After response to her recent Washington Post column in which she took to task car dealers who arbitrarily inflate the interest rate they arrange for customers, columnist Michelle Singletary says she was "stunned" at the "utter contempt" that people, especially business people, have for the uninformed consumer.

"I think that anyone who goes into an automobile

dealership without knowing that he should be negotiating for the price of everything from the car itself to ... the finance charges, shouldn't be wandering the streets without a keeper," said one reader from Tampa, Fla.

In response to recent allegations that black buyers are likely to be charged more interest than similarly situated whites - no matter what

their credit standing - one reader said, "I think a lot of discrimination would be avoided with the proper financial education." A

"proper financial education," however, is unlikely to help you understand information that has been concealed from you, responded

Singletary.

Singletary's column also addressed two class-action lawsuits against General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) and Nissan Motors Acceptance Corporation (NMAC). The suits allege that black buyers are likely to be charged more interest than similarly situated whites, no matter what their credit standing. GMAC and NMAC deny any wrongdoing or discrimination against any borrowers.

The lawsuits highlight what Singletary claims has become a common practice in the auto industry: dealers often submit loan applications on behalf of consumers. Lenders then quote them an interest rate, taking into account, among other factors, the creditworthiness of the borrower. In order to squeeze more money out of car buyers, lenders allow dealers to raise the quoted rate, within limits, to whatever they can get away with.

"It's a shameful practice, because the markup is often not divulged," Singletary maintains. Car finance professionals counter, however, that the practice is equivalent to any merchant's markup from wholesale to retail.

"As for markups, businesses are in the business to make money," one reader responded. "They have and will always prey on the weak, regardless of color. Those that make it easy to take their money will lose."

"But it becomes devious and exploitative when companies tack on hidden charges and call it 'just business,' Singletary wrote in her follow-up Washington Post column of Dec. 17. "I have no problem with businesses trying to make as much as they can. I do that, too. But I do object to the notion that all's fair in the world of business," she wrote, maintaining that "...being uninformed doesn't give any business the right to treat us like suckers in their pursuit of profit."