#GM BRINGING BACK Z/28 MUSCLE CAR

Remember when you were 16 years old and the coolest guys in your school had a Z. Everyone in town either wanted one or knew somebody with a Z and they were probably next to owning a vette the most popular car in 50 years aside from the 57 Chevy. GM rolled out the Camero Z/28 at the New York International Auto Show. The goal is to have the Z/28 in consumer hands by 2015. The Z introduced in 1967 hasn't benn around since 2002. Earlier this year, GM North American pulled the Stingray name out of mothballs and placed it on the latest Chevrolet Corvette sports car, which goes into production later this year. While car names may stir memories for auto enthusiasts, the coming Stingray and Z/28 won't be the volume leader GM needs to rebuild their market share worldwide. I wonder if the new Stingray and Z/28 will have a state of the art 8 track player included in the price. Reinvention of the muscle cars of the past proves that former auto designers had a better business model for car sales than the new MBA wiz kids.

BANKS OVER CHARGING ON AUTO LOANS#

A federal consumer regulator said on Thurday some lenders offering auto loans through auto dealerships charge minorities above-market interest rates and warned it will crack down on a profit-sharing practice between used and new car dealers and lending institutions. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said a typical industry practice known as "dealer markup" -in which a lender and a used or new car dealer split interest-rate charges-may lead to lending discrimination. The regulator said its examination of the industry shows that some lender policies allows markups of interest rates, and that there is a "significant risk" the practice results in higher interest rates for African-Americans and Hispanics. The CFPB would force auto lenders "into changing the way they compensate dealers without any indication that the bureau has examined the effect this change could have on the cost of credit for consumers". The agency failed to address the fact that high risk consumers often times require the cardealer to in fact co-sign or guarantee the loan. If the consumer defaults on the car loan the dealership is liable to the bank to payoff the debt. The credit scoring system often requires consumers with marginal or low credit scores to pay higher interest rates.