Yes, there was. But that's a problem that can arise in any market. It's ultimately the buyer's job to do their DD. These car loan securities aren't being sold to retail investors - they're being bought and sold by pension firms and hedge funds. Sophisticated people that can and should do their own DD. Whether or not they do it is on them. There's no need for the government to step in here, because the only consequences are to the investors themselves, not the general public.
The global financial crisis was a unique case, due to how widespread and enormous the size of the problem was. If these mortgage backed securities hadn't been so huge, it would have been a non-story about how some investors lost money by making a bad bet (i.e. what happens every single day on wall street).
Part of being able to do DD is expecting integrity from auditors, and ratings agencies. One of the big problems of 2008 was that the rating agencies were, essentially, conducting fraud on a massive scale.
Perhaps it is a bit naive of me to expect either from a financial firm... But it really is in their best interests to maintain some semblance of law and order in their dealings.
After all, if things get bad enough, there will not be a shortage of hemp and lampposts.
The global financial crisis was a unique case, due to how widespread and enormous the size of the problem was. If these mortgage backed securities hadn't been so huge, it would have been a non-story about how some investors lost money by making a bad bet (i.e. what happens every single day on wall street).