Alliance and Leicester Car Loan

I went to Alliance and Leicester for a personal loan for my car after the repayment options from Barclays Bank were beaten by a number of other personal loan providers (so much for being a loyal customer of 10 years...).I arranged the loan after finding the loan on www.moneysupermarket.com. The APR was pretty good, monthly payments just about beat Barclays Bank, and there was even an offer where they claimed they'd at least match if now beat my next car insurance renewal quote since I was a new customer.I applied, and was accepted. The following day I received a phone call confirming the loan was agreed, explaining the technicalities and happily telling me my loan would be in my account within 3 days (and it was).The irony is that if I got my loan now, I wonder if the loan would be even more competitive following the Santander takeover announcement?