Auto industry financing: The real story

Auto industry financing is one of the biggest issues for both car dealers and consumers everywhere, with a large part of the economy based on consistent sales figures. However, thanks to the down turn in spending, the industry has had its fair share of ups and downs, with some companies even forced to take a government bailout during the heart of the recession. And while the sector has been forced to scale back some of its operations, some recent data suggests that it may be well on its way to its prior glory. A recent report from TrueCar.com, which specializes in predicting auto industry trends, revealed that sales in September were 10.1 percent higher than a year before, with total sales expected to total 1,054,599. The study found that the totals in the months resulted into a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rate (SAAR) of 13.1 million in new cars. There are other positive signs as well. Sales for retailers were up 10.7 percent compared to the year before and 0.2 percent up from the month of August. For those that worked on the study, the fact that many consumers were buying new vehicles, some with increased access to auto industry financing despite the down economy, was a good sign. "New vehicle sales are doing particularly well, even with worries of a recession and another wild month for the financial markets in September," said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insights for TrueCar.com. "If the current trends hold, we expect 2011 total new light vehicle sales to be 12.75 million units -- up 10 percent from 2010." In the same release, Kristen Andersson, an automotive analyst at TrueCar.com, said that major brands including Toyota and Honda were adding more vehicles and trying to get as many products sold as they could. There are other reasons for those in the industry to feel positive about financing. According to a study by Experian Automotive, customers buying cars who had nonprime credit or worse made up 22 percent of the total market.