Americans Fall Behind on Car Payments at Highest Rate in Decades

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Americans are behind on car payments at a record level​

Americans are missing their car payments at the highest rate in decades, according to Fitch Ratings data.
Why it matters: Car costs, including loans and insurance, have soared in an economy where consumers are showing mounting signs of stress.

By the numbers: 6.6% of of subprime auto borrowers were at least 60 days past due on their loans as of January 2025.

• This is the highest level since the agency began collecting data. The fall and winter of 2024 saw the next highest subprime delinquency rates.
• Prime borrower scores are faring better than subprime, with 0.39% 60-day delinquencies in January 2025, up from 0.35% in January 2024.

Threat level: "Subprime auto loans face a deteriorating outlook for 2025," a Fitch report said.

Driving the news: Multiple factors have increased the cost of car ownership, per Cox Automotive executive analyst Erin Keating, Axios' Joann Muller reports.

• Vehicle prices are higher, averaging just under $50,000, and high loan rates (over 9% for new cars and almost 14% on used cars) are translating to steep monthly payments.
• Plus, car insurance rates are up 19% year over year, while repair and maintenance costs have risen 33% since 2020.

State of play: Other metrics, like consumer confidence and credit card delinquencies, are showing warning signs, too.

• The number of credit card holders only making minimum payments rose to a 12-year high, per the Philadelphia Federal Reserve.
• In the third quarter of 2024, the number of 30-day delinquencies rose to 3.52%, which marked double the rate from the pandemic low in 2021.

Zoom in: Delinquencies typically increase in January and February after the holidays, Mike Girard, Fitch's senior director for asset-backed securities in North America told Bloomberg.

• Low-income borrowers, though, will continue to be affected this year because of inflation and interest rates, he said.

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/07/car-loan-payment-delinquencies-record-high

Americans Fall Behind on Car Payments at Highest Rate in Decades

Car owners are missing their monthly payments at the highest rate in more than 30 years.

news.bloomberglaw.com

 

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‘Finances are getting tighter’: US car repossessions surge as more Americans default on auto loans

Wall Street sounds alarm over strain throughout car lending market as experts warn of potential risks for wider economy

Edward Helmore in New York
17 Oct 2025

‘Finances are getting tighter’: US car repossessions surge as more Americans default on auto loans

Wall Street sounds alarm over strain throughout car lending market as experts warn of potential risks for wider economy

www.theguardian.com

Alarm bells are ringing on Wall Street. The recent collapses of Tricolor, a used car seller and sub-prime auto lender, and First Brands, an auto parts supplier, have put the finance industry on edge, almost two decades after problems in the sub-prime mortgage lending market set the stage for the global financial crisis.

“When you see one cockroach, there are probably more,” Jamie Dimon, the JPMorgan Chase CEO, ominously cautioned analysts this week, after the US’s largest bank disclosed a $170m charge tied to Tricolor’s bankruptcy. “Everyone should be forewarned on this one.”

As the car lending market shows signs of strain, business around repossessions is booming. “Right now, we’re overwhelmed with work,” George Badeen, who runs Midwest Recovery and Adjustment in Detroit, Michigan, said.

The so-called repo man, tasked with recovering vehicles from drivers who default on loan agreements, was eulogized in music by Bruce Springsteen and in the 1984 Alex Cox film Repo Man.

Repossessions – especially in the sub-prime auto market – are on the rise, according to Badeen, who is also president of the Allied Finance Adjusters trade body. “We’ve seen some sub-primes making changes, which probably indicates they’re having issues,” he said. “They’re not financing cars like they were. Two years ago they were financing anybody.”…

Repo man Todd O'Connor raises a car for towing in Oneida, N.Y., on Oct. 12.​

 

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Americans owe more than ever on their underwater car loans

Andrew Dorn
October 16, 2025

Americans owe more than ever on their underwater car loans

About 28% of trade-ins toward new cars were underwater last quarter, meaning owners owed more than their vehicles were worth

www.newsnationnow.com

Americans are drowning in car debt, and the water’s rising fast.

Last quarter, 28% of trade-ins toward new car purchases were underwater, meaning the vehicles were worth less than what was owed on them, according to Edmunds. That’s the highest share in four years.

Borrowers with upside-down car loans also owed more than ever — an average of $6,905, up more than 60% from four years earlier…

 

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