Interesting view of the way that lending is changing for cars

"Certainly, robust U.S. auto sales are driving most of the growth in auto loans. But changes in evaluating credit data also seem to be fueling the gains.

Before the 2000s, most lenders used a FICO model to score risk on most auto loans. California-based Fair Isaac Corp. pioneered software that processed credit bureau data on individual consumers and spit out a single score estimating how likely a person was to repay a loan. A FICO score simplified assessing loan risk. It replaced loan officers hand processing credit records.

Its limitation was the records the major credit bureaus had, which then included medical collections -- whether outstanding or paid -- but not rental payments.

FICO scores worked well on people with conventional credit records -- mortgages, previous car loans and credit and department store cards. But assessing risk on those with thin records was still guesswork."

Source: Automotive News