Recent data collected by CU Direct signaled that the sales and financing of newvehicles, which has been steadily growing, might soon plateau.

According to the Ontario, Calif.-based indirect lending CUSO's estimates, new vehicle sales will hit arecord 17.4 million in 2015 but will only reach 17.6 million in2016. The CUSO revealed the estimate as part of an Oct. 8, 2015webinar.

However, the CUSO also stated the growth would not be uniformacross all types of vehicles. So far this year, SUVs andlight truck sales growth has been very strong, but car sales –particularly large cars – have seen negative growth so far thisyear, CU Direct said.

Overall car sales shrank by 2.1% this year with every type ofcar losing steam: Small car sales are down by 1.1%, midsize andluxury car sales are down by 2.8% each and large car sales are downby a whopping 55.3%.

In comparison, CU Direct reported that overall SUV and lighttruck sales have grown by 16.4% so far in 2015, with only minivanand large SUV sales seeing negative growth. Sales growth forminivans stood at negative 12.2%, and for large SUVs, negative5.3%.

The CUSO also reported its credit unions have continued to grabmore market share. Credit unions that use its platform for indirectlending comprised, collectively, the third largest auto lender inthe country with more than 707,000 loans. Only Ally Bank, withalmost 800,000 loans, and Wells Fargo, with nearly 762,000 loans,beat them.

This news also means credit unions captured 25% of the overallmarket for auto loan originations in Q2 2015, up from the 23%reported for Q2 2014.

When it comes to the borrowers' credit profiles, CU Directreported banks made just under 30% of their auto loans to consumerswith near prime or subprime credit scores in Q2 2015, while creditunions made just under 34% to consumers with those scores. Captiveauto lenders and finance companies made 37% and 59% of their loansto near prime and subprime borrowers in Q2 2015, CU Directsaid.

The CUSO defined near prime borrowers as those with Experiancredit scores between 601 and 660, and subprime borrowers as thosewith Experian credit scores between 300 and 600.