New Car Loan Trends Shifted in November, Edmunds.com Reports

New Car Loan Trends Shifted in November, Edmunds.com Reports

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — December 8, 2010 — In November, sub-prime borrowers were responsible for fewer new car sales compared with the rest of the year, according to recent research by Edmunds.com.

The percentage of new cars financed at a sub-prime rate, which Edmunds.com defines as those car loans at or above 10 percent APR, dropped to 5.6 percent of all new car loans in November. The rest of the year, the new cars sold at a sub-prime rate made up 6.8 percent of all new cars financed. Of course, this is still drastically down from recent years; from November 2005 to November 2007, the percentage averaged 18.5 percent.

Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jessica Caldwell partially attributes the relative decline in sub-prime financing to the jump in zero-percent financing available through many year-end deals. "The percentage of shoppers who used zero-percent financing had been steadily dropping since July, but in November the rate climbed nearly two percentage points to 10.5 percent of all new cars financed. The deals are bringing better qualified shoppers out of the woodwork, and those people are now making up a bigger proportion of buyers."

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Edmunds publishes Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site and hosts the most established automotive community online. Its mobile site, accessible from any smartphone at www.edmunds.com, makes car pricing and other research tools available for car shoppers at dealerships and otherwise on the go. InsideLine.com is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. Its mobile site, accessible from any smartphone at www.insideline.com, features the wireless Web's highest quality car photos and videos. AutoObserver.com provides insightful automotive industry commentary and analysis. Edmunds is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit. Follow Edmunds.com on Twitter@edmunds and fan Edmunds.com on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/edmunds.