By far, auto loans were the clear and consistent lending leaderthis year as the sector left its counterparts eating its dust withboth credit unions and other financial institutions in the drivers'seat.

In late November, the Federal Reserve said so far in 2014,American consumers financed $105 billion in auto loans, which was the highest peak since 2005. That figuredid not include this year's holiday season, which is traditionallya strong period for vehicle sales.

Two credit unions took sharply different paths to secure a spotamong the top 20 credit unions that posted the strongest autolending growth between June 2013 and June 2014, according to dataanalyzed by Callahan & Associates for CU Times. Clickthrough to page 2 to see the list.

The $32 million Diablo Valley Federal Credit Union in Concord,Calif., increased the balances in its auto loan portfolio by 239%and closed the period tracked with roughly $4.8 million in autoloans on the books, the data showed. The 2,700-member cooperativeranked third on the CU Times' list of growth leaders.

Instead of ramping up a major auto lending program, John Pamer,president/CEO of Diablo Valley, said the credit union was happyworking with other credit unions to make the loans.

Participations, or buying parts of other credit unions' loanportfolios, provided the most efficient way for a credit union likeDiablo Valley to take advantage of the surge in auto lending, heexplained.

“For a credit union of our size, it just didn't make sense tohire another two people for auto loans,” Pamer said. “Loanparticipations were just a lot easier and more cost effective.”

While Diablo Valley financed auto loans to its own memberswhenever they needed them, the credit union lacked the resources toget deeply involved in the auto lending surge, Pamer said.

Instead, the cooperative focused on those types of loans, suchas home equity, where member demand was stronger and thecompetition was not as stiff.

“We still make auto loans to our members, but we just don't havethe staff to launch an indirect program or other higher volume autolending effort,” Pamer said.

According to Experian, credit unions had more than $191 million in autoloans outstanding as of the second quarter of 2014, which was $25billion over the figure for the same period last year.

Read more: Central Florida Educators FCU makes theright move at the right time …

The $1.5billion Central Florida Educators Federal Credit Union in Lake Mary,Fla., contributed to that boon by reviving its auto lending programafter scaling back during the Great Recession. The effort paid offas the cooperative increased it auto loan portfolio by 114% andsecured $212.9 million in auto loans on its books as of June,according to the CU Times' ranking. The 141,139-member credit unionranked 13th on the list of growth leaders for the category. Clickon the list at left to expand.

Suzanne Dusch, CFE vice president of marketing, said part of thecredit union's success came through a return to auto lending atabout the same time that many of its members returned to autobuying.

“We believe firmly in doing what is right for our members,”Dusch said. “During the Great Recession, we were concerned about our members' debtlevels so we dialed our lending way back.”

In fact, all lendingat CFE, not just auto, slowed as the creditunion and its members went through the shock and pain of weatheringthe economic downturn in Florida, one of the worst hit states inthe country.

“As the Great Recession drew to an end and we sensed that ourmembers were more employed and were in better shape financially, werealized we needed to come to lending too since we had a couple ofyears with actual negative loan growth,” Dusch said.

She added, “They had spent a number of years holding their oldcars together with duct tape and we spent those years watching ourfinance income shrink. So, we all needed to see a change getmade.”

Initially, CFE focused on changing the way its auto loans werepriced and slowly restarted an indirect lending program that hadshut down in 2009.

The changes in loan pricing shifted the focus away fromextremely credit-worthy borrowers who could shop for loans from awide variety of lenders to a middle tier of borrowers with credit scores around 640 or 650, according to Brian Hartwigsen,SVP of lending and business services for CFE.

The loans were nearly still sound ones but they brought morefinance income compared to loans made to the AAA borrowers whodemanded the lowest rates, he noted.

Read more: Giving indirect lending a second try…

When CFE set out to renovate and revive itsindirect lending program, it meant reintroducing the creditunion to the dealerships that it planned to partner with. A CFEemployee was put in charge of monitoring the relationships andhelping dealers stay in the loan program, Hartwigsen said.

As a result, CFE began to see more auto loan originations almostas soon as it announced it was lending again. Dusch and Hartwigsenrecalled an experience that took place in May 2012 that proved thecredit union was on the right track.

Dusch described how occasionally, an auto buyer with ties to CFEwould host an auto-buying event, typically at a local state park orother open space targeted exclusively at the credit union'smembers.

“It made sense for us,” Dusch said. “We sent some staff withtheir laptops for a day or two and booked a few hundred thousand inloans.”

On that extraordinary day in the spring of 2012, CFE's membersshowed the credit union it was nowhere near to tapping into thepent-up demand.

“We had good crowds all day, including when the skies clouded upand it began to pour rain with strong winds,” Dusch said. “We wereconcerned for our members and came out with bullhorns to get themto come in from the open field where the cars were parked, but theyhad already picked out the cars they wanted and didn't want to risksomeone else getting them so they stayed on the field in the rainthroughout the storm.”

That day, CFE booked $2.7 million in loans, the most ever, Duschsaid.

“So, we knew we were onto something,” she recalled.

Soon afterwards, a car dealer approached the credit union withthe first of what became a series of dealer-sponsored events. Inexchange for CFE putting staff on site during the sale andmarketing it to current members, the dealer agreed to expand itsreach to the general public and included the credit union in itsadvertising and marketing promotions.

While most of CFE's growth in auto loans came from a mix ofstrategies, Dusch acknowledged the credit union may not be able tokeep up that pace.

“We have already started to see some of our loan pace slack offa little,” she said.