Toyota Motor Corps US sales chief said credit is not to blame for the decline in Toyota's sales and that the U.S. is headed for a recession if the current crisis is not resolved quickly. "The vast majority of our customers are able to get approved for loans," Jim Lentz told reporters after the ribbon was cut on the company's new research-and-development center south of Saline Thursday. "In our case, credit is not the biggest challenge. Our biggest challenge is consumer confidence."
Lentz said a record number of consumers are postponing new car purchases.
Many mistakenly believe they can no longer get car loans because of the dramatic reports from Wall Street that suggest even those with excellent credit are being turned away by lenders.
Earlier this week, the head of the National Automobile Dealers Association, Annette Sykora, said in Detroit that "credit is the lifeblood" of the retail car business and that some of her group's members say they can no longer get loans for customers with good credit.
But Toyota is not alone in calling concerns about car credit overblown.