Average Car Payment and Auto Loan Statistics for 2026
What Americans actually pay for their cars in 2026: average payments, interest rates by credit tier, record delinquency, underwater trade-ins, and the true annual cost of ownership. Every number sourced.
The average new car buyer in America now signs up for a $770 monthly payment on a $43,925 loan. One in three trade-ins is worth less than the loan attached to it. And the share of auto debt that is seriously late just passed the record set during the 2010 financial crisis hangover. Car money got serious in 2026, and the numbers tell the story better than any opinion can.
Here is the current data, pulled from the quarterly reports lenders and analysts actually use. Bookmark this page: we refresh it as new quarterly numbers land. And if you are citing these figures somewhere, link back here so your readers can check the latest.
The numbers at a glance
- Average new car payment: $770 per month (Experian, Q1 2026)
- Average used car payment: $531 per month (Experian, Q1 2026)
- Average amount financed: $43,925 new, $27,070 used (Experian, Q1 2026)
- Average APR: 6.39 percent new, 11.43 percent used (Experian, Q1 2026)
- Average new car transaction price: $49,758 (Kelley Blue Book, June 2026)
- Total US auto loan debt: $1.69 trillion (New York Fed, Q1 2026)
- Auto debt 90 or more days late: 5.6 percent, an all-time record (New York Fed, Q1 2026)
- Trade-ins with negative equity: 30.9 percent in Q1 2026, averaging $7,183 underwater (Edmunds)
- Full annual cost of owning a new car: $11,577 at 15,000 miles per year (AAA, 2025 study)
What Americans pay every month
Experian's Q1 2026 State of the Automotive Finance Market puts the average new vehicle payment at $770 a month and the average used payment at $531. The average loan behind those payments: $43,925 for new, $27,070 for used.
Financing is the default path for new cars and a coin flip for used ones: 83 percent of new buyers financed in Q1 2026, versus 38 percent of used buyers.
| Metric | New | Used |
|---|---|---|
| Average monthly payment | $770 | $531 |
| Average amount financed | $43,925 | $27,070 |
| Average APR | 6.39% | 11.43% |
| Share of buyers who finance | 83% | 38% |
One more Experian finding worth sitting with: nearly a third of new auto loans now run longer than six years. Stretching the term is how a $49,758 car becomes a "manageable" payment, and it is also how buyers end up underwater for years. More on that below.
Interest rates: credit score is worth thousands
The averages hide a brutal spread. In Q1 2026, super prime borrowers financed new cars at 4.55 percent on average, while buyers with poor credit paid 16.01 percent on new and as much as 21.77 percent on used, per Experian.
On a $27,070 used car loan over 60 months, the difference between 6.30 percent (super prime used average) and 21.77 percent is roughly $13,000 in interest, close to half the price of the car all over again.
Two practical takeaways. First, check where refinance rates sit today on our Market Pulse tracker before accepting any dealer quote. Second, if you financed a used car at a double-digit rate and your credit has improved since, run the Refinance Verdict. The 11.43 percent used average is exactly the population that saves real money by refinancing, and our guide on how to refinance your auto loan walks through the process step by step.
The debt behind the driveways
Americans owed $1.69 trillion on their cars at the end of Q1 2026, up $18 billion in a single quarter, per the New York Fed's Household Debt and Credit report.
The stress signal inside that number: 5.6 percent of outstanding auto debt was at least 90 days delinquent in Q1 2026. That is the highest share on record, above the 5.3 percent peak from Q4 2010, when the economy was still digging out of the financial crisis. Payments engineered to fit a monthly budget at any cost eventually stop fitting.
Negative equity: a third of trade-ins are underwater
Edmunds reports that 30.9 percent of trade-ins toward new car purchases in Q1 2026 carried negative equity, the highest share since early 2021. The average underwater trade-in owed $7,183 more than the car was worth. In Q2, buyers who rolled that gap into a new loan hit a record average payment of $944 a month.
Rolling negative equity forward is how one bad car deal becomes two. If you owe more than your car is worth and you are eyeing something newer, run the Sell or Keep Verdict first, and read our plain-English breakdown of gap insurance, which exists precisely because of this math.
What a car actually costs per year
AAA's most recent Your Driving Costs study puts the full cost of owning a new vehicle at $11,577 per year at 15,000 miles, or about $965 a month once depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and finance charges are all counted. That works out to roughly 77 cents per mile.
Insurance alone runs about $2,578 a year for full coverage on average in 2026, per insurance.com, with wide swings by state, age, and record.
The monthly payment is the loudest number in a car deal, but it is barely half the real bill. If the all-in math is what you care about, our Lease vs Buy Verdict compares total cost of ownership, not just payments.
How to read these numbers
Averages are diagnosis, not destiny. The average buyer finances $43,925 at 6.39 percent because the average buyer walks into the finance office with no outside quote. The record delinquency rate exists because payments got stretched across seven years to look affordable. Every stat on this page is a reason to run your own numbers before signing anything, which takes about 60 seconds with any of our verdict tools.
FAQ
What is the average car payment in 2026? The average new car payment is $770 per month and the average used car payment is $531 per month, per Experian data for Q1 2026.
What is a good interest rate for a car loan in 2026? Anything below the Q1 2026 averages of 6.39 percent for new and 11.43 percent for used beats the typical deal. Super prime borrowers averaged 4.55 percent on new car loans, so with excellent credit, a rate in the fours to low fives is a fair target.
How many car owners are underwater on their loans? Among people trading a car in toward a new purchase, 30.9 percent had negative equity in Q1 2026, owing an average of $7,183 more than the trade-in was worth, per Edmunds.
How much does owning a car really cost per year? About $11,577 per year for a new vehicle driven 15,000 miles, per AAA. That includes depreciation, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and finance costs, and works out to roughly 77 cents per mile.
Statistics current as of 2026-07-20. Sources: Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market Q1 2026, Kelley Blue Book and Cox Automotive June 2026 average transaction price report, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Household Debt and Credit Q1 2026, Edmunds Q1 and Q2 2026 negative equity reports, AAA Your Driving Costs 2025, insurance.com 2026 rate analysis.
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