IT’S JUST LIKE THE OLD DAYS ALL OF A SUDDEN

Don’t look now, but subprime auto lending is back with a vengeance:

U.S. lenders are giving as large a portion of new car loans to subprime borrowers as they did just before the start of the financial crisis, according to a new study.

Subprime, or less qualified, borrowers received 25.41 percent of all loans on new vehicles in the three months through the end of June, up from 22.29 percent in the same period a year ago and more than the 24.96 percent at the start of the financial crisis in 2007, Experian Plc’s auto finance research unit said in a report released Tuesday morning. [Emph. added]

Good! Nouriel Roubini said that this wasn’t suposed to happen. LTVs down from a year ago, however. . . .