Auto Finance News 2012

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 2012, as a post-great-recession landscape began to emerge, Auto Finance News devoted heavy coverage to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the greatly increased emphasis on compliance. Technology, new kinds of vehicle lending (such as financing electric cars), and the continuing challenge of marketing vehicles to Millennials, a group hit hard by the recession. The elections of 2012 were also a running topic. Late in 2012, the impact of Hurricane Sandy – which destroyed hundreds of thousands of cars and reduced an already smaller-than-normal pool of used cars, took central focus. Sandy’s impact helped continue the trend of strong used-vehicle pricing that began with Cash-4-Clunkers and reduced production in 2009.

Below are several covers from 2012. 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. By the end of 2012, AFN’s schedule became monthly, with expanded weekly updates and expanded coverage within the magazine.