The End of an Era

TD Bank closed its acquisition of Chrysler Financial last Friday, and with it, closed the book on what was once one of the most powerful brands in auto finance. 

It took 15 words to bring the Chrysler Financial brand to its long-expected conclusion: “TD expects to rebrand Chrysler Financial under the TD Auto Finance brand later this spring,” as quoted from a TD press release. 

Along with the demise of GMAC, which was re-branded under the Ally Financial name, two titans of auto finance have been dumped, re-shaping the top of the industry’s pyramid. To be fair, GM still lives on in a new brand, GM Financial, which houses the old AmeriCredit platform.

But Chrysler Financial is no more. The captive financing unit was started in 1964, according to its Wikipedia page. For decades, it stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ford Motor Credit and GMAC as the most powerful auto lenders in the nation. They are the Mount Rushmore of auto finance. 

But as with the manufacturing arms of the Big Three, the power of their captive finance companies has faded. Blame it on complacency. Blame it on resting laurels. To quote a line from one of my favorite movies, blame it on flying too high on borrowed wings.

Chrysler Financial has been a shell of its former self for some time. The size of its auto portfolio has decreased by some $30 billion during the past three years. With Chrysler part of Fiat and Chrysler Financial staying behind as part of Cerberus Capital Management and now TD, it was clear that a captive divided from its parent could not survive. All that was left was the funeral.