Michael Smitka's Page

Michael Smitka commented on Marcie Belles's blog post Standing Firm

"Hmmm ... and if the headwinds in the EU blow stronger, there may be even more institutions wanting to build up auto-related paper in the US. What's been happening to loan terms? -- lower rates eat into up-front profits, looser terms eat into…"

Jan 26

Michael Smitka commented on Marcie Belles's blog post Toyota Retains Top Spot as World’s Largest Automaker in 2010

"Let me cut-and-paste from an email discussion I've had....the thrust is that Toyota is very large and has typical large firm problems. Another large Toyota recall was announced, though most are outside the US. This will bring the total number…"

Jan 26, 2011

Michael Smitka commented on Marcie Belles's blog post A Low-Income Auto Lending Model

"This is neat. I've had conversations with a BHPH dealer who runs under a "keep them in the car" model (rather than a maximize repossessions model). This would be competitive in terms of the monthly but would put customers into more…"

Nov 23, 2010

David Ruggles and Michael Smitka are now friends

Jul 23, 2010

Michael Smitka's blog post was featured

GM's Sensible Strategy

This deal is aimed at the two segments where GM is at a greatest competitive disadvantage: lease and subprime (ACF's base is FICO 500-700, half homeowners with $60K-65K gross incomes, not "buy-here-pay-here"customers). It's not clear from ACF's current business how they will handleleases, but GM does not claim they will expand rapidly in that segment.For that matter, ACF already handles a large share of GM's subprime business (no details provided, but the numbers suggest that). Now ACF intends…See More

Jul 23, 2010

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Michael Smitka posted a blog post

GM's Sensible Strategy

This deal is aimed at the two segments where GM is at a greatest competitive disadvantage: lease and subprime (ACF's base is FICO 500-700, half homeowners with $60K-65K gross incomes, not "buy-here-pay-here"customers). It's not clear from ACF's current business how they will handleleases, but GM does not claim they will expand rapidly in that segment.For that matter, ACF already handles a large share of GM's subprime business (no details provided, but the numbers suggest that). Now ACF intends…See More

Jul 23, 2010

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Michael Smitka and Lisa Bundy are now friends

Jul 23, 2010

Michael Smitka commented on JJ Hornblass's blog post LIVE BLOG OF THE GM-AMERICREDIT CONFERENCE CALL @ 10 AM ET

"This deal is aimed at the two segments where GM is at a greatest competitive disadvantage: lease and subprime (500-700, half homeowners with $60K-65K gross incomes, not "buy-here-pay-here" customers). It's not clear from ACF's…"

Jul 22, 2010

Michael Smitka is now friends with Leslie Washington and Brandon