Blacks have been charged higher auto loan rates than other auto buyers, federal research says. But the gap in loan rates could narrow, and possibly disappear, as the result of recently concluded lawsuits. Blacks paid a typical auto loan rate of 7 percent for new cars, compared with 5 percent for whites in 2004, according to a consumer organization's analysis of the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances. That was the most recent survey available. And blacks were more likely than auto buyers in general to have auto loan rates higher than 15 percent. For used car loans, 27 percent...