The average payment for a new car was almost $750 per month in the third quarter of 2025 – Jalopnik

New cars are incredibly expensive – almost much more expensive than at any time in history. That means monthly car payments have at least increased. New data from Experian shows that the average monthly car payment buyers handed over in the third quarter of 2025 was an eye-watering $748. Remember, this is just the average. There are plenty of people who pay way more. Things weren’t much better for used car buyers either, who averaged more than $532 a month.

Experian says that on average, 80.67% of new car buyers financed their purchases for an average loan amount of $42,332. They also expect to pay that $748 per month for the next 69 (great) months with an interest rate of 6.56%. As you might have expected, things are a little cheaper for the 35.48% of used car buyers who finance their purchases. They spent an average of $532 per month in the third quarter and will continue to do so for the next 67 months at an abhorrent 11.4% interest rate as they work to pay back the $27,128 they borrowed.

Unsurprisingly, according to Experian, credit scores had a huge impact on what people paid for their loans per month. If you had a “Super prime” score (781-850), you would pay $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 new and $543 used. Subprime (501-600) paid $780 new and $555 used, and “deep subprime” (300-500) managed to pay $748 new and $556 used at – I assume – Nissan and Mitsubishi dealers.

Unfortunately, none of this should be too shocking to anyone who has been paying attention to the direction the car market is heading. Over the past five years, new car prices have risen significantly and in 2022, monthly new car payments averaged $700 for the first time, according to Car And Driver. That was due to a spike in new vehicle prices following a pandemic-related supply shortage.

Looking at data from the Federal Reserve Bankbetween 2009 and 2019 we see a fairly linear increase in the average amount financed on new cars. Then all hell broke loose in 2020 and 2022. Unfortunately, we have not yet managed to break that trend, and in 2025 we reached our highest level ever. We hope that 2026 will be better for the average car buyer. We know this won’t be the case, but there’s always a chance.