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McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON — In one final taxpayer bailout of industry before the Bush administration leaves office, the Treasury Department on Friday announced a $1.5 billion, five-year loan to a special company that Chrysler Financial is creating.
The struggling automaker will create a special entity that will receive the government money in several payments. It will use the money to purchase car loans made to consumers in a bid to spark more lending for car sales, a sector that's virtually gone dormant.
"We've Got $1.5 Billion to Finance Vehicles," a banner headline on Chrysler Financial's Web site said Friday afternoon. Chrysler officials said the company immediately would offer 0 percent financing on select 2008 and 2009 vehicles.
"We have customers who want to buy our vehicles, dealers who want to order vehicles and employees who want to build cars. Now with enhanced financing available in the system we can help our customers," Jim Press, the vice chairman of Chrysler LLC, said in a statement.
The latest bailout follows Treasury's pre-Christmas move to provide $4 billion to Chrysler in emergency funding to help stave off bankruptcy. It came less than 24 hours after Treasury officials announced in the wee hours $20 billion in additional Wall Street bailout money for Bank of America.
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