The average new car loan payment has hit nearly $800 a month in the United States, according to the latest data.
Drivers paid an average of $787 from April to June, breaking the previous record of $777 set in early 2026, according to the new quarterly report from car data and sales site Edmunds.com.
“New-vehicle financing trends reached new extremes in the third quarter as car buyers borrowed record amounts,” Edmunds said.
And a record 21 percent of car owners are paying at least $1,000 a month for either a new or used car, the research also revealed.
The average new car costs $44,664 in the U.S., Edmunds said, boosting the size of a loan needed to finance it.
Vehicle prices shot up during the pandemic because of a strained supply chain and have stayed high thanks to factors such as inflation and consistent consumer demand.
That’s leading to record highs for auto loan amounts and lengths. An unprecedented 25.5 percent of new-car owners financed with 84-month auto loans, the study found.
“For some shoppers, a longer loan term may be the only way to get the vehicle they need, but it's important to understand the trade-off," Edmunds Director of Insights Ivan Drury said.
"Stretching out a loan shouldn't be a way to talk yourself into a vehicle that doesn't make sense for your budget when you look at the total cost.”
Consumers are paying an unprecedented $9,938 in interest on average over the life of their car loans, the report said.
Next year the price of new cars may level off, auto data and marketplace platform KBB noted in a September analysis.
“While a new car isn’t any more affordable for the average buyer, we’re not currently looking at a landscape of sharp price increases,” it said.
Regardless, the loans to finance those new cars could still get more expensive.
The Federal Reserve raised its interest rate by 0.25 percentage points in October. Typically, a Fed rate increase means higher home and auto loan rates will follow. That means shoppers looking to use a loan to buy a new car will pay more, KBB notes.
“The [Fed’s] move will increase the cost of borrowing to buy a new car,” it said.
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