Tucked neatly into a Wall Street Journal article about the approval of $25 billion in low-interest loans for auto manufacturers to help them re-tool their operations to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles was this little nugget:
“Detroit’s Big Three, once bullish on a turnaround in the auto sector in 2009, now expect to be another challenging year for auto sales in the U.S.”
Today’s car-sale reports for September are not expected to be pretty. It is at times like these when lenders are most prone to relax their underwriting standards to try and find volume, or when lenders try to “buy” marketshare by lowering their rates. Here’s hoping that prudent risk management wins the day.