WFS Financial Announces its Second Senior/Subordinated Securitization Transaction

Business Wire, Feb 25, 2003

Business Editors

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2003

WFS Financial Inc (Nasdaq:WFSI) today announced the pricing of a $1.34 billion offering of automobile receivable asset-backed securities.

The offering was lead managed by Salomon Smith Barney and co-managed by Banc of America Securities LLC, Credit Suisse First Boston and Deutsche Bank Securities. This offering is expected to close on Feb. 27, 2003.

"We experienced strong investor demand for our second senior/subordinated securitization transaction which we believe demonstrates the continued strength of our automobile asset-backed securities program," said Tom Wolfe, president and CEO of WFS.

"We expect to continue to offer both wrapped and unwrapped securities in order to further expand our investor base and to continue to improve our overall execution."

The securities will be issued via an owner trust, WFS Financial 2003-1, in seven classes of Notes:

Security             Amount  Average Life  Coupon   Price    Annual
                                (yrs)                         Yield

A-1 Notes         $267,000,000   0.33      1.31%  100.00000   1.310%
A-2 Notes         $313,000,000   1.00      1.50%   99.99860   1.506%
A-3 Notes         $326,000,000   2.00      2.03%   99.99321   2.042%
A-4 Notes         $282,000,000   3.21      2.74%   99.98659   2.760%
B Notes            $57,375,000   2.03      2.94%   99.99779   2.959%
C Notes            $60,750,000   2.00      3.56%   99.98715   3.593%
D Notes            $37,125,000   1.87      3.99%   99.98220   4.033%
Total           $1,343,250,000   1.69                         2.418%

The ratings will be provided by Standard & Poor's Rating Services, Moody's Investor Service Inc. and Fitch Ratings. This transaction will employ a combination of subordinated notes, overcollateralization and a spread account to support the ratings.

                      Rating

Security     Standard &     Moody's      Fitch
                Poor's

A-1 Notes        A-1         Prime-1       F1 
A-2 Notes         AAA          Aaa         AAA
A-3 Notes         AAA          Aaa         AAA
A-4 Notes         AAA          Aaa         AAA
B Notes            AA          Aa2          AA
C Notes             A           A2           A
D Notes           BBB         Baa2         BBB

WFS and its affiliates are the largest non-captive issuer of automobile asset-backed securities in the United States having issued a total of $30.1 billion of such securities in 58 transactions to date.

WFS is one of the nation's largest independent automobile finance companies. WFS specializes in originating, securitizing and servicing new and pre-owned prime and non-prime credit quality automobile contracts through its nationwide relationships with automobile dealers. Information about WFS can be found at its Web site at http://www.wfsfinancial.com.