reports:
By and large, the auto finance industry has much to showcase. When it comes to credit quality, bad credit auto loans have certainly outperformed mortgages, and the capital markets have already begun to turn a kinder eye to the auto sector in recent weeks.
This is true only in most cases. There are pockets of problematic bad credit auto loans, and one such concentration evidently did in a credit union last week, as reported by The Herald-Palladium of Southern Michigan:
bad credit auto loans, not risky home mortgages, are what sunk the Nevada credit union that United Federal Credit Union acquired last week, an executive said.
Clearstar Financial Credit Union, based in Reno, ended up having delinquencies and charge-offs on those
bad credit auto loans that depleted its cash reserves, said Duane Nelson, United's chief operating officer.
The National Credit Union Administration approached United about taking over Clearstar, and the two institutions announced the purchase Friday.
Now United is working to revise that bad credit auto loan program to meet standards the credit union has for its loans in Michigan, Nelson said.
"Their policies were very liberal on the amount of money they would loan on collateral," he said. "And their rates were probably too low for the risk that was involved."
I fear we'll see more of such failures at the hand of errant auto lending, particularly stemming from the 2007 vintage. The banking system is bulging with teetering banks, and I suspect more than just Clearstar FCU played it fast and loose in auto finance. These are nothing more than pockets of problems to be sure, but problems nonetheless.
Provided by the Auto News RSS Feed: Pockets of Problems
Auto Lending News Reports:
Okay, I'll admit it: I often watch a UK TV cable/satellite channel called 'Dave'. It has endless re-runs of Mock the Week, Top Gear and all sorts of stuff that might go under the general header 'Lad's stuff'. I also adore 'Brainiac' (Richard Hammond presents, or did) and am a fan of most of the spin-off stuff the Top Gear presenters do. They are bright guys who can do more than just salivate over a Ferrari or power slide a Noble. But there are only so many hours in a day and I don't actually watch all that much TV, guv (honest).
I was, however, particularly intrigued by the tale of TG presenter James May's Lego house. I don't think I have ever seen May's 'Toy Stories' but building a full-size house out of Lego sounds like a reasonably daft and oddly uplifting idea.
But something has gone very wrong, in a typically British, brutally harsh, shot-in-the-foot and totally unforeseen unfolding cock-up sort of way. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. They did actually compelete the Lego house, but it's a tragic tale. You'd think Legoland might have got involved in a positive PR story. For some reason it was built in a vinyard (Denbies) and they need the land back. Why build it there? You would also think it might have been built on some sort of modular platform - think about it, a Lego construction speciality - so that it could be easily transported when completed? Nope.
Oh well, it has had to be torn down. What a waste. I'd like to have seen it. And the low-life who nicked the cat? Capital punishment, I say.
James May's Lego house demolished
Provided by the Auto News RSS Feed: Lego house
Auto Lending News Reports:
It sounds like a story that will run and run. Four people were killed in the US when the accelerator pedal got stuck on a Lexus demonstrator. It's a reminder that sometimes seemingly innocuous things - like the floor mat you wouldn't give a second throught to - can lead to tragic outcomes. The fact that someone in the vehicle dialled the emergency services before the car crashed would have helped the investigators pinpoint the most likely cause of this particular accident.
But it makes you wonder how many other such accidents there may have been and also how many floor mats are aftermarket products or simply not fitted properly. The dealer in this case will come under scrutiny I would think.
There's also the unsettling question of why the driver - who was in the California Highway Patrol, so most likely a bit better than average behind the wheel - apparently couldn't get the car into neutral. That might be something else to be looked at. And was the start-stop button tricky to negotiate in that emergency situation? If you have to keep it depressed for three seconds while you are unexpectedly doing 120mph and trying to stop crashing, you might have your hands full with the steering wheel.
And to start with you'd probably be pressing your foot down on the faulty pedal like crazy to shift it while also concentrating on the steering, precious seconds passing as you accelerate, maybe until it's too late to spare a hand for the transmission control. Horrible story.
US: Toyota to recall 3.8m cars for floor mat check
Provided by the Auto News RSS Feed: Floor mat tragedy
