FORT WORTH — Later in the day on Thursday, Daniel Pavlinac, senior director in the Web Intelligence Research Division at J.D. Power and Associates, offered a unique look into consumer online chatter about auto loans.

Basically, he said capturing data in the blogosphere is a new frontier in the voice of consumer research.

"We focused on blogs in message board. We downloaded millions of conversations each week," Pavlinac reported.

Looking at the entire realm of loans, his company found that there was a big drop off in discussions about loans in April, down about 52 percent from March.

"People are just really waiting to see what happens (with the economy)," Pavlinac explained.

There are about 5,000 conversations about mortgage and home loans a month, while there are about 1,000 conversations online a month about auto loans, he added.

"What they're talking about online actually reflects what they are doing on Main Street," he highlighted.

For instance, Pavlinac said, "There was a lot of positive buzz about Hyundai's Assurance program when it was first introduced. Meanwhile, when General Motors and Ford introduced theirs, about half of the chatter was positive."

However, the theme in the online environment right now appears to be "that when times are tough and I'm worried about my job, I'm not buying anything," he told Non-Prime Auto Financing Conference attendees.

Reviewing all online loan talk, Pavlinac discovered that about 29 percent is from Baby Boomers, 40 percent is from Gen Y and about 26 percent is Gen X.

Additionally, about 57 percent of online talkers are men, whereas 43 percent are women.

Breaking it down further, Pavlinac split online consumers talking about auto loans into three categories: approved borrowers, frustrated borrowers and avoiders.

Avoiders tend to be consumers who are facing financial set-backs, such as loss of a job who are seeking a company to work with them. However, some avoiders are those who are budget conscious. They are simply not looking to take on more debt right now, he explained.

Moreover, about four in 10 online chatters discuss their inability to get a loan. These are frustrated borrowers. They tend to lack credit or have bad credit.

Finally, approved borrowers make up about 15 percent of online talkers who are able to get auto loans. Pavlinac described this grouping as consumers who tend to be planners or reactors. Planners do a lot of online research and familiarize themselves with the process of buying a vehicle before taking action. Reactors, on the other hand, tend to respond to pre-approved mailings and move quickly to purchase a vehicle they set their hearts on.

Overall, about 60 percent of all online chatters discussing auto loans tend to be avoiders, Pavlinac indicated.

Ultimately, he said that the biggest opportunity for companies to grow market share is with the Gen Y population.

"Gen Y is an important target opportunity. This is 80-plus million consumers who will have a bigger impact than baby boomers when they gain complete purchasing power," he said.

"Companies that create products and messaging that resonates with this upcoming powerhouse will reap long-term benefits," Pavlinac concluded.