FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) – The auto financing arm of DaimlerChrysler AG has agreed to settle two lawsuits in Texas that accuse the company of discriminating against Hispanic and black loan applicants. James Ryan, a spokesman for Farmington Hills-based DaimlerChrysler Services North America LLC, told the Detroit Free Press for a Saturday story that the terms of the deals were not finalized and would not be disclosed. A message seeking comment was left Saturday for Robert Wilson, a San Antonio attorney representing Rick Perez, a Hispanic dealer, and his customers. The lawsuits filed in 2003 against DaimlerChrysler by Perez and his customers accused the company of tampering with a computer program that was supposed to automatically and objectively evaluate car loan applications, making it harder to get loans at Perez’s now-defunct dealership in Galveston, Texas. According to the lawsuits, that caused credit-worthy applicants to be denied loans or be offered less favorable financing terms than they should have been. DaimlerChrysler has said its lending policies are fair and discrimination isn’t tolerated. DaimlerChrysler also contended that the Texas lawsuits were copycats of two lawsuits filed earlier in Chicago.
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