Auto Finance News 2009

Auto Finance News is the leading source of information and insight on the Auto Finance industry. First published in 1996 as a very basic newsletter, the informational format began as a pure newsletter and has evolved over time into a more magazine-like trade publication.

In 2009, at the nadir of the great recession, Auto Finance News devoted heavy coverage to the credit crisis, the decline in automobile production, the rescue packages for General Motors and Chrysler, the Cash-4-Clunkers program, as well as continuing coverage of the TARP program and the status of various auto lenders effected by the crisis. Much of 2009’s reporting dealt with the impact of the TARP rescues – like how Credit Unions stepped in to the void to offer friendly terms when bigger institutions were balking at risk – and what the future might look like for GM and Chrysler (and other manufacturers like Saab, Volvo, and Jaguar-Land Rover). With car sales (and production) well below the levels of 2006-2008, Cash-4-Clunkers proved to be a major factor in getting sales moving again, but also had the effect of removing a pool of bottom-feeder used cars from the pool of available vehicles. Due to the reduced production and the drain of C-4-C, used-car values would remain high for years as a result.

Below are several covers from 2009. At the time these were created, Auto Finance News was a bi-weekly publication published 24 times a year with two break issues. Auto Finance News required twenty four covers a year, each illustrating completely new, often breaking, stories. The internal, news-focused format of AFN has remained largely unchanged over the years.