Ford Credit led a record-setting charge by automobile lenders into the securitization market last year, but new car-backed ABS issuance is expected to cool somewhat in the softer economic conditions of 2001. Ford dominated the auto ABS market last year, bringing seven transactions to market for a total of $19.61 billion – nearly a quarter of the sector’s total issuance. For the year, total auto-ABS issuance hit $79.00 billion, an increase of 29.6 percent from