Former Arkansas car dealer gets 12 years in prison (WREG-TV

Former Arkansas car dealer gets 12 years in prison (WREG-TV Memphis)
HAMBURG, Ark. A former Monticello car dealer is to serve 12 years in prison for defrauding a bank and bilking hundreds of thousands of dollars from customers.

Long signs agreement providing relief to Dan Nelson customers (AberdeenNews.com)
PIERRE, S.D. - Loan modifications are part of an agreement to help resolve complaints filed against Dan Nelson Automotive Group and Nelson's in-house financing company, Car Now Acceptance Corp., Attorney General Larry Long said in a release.

S&P ASSIGNS HIGHEST INVESTMENT GRADE TO HYUNDAI CAPITAL BONDS (Asia Pulse via Yahoo! Australia & NZ Finance)
Automotive Standard & Poor's on Friday assigned its highest investment grade rating of "AAA" to six-year floating rate notes from Hyundai Capital Auto Funding Ltd.

Pep Boys Gets $200M Financing Commitment (AP via Yahoo! Finance)

Pep Boys Gets $200M Financing Commitment (AP via Yahoo! Finance)
Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack, an auto retail and service chain, said Friday it received a commitment for a $200 million loan facility from Wachovia, expected to close in January or February.

Emirates Bank offers unbeatable deals on auto loans at the 8th Middle East Motor Show (AME Info)
Emirates Bank is participating in the 8th Middle East Motor Show 2005, at the DWTC-Dubai (Dec 12-16),with the set up of its very own stand offering unbeatable deals on auto loans (Stand 4A- 4, in Hall 4).

Up Next (CBS News)
Ed Bradley profiles Yankees superstar Derek Jeter, and has a revealing chat with Jeter's mom. See the report this Sunday on the 38th season premiere of 60 Minutes .

Capital Automotive REIT Announces Proposed Restructuring and Proposed Tender Offer for the Series A and Series B (The Auto Channel)
MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 16, 2005 -- Capital Automotive REIT (the "Company") today announced that, on or about December 30, 2005, it expects to convert from a Maryland real estate investment trust to a Delaware limited liability company.

Test Drive: Project Gotham Racing 3
Editors at MSN Autos take Microsoft's latest driving game out for a spin.
Perry Stern

Top Luxury Cars on MSN Autos
The most popular luxury cars on MSN Autos, based on visits to the site's vehicle pages during the third quarter of 2005.
compiled by MSN Autos

Flood Damage: Don't Get Soaked When Buying a Used CarCarfax

Flood Damage: Don't Get Soaked When Buying a Used Car
Carfax provides guidance and tips to help you spot vehicles with potential water damage.
Editors of MSN Autos

GM Has Offers for Stake in Finance Unit, Wagoner Says (Update1) (Bloomberg.com)
Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said there's been ``ample interest'' in his finance unit and he is confident the automaker can find a buyer after some of the nation's biggest banks refused to acquire it.

Test Drive: Project Gotham Racing 3
Editors at MSN Autos take Microsoft's latest driving game out for a spin.
Perry Stern

Muhammad Yunus: Microcredit Missionary (BusinessWeek) The economics professor wasn't afraid

Muhammad Yunus: Microcredit Missionary (BusinessWeek)
The economics professor wasn't afraid to turn the rules of banking upside down

Flood Damage: Don't Get Soaked When Buying a Used Car
Carfax provides guidance and tips to help you spot vehicles with potential water damage.
Editors of MSN Autos

2006 NAIAS Coverage
The Official Web Site of the North American International Auto Show.
Editors of MSN Autos

BUSINESS DIGEST (San Jose Mercury News)
Local and StateNews Fremont's NUMMI plant has made 400,000 vehicles in one year for the first time in its 21-year history. Second-shift workers at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. made that vehicle, a red 2006 Toyota Corolla, on Monday. The line kept moving, but NUMMI President and Chief Executive Yuki Azuma, local United Auto Workers Vice President Sergio Santos and two workers posed for a

The Truth About Fuel Economy Ratings
If your new car's actual fuel mileage does not match the fuel economy numbers on the window sticker, it's not necessarily your car's fault.
Ann Job

BUSINESS/AGRICULTURE (Grand Forks Herald)
Ford Motor Co.'s retired autoworkers will start making monthly health-care contributions and pay deductibles as part of a tentative agreement the automaker reached with the United Auto Workers, which provided details of the plan Wednesday.

Indonesia's November motorbike sales up 35 pct y/y (Reuters via

Indonesia's November motorbike sales up 35 pct y/y (Reuters via Yahoo! Singapore News)
JAKARTA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Motorcycle sales in Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous nation, rose 35.43 percent in November from a year earlier, continuing a trend sparked by cheap loans amid historically low interest rates, data from the country's largest automotive distributor showed on Wednesday.

BUSINESS/AGRICULTURE (Grand Forks Herald)
Ford Motor Co.'s retired autoworkers will start making monthly health-care contributions and pay deductibles as part of a tentative agreement the automaker reached with the United Auto Workers, which provided details of the plan Wednesday.

Preview: 2006 Ford Fusion
Ford's most important sedan launch since the Taurus.
Perry Stern

More Auto news (Detroit Free Press)
Standard & Poor's lowered its credit rating on General Motors Corp. on Monday, pushing the world's largest automaker further into junk, or speculative, status.

Lowest-Priced New Vehicles for 2006
Low price doesn't mean skimping on safety equipment anymore; some lowest-priced new cars include six standard airbags.
Ann Job

Hertz Sells Nearly $3B of Junk Bonds (AP via Yahoo! News)
Hertz Corp. sold nearly $3 billion of junk bonds Thursday to help fund the second-largest leveraged buyout ever.

BUSINESS DIGEST (San Jose Mercury News) Local and StateNews Fremont's

BUSINESS DIGEST (San Jose Mercury News)
Local and StateNews Fremont's NUMMI plant has made 400,000 vehicles in one year for the first time in its 21-year history. Second-shift workers at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. made that vehicle, a red 2006 Toyota Corolla, on Monday. The line kept moving, but NUMMI President and Chief Executive Yuki Azuma, local United Auto Workers Vice President Sergio Santos and two workers posed for a

Lease Buy Out Application Introduced by myAutoloan.com (PR Web via Yahoo! News)
(PRWEB) December 14, 2005 -- Consumers wanting to purchase their lease at the end of the lease term can now apply for a lease buy out loan with myAutoloan.com, a direct-to-customer, Internet-based auto financing marketplace that helps consumers find auto loan financing including lease buy out loans.

Lease Buy Out Application Introduced by myAutoloan.com (PR Web) Consumers

Lease Buy Out Application Introduced by myAutoloan.com (PR Web)
Consumers wanting to purchase their lease at the end of the lease term can now apply for a lease buy out loan with myAutoloan.com, a direct-to-customer, Internet-based auto financing marketplace that helps consumers find auto loan financing. [PRWEB Dec 14, 2005]

Borrowing Falls on Drop in Auto Loans (New York Times)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (AP) - Consumer borrowing dropped in October by a record amount, reflecting a big decline in auto loans, the Federal Reserve reported on Wednesday.

Lease Buy Out Application Introduced by myAutoloan.com (PR Web via Yahoo! News)
(PRWEB) December 14, 2005 -- Consumers wanting to purchase their lease at the end of the lease term can now apply for a lease buy out loan with myAutoloan.com, a direct-to-customer, Internet-based auto financing marketplace that helps consumers find auto loan financing including lease buy out loans.

Borrowing Falls on Drop in Auto Loans (New York Times)

Borrowing Falls on Drop in Auto Loans (New York Times)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (AP) - Consumer borrowing dropped in October by a record amount, reflecting a big decline in auto loans, the Federal Reserve reported on Wednesday.

Fitch Rates Honda Auto Receivables 2005-6 Owner Trust 'F1+/AAA' (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
NEW YORK----Dec. 12, 2005--Fitch Ratings assigns ratings to the Honda Auto Receivables 2005-6 Owner Trust receivables-backed class A notes as follows: $237,000,000 4.5116% class A-1 asset-backed notes 'F1+'; $292,000,000 4.85% class A-2 asset-backed notes 'AAA'; $300,000,000 4.85% class A-3 asset-backed notes 'AAA'; $197,070,000 4.93% class A-4 asset-backed notes 'AAA'.

Word on the Street (Coeur d'Alene Press)
Seltice Car Wash at Greensferry Road and Seltice Way recently reopened after major renovations and is now known as Auto Shine Car Wash. It now features the LaserWash touch-free automatic wash.

More Auto news (Detroit Free Press)
Standard & Poor's lowered its credit rating on General Motors Corp. on Monday, pushing the world's largest automaker further into junk, or speculative, status.

Preview: 2006 Ford Fusion
Ford's most important sedan launch since the Taurus.
Perry Stern

U.S. Stocks' Fourth-Quarter Rally Gets Jump-Start From Fed (Bloomberg.com)
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The fourth-quarter rally in U.S. stocks got a jump-start after the Federal Reserve signaled it may stop raising interest rates soon.

U.S. Oct. Consumer Credit Falls as Auto Loans Drop (Update1)

U.S. Oct. Consumer Credit Falls as Auto Loans Drop (Update1) (Bloomberg.com)
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Borrowing by U.S. consumers unexpectedly fell in October as plunging auto sales reduced demand for financing, a Federal Reserve report showed today.

More Auto news (Detroit Free Press)
Standard & Poor's lowered its credit rating on General Motors Corp. on Monday, pushing the world's largest automaker further into junk, or speculative, status.

Borrowing Falls on Drop in Auto Loans (New York Times)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (AP) - Consumer borrowing dropped in October by a record amount, reflecting a big decline in auto loans, the Federal Reserve reported on Wednesday.

G.M.A.C. Sells Auto Loans to Unit of Canadian Bank (New

G.M.A.C. Sells Auto Loans to Unit of Canadian Bank (New York Times)
General Motors agreed to sell as much as $20 billion in auto loans over five years to the corporate and investment banking unit of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Borrowing Falls on Drop in Auto Loans (New York Times)

Borrowing Falls on Drop in Auto Loans (New York Times)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (AP) - Consumer borrowing dropped in October by a record amount, reflecting a big decline in auto loans, the Federal Reserve reported on Wednesday.

Consumer Borrowing Sees Record Drop as Auto Loans Decline (Los Angeles Times)
WASHINGTON Consumer borrowing plunged at a record annual rate of $7.2 billion in October, reflecting a big drop in auto loans.

(AFX UK Focus) 2005-12-12 16:00 GMT: AFX NEWS BRIEFING: Banking and insurance highlights to 15:45 GMT (Interactive Investor)
MILAN (AFX) - Italy's antitrust authority said it has fined ANIA, the country's association of insurance companies, 2 mln eur for fixing a uniform scale of repair tariffs for auto insurance claims.

GMAC to sell chunk of auto loans (The Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
DETROIT - General Motors Corp.'s GMAC financial services unit said Monday it has agreed to sell up to $20 billion in U.S. auto loans to Scotia Capital, the corporate and investment banking arm of The Bank of Nova Scotia.

Porsche Cayman S Premieres
The largest show in Europe, the Frankfurt show featured worldwide premieres of 80 concept and production vehicles.
Editors of MSN Autos

G.M.A.C. Sells Auto Loans to Unit of Canadian Bank (New York Times)
General Motors agreed to sell as much as $20 billion in auto loans over five years to the corporate and investment banking unit of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

GM to sell 20 billion dollars in auto loans (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Struggling General Motors Corp. said it will sell up to 20 billion dollars in auto loans over the next five years to the Bank of Nova Scotia.

Tops in Vehicle SatisfactionNissan models are big winners in this

Tops in Vehicle Satisfaction
Nissan models are big winners in this annual vehicle satisfaction study.
Editors of MSN Autos

U.S. Oct. Consumer Credit Falls as Auto Loans Drop (Update1)

U.S. Oct. Consumer Credit Falls as Auto Loans Drop (Update1) (Bloomberg.com)
Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Borrowing by U.S. consumers unexpectedly fell in October as plunging auto sales reduced demand for financing, a Federal Reserve report showed today.

Preview: 2006 Ford Fusion
Ford's most important sedan launch since the Taurus.
Perry Stern

Consumer Borrowing Sees Record Drop as Auto Loans Decline (Los

Consumer Borrowing Sees Record Drop as Auto Loans Decline (Los Angeles Times)
WASHINGTON Consumer borrowing plunged at a record annual rate of $7.2 billion in October, reflecting a big drop in auto loans.

GMAC Unit to Sell Up to $20B in Auto Loans (AP via Yahoo! News)
General Motors Corp.'s GMAC financial services unit said Monday it has agreed to sell up to $20 billion in U.S. auto loans to Scotia Capital, the corporate and investment banking arm of The Bank of Nova Scotia. Terms were not disclosed.

Tops in Vehicle Satisfaction
Nissan models are big winners in this annual vehicle satisfaction study.
Editors of MSN Autos