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Car Loan Interest Rates Fall Slightly

Experian Automotive released its auto industry credit analysis Wednesday, which looks at many different types of auto loan data.  

Experian Automotive compared the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2008, and found that car loan interest rates are dropping slightly. This means it will cost lest for consumers to finance a vehicle.

Experian looked at average interest rates by credit score for new and used vehicles.

New Vehicles
Deep Subprime: 13.63% from 13.82%
Subprime: 11.39% from 11.49%
Non-prime: 8.28% from 8.47%
Prime: 6.63% from 6.57%
Super Prime: 4.87% from 5.19%
 
Used Vehicles
Deep Subprime: 15.57% from 16.26%
Subprime: 14.15% from 14.56%
Non-prime: 10.81% from 11.16%
Prime: 8.44% from 8.64%
Super Prime: 6.63% from 6.80%

Experian Automotive reports that super prime auto loans now account for 37.1% of the car loan market, down 8% from the second quarter of 2008. Prime makes up 23.8%, up 2.1%. Non-prime accounts for 15.2%, up 6.2%. Subprime totals 58.8%, up 5.1% and deep subprime increased to 15%, up 10.4% over last year.

Also in the credit analysis is data about average credit scores for vehicle type from the first half of 2008 to the first half of 2009, SubPrime Auto Finance News reports. The overall average credit score on new and used vehicle auto loans is 703, up 8 points. For new vehicles, the average is 773, up 19 points. For used vehicles, the average is 668, up 8 points.

Experian’s credit tiers are calculated two different ways.
 
Scorex Plus (a new bureau score)
Super Prime: 740+
Prime: 680-739
Non-prime: 620-679
Subprime: 550-619
Deep Subprime: less than 550
 
VantageScore
Super Prime: 801-990
Prime: 701-800
Non-prime: 641-700
Subprime: 601-640
Deep Subprime: 601-600