DaimlerChrysler to settle Black & Hispanic Racial Bias Claims
The financing arm of DaimlerChrysler AG that makes auto loans 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 DaimlerChrysler Services North America LLC, based in Farmington Hills, Mich., said the terms of the deals are not finalized and would not be disclosed "due to our confidentiality obligations to the plaintiffs." Robert Wilson, the San Antonio attorney representing Rick Perez, a Hispanic dealer, and his customers, did not return a telephone call for comment. 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' now-defunct dealership in a Galveston, Texas, minority neighborhood. According to the lawsuits, that caused creditworthy applicants to be denied loans or be offered less favorable financing terms than they should have been. [
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