Auto Loan Rates Diverge;
Used Climbs to 6.558%

The auto loan market’s two halves kept pulling apart this week, and they did it with unusual symmetry. New auto loan rates eased 0.019 points to 5.742% while used auto loan rates rose exactly 0.019 points to 6.558%, mirror-image moves that stretched the gap between them to 0.816 points, a third consecutive summer high. Financing the same $25,000 now costs about $9.51 more per month at the average used rate than the average new rate, roughly $570 over a five-year loan, before the vehicles themselves enter the math. The Federal Reserve meets this week, though this divergence is not the Fed’s doing.

📊 Full auto loan data: 2,051 institutions tracked across all 50 states.

NATIONAL: Auto loan rates split down the middle the week ending July 27, 2026. New auto loan rates eased 0.019 points to 5.742% APR while used auto loan rates rose the same 0.019 points to 6.558%, pushing the spread between the two to 0.816 points, its widest of the summer for a third consecutive report. The general auto category, a mix of products lenders list without a new or used designation, eased 0.013 points to 5.950%. The composition-weighted overall benchmark rose to 6.226%, lifted by the used category’s weight in the data rather than broad repricing.

The two categories are being priced off different worries. New auto rates fell for a second straight week to 5.742%, the cheapest financing on the board, where captive lenders and banks compete hardest and the collateral is worth the most; its slow grind lower has now recovered most of its early-July rise. Used rates climbed to 6.558%, extending a rise of their own, and the premium lenders charge for older collateral, softer resale values, and higher default risk keeps growing. The general category at 5.950% sits between them, as it should, drifting with the new side this week. The three-category ranking, used above general above new, has not changed all summer.

What the spread costs a borrower is concrete. At this week’s averages, a $25,000 loan over 60 months runs about $480.33 a month at the new-auto rate and about $489.83 at the used-auto rate: $9.51 a month, roughly $570 over the life of the loan, purely from the rate gap on an identical balance. That premium is the market’s number for choosing older collateral, and at a third straight summer high, it quietly shifts the new-versus-used math at the margin, especially once manufacturer incentives on new vehicles enter the picture. Rates also vary meaningfully by state and lender; someone comparing Pennsylvania auto loan rates can line up local credit unions and banks against these national averages before signing dealership paper.

A widening new-used spread against a flat policy backdrop is a story about collateral, not about money. The Federal Reserve meets this week, July 28 and 29, its first gathering since the June 17 hold that kept the funds rate at 3.50% to 3.75% for a fourth straight meeting, the first under new Chair Kevin Warsh, and markets widely expect a fifth hold; this report goes to press before the decision. The parked policy rate explains why the whole auto complex sits where it does, elevated and rangebound, but it cannot explain why its two halves keep moving apart. That divergence lives in lender risk pricing: aggressive competition and manufacturer-subsidized offers on the new side, growing caution about used-vehicle values and loss severity on the other. Nothing the Fed announces on Wednesday changes that calculus quickly in either direction.

For a borrower, the practical order of operations is unchanged: secure financing before shopping, because the spread between an average rate and a strong credit-union offer is usually bigger than the spread this report tracks. The used premium at 0.816 points is real money, but it is an average across every credit tier and vehicle age; well-qualified borrowers on late-model used cars routinely beat it, and dealership financing on either side of the lot deserves a competing quote to negotiate against. Category-by-category history lives on the national auto loan trends page.