Onyx Acceptance Sells $310 Million in Asset Backed Securities

24 February 1999
Onyx Acceptance Sells $310 Million in Asset Backed Securities
    FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., Feb. 23 -- Onyx Acceptance
Corporation announced today the pricing of a $310 million
offering of automobile receivables-backed securities through Salomon Smith
Barney and Merrill Lynch & Company.

    The securities will be issued through an owner trust, Onyx Acceptance
Owner Trust 1999-A, in two classes of notes and one certificate class:

                                    Average                            Annual
    Class         Amount            Life          Coupon   Price       Yield

    A-1           $215,000,000      1.11 years    5.50%    99.992      5.571%
    A-2             76,400,000      2.99          5.83     99.993      5.904
    Certificates    18,600,000      4.14          6.17     99.978      6.256
                  $310,000,000

    Each class is rated AAA and Aaa, respectively by Standard and Poor's
Ratings Services, a division of McGraw Hill, Inc., and Moody's Investors
Service, Inc.  Ultimate payment of principal and timely payment of interest
are guaranteed by an insurance policy provided by MBIA Insurance Corporation.
    The transaction is Onyx Acceptance's fifteenth securitization of
automobile receivables in which a total of more than $2.2 billion of
automobile receivables-backed securities have been issued.

    Onyx Acceptance Corporation is a specialized finance company.  The Company
is a leader in prime and near-prime automobile lending.  It provides financing
to new and select used car dealerships.  Onyx services dealerships in
21 states, from its 15 Auto Finance Centers.
    This news release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to
certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those projected.  The most significant among these risks and
uncertainties are (a) the Company's level of delinquencies, gross charge-offs
and net losses, (b) the ability to achieve adequate interest rate spreads,
(c) the effects of economic factors on consumer debt, (d) competitive
pressures and (e) the continued availability of liquidity sources.  Other
important factors are detailed in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for
the year ended December 31, 1997 and the Form 10-Q's filed for the quarters
ending March 31, June 30, and September 30, 1998.
    We invite you to visit the Onyx Acceptance website at
http://www.onyxacceptance.com.