You sure about the private party thing? 'cuz when I talked to them in 2009 they for sure weren't there. I also should have mentioned that it's possible to arbitrage car values across metropolitan areas. Subarus command a premium in Seattle and Portland but do not in Los Angeles. My uncle bought two Saturns out of Florida because they were heavily undervalued compared to the rest of the US.
My brother financed a private party transaction through his credit union in 2013. I wonder if in 09 you were suffering from the general lack of credit everywhere. Banks were looking to exclude everyone from everything at that time. I went through the mortgage process during the credit crunch, and it literally brought me to tears of frustration, something I hadn't experienced since I was probably 6 years old. Nasty motherfuckers. Edit: I have no idea if or how private party changes alters the loan terms.
My Credit union will finance private party car loans on cars less than three years old or less than 40K miles. They will also finance private party "vintage" car sales on cars more than 30 years old. Banks may be different.