GM, GMAC seek to jump-start car loans after bailout

[Adsos Letter]

Source: AFP/YahooNews

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Auto finance giant GMAC and its former parent General Motors announced plans Tuesday to expand financing to a wider spectrum of customers a day after a six-billion-dollar US government rescue.

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GMAC, which has long been the financial arm of General Motors, said it would modify its credit criteria two months after placing tight restrictions on loans to only the most creditworthy borrowers.

General Motors separately said it would offer zero percent financing on many new vehicles in an effort to jump-start weak sales.

GMAC, which won approval last week from the Federal Reserve to become a bank holding company with greater access to Fed credit lines, said it would now approve loans to borrowers with a credit bureau score of 621 or above, compared to the 700 rating (based on a maximum level of 800) put in place two months ago.



Read more: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20081231/tts-finance-economy-us-banking-auto-comp-972e412.html

[KansDem]

1. About time. My old Chevy's clutch is shot...

Last Saturday I was shifting when the clutch pedal slammed to the floor and stayed there. I was stuck in third gear (three speed on the column) and had to get all the way back home in third gear. That meant I had to time the lights so I would always hit "green." That also meant I had to pull into parking lots near intersections with red lights and drive in circles, waiting for the light to turn green, so I could pull back out onto the street and proceed through the intersection. If I stopped my engine would die and I'd be stuck.

I need a new car and maybe this move will help me buy one...

[MineralMan]

4. It's an easy repair, and not expensive.

Ooops! Wrong problem. I misread. It's still not a hugely expensive repair.

I'll leave the fix for the stuck shifter, though, just in case someone has that problem...

The bushings on the shift levers on the transmission where the rods from the shifter in the car hit the levers on the transmission are worn, or, if there are no bushings, the holes in the levers are worn out. Once replaced, you'll be back in business.

In the meantime, you can normally clear this problem by wiggling the shift levers on the transmission itself. That'll mean lying on your back and partway under the car so you can reach them.

I drove a 1954 Chevy that way for a couple of years. Every now and then, I'd have to "get out and get under" and clear the jammed shift rods.

What year is your Chevy? I thought it was a long time ago that they changed that setup.

[KansDem]

5. 1965 Chevelle "Deluxe 300"

This has happened twice before. The engine bucks and the clutch arm slips off it's rod. It takes about 20-30 minutes for me to repair and I get extremely dirty (lot of grease), but I think it's time I invest in another car.

I was hoping to restore the Chevy some day (I've had it 23 years), but I'm afraid rust and the breaking off of a huge tree branch that landed on the back half of the car have made it almost impossible for me to restore...:(

[itsrobert]

6. Only 43-44 years out of the Chevrolet?

I guess it's time to move over to Toyota with its Engine sludge.

[MineralMan]

7. Yah...that's a common one, too...

A new clutch arm will fix it, but that's not a cheap repair, since the transmission has to be pulled. Bummer. If you could do the work yourself, it wouldn't cost much, though.

I hear you about not repairing it after the tree damage, though.

Sometimes I wish I had a mid-60s car again. Here in Minnesota, though, they've all gone to a rusty grave.

[Trillo]

2. zero percent financing?

When we purchased the only new car we've bought, it was totally amazing to ask the sales folks if their "zero percent financing" offer was calculated as compound or simple.

The real eye opener was when a bank's loan of much greater than zero percent interest cost less than the dealership's so-ranked lower-interest-rate of "zero".

Ever since then, for me at least, "zero percent financing" is a red-flag demarcating deception. Sad, actually, since someday someone conceivably could offer a no interest loan as a zero percent interest loan, and I'd falsely believe they were lying to me.

[Adsos Letter]

3. Thankyou for the warning SimpleTrend! n/a

[RC]

8. If they are really serious about expanding financing to a wider spectrum of customers,

they they had better also work on getting living wage jobs back into this country.
Also busting the union to match the pay in some country with a lower standard of living is not the way to sell a product that costs as much as new houses used to cost.

[chucktaylor]

9. Welcome to the sub-prime car loans. An all new loan for people to default on.

So now people who shouldn't get a loan will take a 15-20% depreciation the minute they drive of the lot. Immediately being upside down on their car loan.

This is utterly foolish.