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The latest Equifax National Credit Trends Report found that auto finance companies have substantially increased lending by more than 47 percent over the past two years.
Private auto finance companies have outpaced banks and credit unions as the main lenders to America's car buyers over the past several years, with 854,800 auto finance company-initiated loans in July 2011 alone compared with 581,300 in July 2009.
"With unemployment rates remaining elevated for a prolonged period, auto lenders have proactively adopted more comprehensive data and verification tools for greater loan-level transparency in evaluating a wider band of consumers, which has helped enable the auto lending industry to recover more quickly than others," said Michael Koukounas, senior vice president of special client services at Equifax.
According to the Wall Street Journal's Smart Money, new car sales have experienced significant growth over the past several months[,] which has led to many automakers getting rid of valuable incentives and other deals. However, Audi buyers can take advantage of 0.9 percent financing as opposed to the average loan rate of 4.1 percent offered for most new cars.
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