The Average New Car Payment Was Nearly $750 A Month In Q3 Of 2025

New cars are expensive as hell — pretty much more costly than they have been at any point in history. That means monthly car payments are, to say the very least, elevated. New data from Experian shows that the average monthly car payment buyers were handing over in the third quarter of 2025 was an eye-watering $748. Remember, that's just the average. Plenty of people are paying way more. Matters weren't much better for used car buyers, either, who were working over $532 per month, on average.

Experian says that, on average, 80.67% ofnew car buyers were financing their purchases for an average loan amount of $42,332. They also expect to pay that $748 a month for the next 69 (nice) months with a 6.56% interest rate. As you may have expected, things are a bit cheaper for th 35.48% of used car buyers who are financing their purchases. They shelled out $532 per month on average in the third quarter and will continue to do so for the next 67 months with a disgusting 11.4% interest rate as they work to pay back the $27,128 they borrowed.

Unsurprisingly, credit scores had a massive impact on what people paid per month for their loans, according to Experian. If you had a "Super prime" score (781-850), you were paying $727 per month for a new car and $527 for a used car. Prime (661-780) paid $754 for new and $519 for used. Near prime (601-660) paid $793 for new and $543 for used. Subprime (501-600) paid $780 for new and $555 for used, and "deep subprime" (300-500) managed to pay $748 for new and $556 for used at — what I assume — are Nissan and Mitsubishi dealerships.

Unfortunately, none of this should be too shocking to anyone who has paid attention to where the auto market has been headed. Over the past five years, new car prices have climbed significantly, and new car monthly payments first reached an average of $700 back in 2022, according to Car And Driver. That was due to a spike in new vehicle pricing following a pandemic-related supply shortage.

Looking at data from the Federal Reserve Bank, we can see a fairly linear climb in the average amount financed on new cars between 2009 and 2019. Then, all hell broke loose in 2020 and 2022. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to break that trend yet, and in 2025, we hit our highest levels ever. Here's hoping 2026 will be better for the average car buyer. We know it won't be, but there's always a chance.