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There are car loans available - for the car firms

Car loans worth £2.3 billion have just been handed out – but unfortunately it's the car makers who needed the cash not car buyers.

Business Secretary Lord Mandelson gave the go-ahead for the scheme which is aimed at helping car makers keep the show on the road.

The industry certainly needs - the number of cars made in the UK in December 2008 was 47.5 per cent lower than in the same month in December 2007.

Jaguar, Land Rover, Vauxhall, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Bentley, Min and Ford are among the UK-based car makers who have been forced to cut production, slash workers hours and close factories.

Lord Mandelson is even considering helping car buyers with the finance to get new motors as the credit crunch makes it tougher to borrow cash.

MoneyExpert.com research shows that in the past six months as many as 300,000 have been turned down for car loans.

The brakes have been slammed down hard in the credit business but it's not quite the end of the road…

Computer says no

Motorists borrow almost £20 billion a year for car deals funding around half of all new car sales.

This money is now harder to come by as lenders are looking to finance only those borrowers they feel absolutely sure will be able to repay them.

You're most likely run into problems if you’re young. The research discovered that those aged 18-24 were more than twice as likely to be turned down than older drivers.

Don't panic

While these figures are shocking there’s no need to panic just yet. If you are employed and have a good credit record then your chances of being accepted are high.

Loans are still available for those who can afford to borrow and rates are starting to edge down.

It is not necessarily the end of the road if you want to borrow cash.

Special Liquidity Scheme

The Government is considering extending its special liquidity scheme to car finance companies.

Over the past six months the Government has been making money available to the banks in order to make sure they continue lending to each other and also borrowers.

As part of this scheme the specialist firms which lend the nation money for their cars would be given funds to ensure they keep lending too.

Less cheap money

The fact is that just about every form of credit is now harder to come by whether it’s a credit card, personal loan or mortgage.

Borrowers today need to be extra careful about repaying debts on time and maintaining their credit record in the process. If you are considering taking out a loan or some form of credit then be sure you know the product details and work out whether it's affordable.