Fitch Rates Capital Auto Receivables Asset Trust 2002-1 'AAA'

    NEW YORK--Jan. 24, 2002--Fitch rates the Capital Auto Receivables Asset Trust 2002-1 $579 million floating rate class A-2, $652 million floating rate class A-3, and $469.374 million 4.16% asset-backed notes 'AAA'.
    The class A-1 notes and certificates are privately placed. The ratings are based upon the available credit enhancement, terms of the interest rate swaps, financial strength of the swap counterparty (Bank of America, N.A.), the transaction's sound legal structure, and the high quality of the retail auto receivables originated and serviced by General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC).
    Substantially all of the receivables securitized in the 2002-1 transaction were originated under special incentive rate financing programs designed to encourage purchases of new General Motors (GM) vehicles. As such, the weighted average APR of the collateral is 2.84%. To compensate for the low APRs in the pool, a bond value calculation is used to discount the collateral and provide 'synthetic' excess spread. In the bond value calculation, the aggregate collateral of $2,500,035,087 is amortized with zero defaults and zero prepayments. The resulting monthly payments are then discounted back to a net present value, or bond value, at a 7.75% discount rate. This net present value of $2,277,878,338.63 (the aggregate discounted principal balance) is used to calculate bond sizes and the initial reserve account balance, resulting in initial overcollateralization of 9.75%.
    As a percent of the initial aggregate discounted principal balance, initial credit enhancement for the class A notes is 5.25% and consists of 4.50% subordination from the asset backed certificates (unrated and retained by seller) and the 0.75% initial deposit to the reserve account.
    Interest and principal are expected to be distributed on the fifteenth of each month beginning Feb. 15, 2002. Class A-1 notes receive all principal payments until paid in full. After this point, the remaining class A notes and certificates receive a pro-rata share of principal collections with the A-2 through A-4 notes paying down sequentially. The reserve fund is above both certificate interest and principal payments in the payment waterfall providing additional protection for the Class A notes.
    All of the receivables in the 2002-1 transaction represent financing for new vehicles. The pool is well diversified geographically with Texas (10.98%) California (10.36%), Michigan (7.43%), and Florida (5.28%) having the highest state concentrations. As of the cutoff date, the receivables had a weighted average remaining maturity of approximately 47.07 months and a weighted average seasoning of 6.29 months.
    Based on the loss statistics of GMAC's prior securitizations, as well as GMAC's U.S. retail portfolio performance, Fitch, Inc. expects excellent performance from the pool of receivables in the 2001-2 transaction. For the nine months ending September 30, 2001, GMAC's net retail portfolio of approximately 3.6 million contracts had 60+ day delinquencies as a percentage of contracts outstanding of 0.20%, and annualized net losses as a percentage of the average receivables were 0.64%.