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Even if you are among the shrinking number of Americans who want to snag a screaming deal on a new GM vehicle, better make sure you have cash on hand or that your credit score is at least 700. Reports Automotive News, yesterday GMAC Financial Services announced "it will only lend money to prime borrowers with credit scores of more than 700."

Automotive News claim that one report indicates this will quash about 25% of new car loans. Predictably, GMAC brass explain the move by citing economic instability and decreasing ability of the financing organization to tap into capital and credit markets. Said GMAC spokesperson Sue Mallino, "this is an unprecedented credit market environment right now."

Despite these cautionary moves, Standard & Poor's as of yesterday was still considering downgrading credit ratings for both GMAC and GM (which owns 49 percent of GMAC shares). As to the other 51 percent of GMAC shares, GM sold them to Cerberus in 2006. The Wall Street Journal speculates that a GM/Chrysler merger might take place with GM selling its remaining GMAC holdings to Cerberus in exchange for the acquisition of Chrysler.--Colin Mathews

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Twitching in sympathetic agony with the Dow Jones Industrial, auto sales estimates for the remainder of 2008 and 2009 just keep getting uglier. J.D. Power and Associates recently rang in with a projected 13.6 million total new light-vehicle sales at the close of '08, representing a 16% drop from 2007's 16.1 million units.

Of new-vehicle retail sales for 2008 (those not including fleet sales), the research firm projects 10.8 million total, two million units below new-vehicle retail sales in 2007. They also completed a "downward revision" of their projections for 2009 new-vehicle retail sales, which they predict will be 10.6 million units altogether. Economists call this "negative growth." Indeed.

J.D. Power attributes 2/3rds of the decline in retail sales to customers who have decided or been forced to delay a new vehicle purchase. The remaining third is due to a decrease in vehicle leases. Fleet sales are also expected to suffer, falling to a projected 2.8 million by the close of the year, compared with 3.3 million in 2007.

Said Jeff Schuster, executive director of automotive forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates, "the additional decline in expected vehicle sales is a function of growing concerns around availability of credit and leasing, declines in vehicle equity and general economic stress."

Schuster concluded the bad news with a bit of a harbinger for the months to come as our country muddles into this deepening recession economic downturn: "Any truly pronounced recovery appears to be more than 18 months away."--Colin Mathews

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According to a new study by J.D. Power and Associates, shoppers reject most vehicles simply due to their experience while visiting a dealership.

In its 2008 Escaped Shopper Study, released today, J.D. Power found that 80 percent of shoppers rejected a model they strongly considered based on dealer service, limited availability of their model of interest, and lack of professionalism among the dealership's employees. The study is based on vehicles sales between May and July of 2008.

Said Tom Gauer, senior director of automotive retail research for the quality-control firm, "given today’s challenging automotive market, both sales and service experiences at the dealership are particularly critical in the decision-making process of shoppers."

Dealer service and professionalism would seem to be areas well within the control of management, with the exception of low employee morale due to an extremely tough market at present. Limited availability would seem to apply more to the few models that are selling like hotcakes presently, such as the Honda Civic, Toyota Prius, and Ford Focus. If, say, you were in the market for an '08 Dodge Ram or Chevy Suburban, we imagine you'd have your pick of vehicles with perhaps a nice dealer rebate, to boot.

Not surprisingly, the study also finds that the number of shoppers considering an Asian brand is slowly but surely increasing. Those numbers are at 63 percent in 2008, compared with 60 percent in 2007. The study cited a concomitant decline in consumers considering the purchase of a domestic. And of domestic purchasers, most were moved to purchase simply from a desire to "buy American," rather than due to incentives, rebates, or purchase price.

Have you ever been turned off of a car simply from the showroom experience? Tell us in a comment below.--Colin Mathews

You already know that gas prices hurt, and maybe you also know a way to find the best price in your area. When it comes to getting the most out of the pump, though, some drivers are pumping me for information on driving half-full, half-empty, or close to "E."

The reason: a series of chain mails that have been zipping through The Great Cloud of Internetdom for months. The version I got a few weeks attempted to argue that gas vapor, cold gas, warm gas, and dirty gas could all be avoided--and could save you money and time. It sounds logical, doesn't it?

Not according to the AAA's Geoff Sundstrom. Most of us are better off paying attention to the running condition of our cars, Sundstrom says: "Consumers would be better served to concentrate on keeping their vehicles maintained, consolidating trips and errands, and adjusting their driving to avoid prolonged idling, hard braking, and sudden acceleration."

So what's true and what's false when it comes to pumping gas? Here's Sundstrom's take on the tips floating around the Web:

1) Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold.

It doesn't matter, Sundstrom says. "The idea that gasoline expands when warm and contracts when cold is true," he says, "but the amount of fuel that can be saved by filling up when the temperature is cooler would be so minuscule as to be hardly worth the effort. There is some research taking place in California on the cost to consumers of 'hot fuel,' but conclusive results have not been reported to our knowledge."

2) When you're filling up, do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode.

Gas can vaporize as it pumps, "but only in extremely small quantities," Sundstrom adds. "The reason the vapor is recovered at the pump is to help limit air pollution from evaporating gasoline. Pumping more slowly may be of some assistance in getting more gasoline for the dollar, but it is not going to alter your fuel bill in any meaningful way."

3) If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up.

The warning that there is enough sediment in underground storage tanks that can harm your vehicle is "mostly an outdated idea," Sundstrom says. "Anything that does make its way into the underground tank will be strained out by an internal filter. Your vehicle's engine is further protected by the gas filter in the fuel line."

Prototypes for the North American-spec Ford Fiesta have been spotted in Dearborn, giving us our first look at the non-hatchback version. As expected, this prototype takes many cues right off the Verve four-door concept car that bowed at this year's Detroit Auto Show. The camouflage keeps us from seeing just how verbatim the translation from concept to production actually is, but the differences will most assuredly only be trim differences designed to make the concept model as sexy as possible. It appears that the concept's backlight might be a bit more raked than the production model, and the rear overhang may be a bit longer, but those impressions may be from a slight change of angle, and the camouflage cladding.

As of now, we're told that this four-door sedan is the only model destined for our shores, but the three- or five-door hatchbacks could easily make the move to U.S. showrooms if demand is deemed strong enough.--KGP Photography