FORT WORTH — Highlights of the annual Non-Prime Automotive Financing Survey were touched upon at last week's related conference held by the National Auto Finance Association.

One the primary insights offered was that overall, used-vehicle portfolios performed better than new-vehicle portfolios, according to Rich Apicella, of BenchMark Consulting International, whose company compiles the results and performs the analysis for the NAF Association each year.

SubPrime Auto Finance News obtained a copy of the report and talked to Apicella to shed some deeper light on some of the trends. 

Data was gathered from 22 finance companies, covering both 2007 and 2008. Small-class size participants, with up to 10,000 accounts, were 12, compared with 11 in 2007. Medium-class category participants, or those with 10,001 to 100,000 accounts, included six companies, compared with eight the prior year. And data on large-class size organizations covered four, compared with seven in 2007.

Overall, 22 companies were analyzed, compared with 26 in the previous year. One of the main reasons for the drop in survey participants was due to the tightening of the credit markets, causing several lenders to go out of business or significantly reduce originations, Apicella pointed out.

The combined account total reviewed for the latest report was more than 2.2 million accounts, with the principal balance coming in at more than $28 billion.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the used-car portfolios tended to perform more strongly than the new-car portfolios.

"For both new and used vehicles, covering year-over-year changes for 2008 versus 2007, the same respondent group said that average credit quality improved by five to six FICO points," Apicella explained to SubPrime Auto Finance News this week.

Moreover, he said that the average amount financed on new and used units decreased a bit annually by less than 2 percent.

Meanwhile, average contract rates (or pricing) grew by 50 basis points and average dealer reserve decreased.

Looking specifically at used vehicles, Apicella reported that average term declined one month to 52 months total.

"Average LTV increased slightly to 120 percent, while the 30-day delinquency charge decreased 108 basis points to 5.66 percent," he indicated. "Average annualized net charge-off rate decreased 60 basis points to 6.22 percent."

As for annualized repossession unit rate, Apicella said this held fairly steady at 9.73 percent.

When looking at the same companies' data year-over-year, there appeared to be a shift happening, with the organizations pumping up used portfolios with the average account total being 104,823 in 2008, compared with 98,834.

Meanwhile, new-car portfolios tended have fewer accounts, 46,100, as opposed to 52,729 in 2007.

Apicella also discovered that auto decisioning has sharply declined year-over-year, saying "a lot more eyeballs are looking at applications prior to approving."

Analyzing new-vehicle results in the same respondent group, Apicella found some more interesting trends.

"Average term increased one month to 66 months, while average LTV was flat at 103 percent," he explained. "As for 30-day delinquencies, they increased 74 basis points to 8.13 percent. And average annualized repossession unit rate exceeded 4 percent."

To learn more details of results, the Non-Prime Auto Financing Survey is free to NAF Association members; for non-members the cost is $300. A copy of the report can be obtained by visiting www.nafassociation.com.