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FILE: Average monthly auto loan payments hit an all-time high in the first quarter of this year. (Photo by Brandon Bell\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n
The average new car payment<\/a> rose to an all-time high in the first quarter as American households continued to face affordability challenges in the economy.<\/p>\n A new report by LendingTree citing data from Experian for the first quarter of 2026 found that the average monthly payment for a new vehicle rose 2.9% from a year ago to a record of $770.<\/p>\n Lease payments on new vehicles rose at a faster rate, rising 3.2% over the last year to $619 on average in the first quarter.<\/p>\n Used car payments saw a smaller increase over the last year, rising 1.5% to an average monthly payment of $531.<\/p>\n Among borrowers with varying tiers of credit scores<\/a>, the borrowers making the highest average monthly payments on new vehicles were nonprime borrowers with scores in the 601 to 660 range, who paid $811, followed by subprime borrowers with scores between 501 and 600 who paid $792.<\/p>\n NEW CAR DOWN PAYMENTS HIT 4-YEAR LOW AS BUYERS STRUGGLE WITH AFFORDABILITY CHALLENGES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Super-prime borrowers with scores between 781 and 850 had the lowest monthly payment at $753 for a new vehicle, the data showed.<\/p>\n The average auto loan amount<\/a> in the first quarter was $43,925 for new vehicles and $27,070 for used vehicles, according to Exerpian’s data. The new vehicle loan average rose from $43,582 in the prior quarter, while the average used vehicle loan declined from $27,528 in that period.<\/p>\n Borrowers in the prime credit tier, with scores from 661 to 780, took out the largest loans for new vehicles at an average of $46,244. Among buyers of used vehicles, borrowers in the super-prime tier had the largest loan amount at $29,599, per Experian.<\/p>\n CAR INDUSTRY EXPERTS WARN PRICES CLIMBING FAST AS DISCOUNTS BECOME ‘INCREASINGLY HARD TO FIND’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Consumers’ loan balances have grown in part because of higher prices for vehicles. The most recent consumer price index (CPI) inflation<\/a> data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the month of May showed new vehicle prices were up 0.2% year over year, whereas prices for used cars and trucks were down 2% from a year ago.<\/p>\n Borrowers with nonprime credit scores faced the highest auto loan payments in the first quarter. (Eric Lee\/Bloomberg via Getty Images) <\/p>\n Nationwide, outstanding auto loan debt totaled $1.685 trillion in the first quarter of 2026 \u2013 which represented an increase of 57.3% from the first quarter of 2016 when the total was $1.071 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n While mortgages make up the largest share of U.S. consumer debt<\/a> at 70.2%, auto loans accounted for 9% at a total of $1.685 trillion. Auto loans ranked as the second-largest category of consumer debt as they narrowly exceeded the $1.658 trillion in student loan debt.<\/p>\n FORD ROLLS OUT NATIONWIDE EMPLOYEE PRICING TO MARK AMERICA’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The amount of auto loan originations<\/a> was $182.1 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up slightly from $180.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025 but below last year’s high of $187.9 billion in the second quarter.<\/p>\n The New York Fed’s data shows that the highest recorded total of auto loan originations was in the second quarter of 2021, which saw $201.9 billion in auto loans originated.<\/p>\n Americans in their 30s and 40s originated the most auto loan debt in the first quarter, totaling $38.6 billion and $40 billion respectively, narrowly topping borrowers in their 50s who originated $38.3 billion.<\/p>\n Consumers aged 18 to 29 originated $25.3 billion in auto loans, while those in their 60s also took out that amount of auto loans in the first quarter.<\/p>\n LINK: <\/strong>Get updates and more at foxbusiness.com.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Cars and Trucks<\/a>Money<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article FILE: Average monthly auto loan payments hit an all-time high in the first quarter of this year.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":922438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[12],"tags":[5673,64,79,1165,6459,50,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-922437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-auto","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-lifestyle","tag-money","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116888267084326825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/922438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/used-car-dealer.jpeg\")
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