A car dealership finance office, where buyers are offered longer loans to soften the monthly hit
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American car buyers now face a record $787 average monthly payment, as 25.5% take seven-year loans to cope with high prices and a 7% APR. The bill comes due later: total interest hit a record $9,938.
American driversface a daunting market.The average monthly payment on a financed new car1hit a record $787 in the third quarter,according to Edmunds,up from $777 in the second quarter and $756 a year earlier.
Chart 1 | The average monthly payment on a financed new car rose to a record $787 in Q3 2026, up from $777 in Q2 and $756 a year earlierSource: Edmunds, Q3 2026 data. Chart drawn by the editor.
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Buyersare also borrowing more than ever.The average amount financed7climbed to a record $44,664, while the average new vehicle sold for $50,562 in September, per Kelley Blue Book, just $52 shy of the all-time high.Nationwide, auto loan balances2reached $1.71 trillion in the second quarter, according to the New York Fed, roughly 56% more than a decade earlier.
For Joseph Yoon, consumer insights analyst at Edmunds,the mathis brutally simple:Vehicle prices sit near record highs, and interest rates remain stubbornly elevated, with the average new-car APR holding at 7%.4
对 Edmunds 的消费者洞察分析师 Joseph Yoon 来说，这笔账算得残酷地简单：车价接近历史高位，利率又顽固地居高不下，新车平均年化利率 APR 维持在 7%。
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“Mix those things together and then you get record-high monthly payments,”Yoon told Fortune.“Just how the math works out.”
「把这些因素搅在一起，月供自然就创下历史新高，」Yoon 对《财富》说。「数学就是这么算出来的。」
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The roadthat led torecord car payments
这条路，通向创纪录的车贷月供
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So how exactly did we arrive here?Yoon points to the pandemic as a significant precursor to the state of car sales.When factories shut down and parts ran short,manufacturersfaced a choice:build fewer cars, or build the ones with higher margins. They chose the latter.
“Automakers realize, ‘Hey, even if we lose a couple million units across the board, if we have high margins, our profits look great,’”Yoon said.“And that’s perfectly fine. But as consumers, we drew the short straw, and have to pay for elevated prices.”
The result:New vehiclesnow cost about 30% more than they did six years ago,as Fortune has reported.
结果：新车如今比六年前贵了大约 30%，正如《财富》此前报道的那样。
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For buyers struggling to afford today’s prices,the dealership finance officeoffers a tempting solution:stretch the loan.
对无力负担当前车价的购车者，经销店的金融办公室给出一个诱人的解法：把贷款期限拉长。
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Indeed,a record share of new-car buyersdecidedthat a seven-year loan sounded less scary than the alternative.In the third quarter, 25.5% of financed new-car purchases carried terms of 84 months or more, according to Edmunds, up from 23.9% the prior quarter and 21.8% a year earlier.Even so, a record 21.2% of buyers committed to monthly payments of $1,000 or more.
Butlonger termscarry consequences,some of which aren’t immediately obvious.
但更长的期限会带来后果，其中一些并非一眼就能看出来。
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“The longer you have a loan term, technically3the longer you’re paying just toward interest, not toward the principal of the loan, especially when the interest rates are so high,”5Yoon said.
A buyer reviews a multi-year auto loan agreement as monthly payments climb to records一名购车者正在审阅一份多年期车贷合同——此时月供已冲上历史高位。Unsplash（无版权图库素材，非新闻原图）；图表与数据按 Fortune / Edmunds / Kelley Blue Book / New York Fed / Cox Automotive / Experian 公开数据自绘
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The average amount of interest paid over the life of a new-car loan6reached a record $9,938 in the third quarter,up from $9,442 a year earlier,Edmunds found.That increase came even though rates didn’t budge; Edmunds attributed it to buyers financing larger amounts over longer periods.
Helen Colby, an assistant teaching professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business,told Fortune thatthe true cost of an 84-month loancan go well beyond the accumulation of interest.
卡内基梅隆大学泰珀商学院助理教学教授 Helen Colby 对《财富》说，一笔 84 个月贷款的真正成本可能远不止利息的累积。
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“For borrowers who already have tight budgets,getting such a long loan means committing themselves to five, six, or even seven years of increased spendingthat will reduce their budget for other things like vacations, savings, or even necessities like food and clothing,”Colby said.
And there are no signsof imminent relief.The average APR on new-car loanswas 7% in the third quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter and a year earlier.
“Especially towards the end of the year,I don’t think anything’s going to change,”Yoon said.
「尤其是接近年底这段时间，」我不认为会有什么变化，」Yoon 说。
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Are car buyersreachinga breaking point?
购车者是否正在接近崩溃的临界点？
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Logicwould suggestthat at a certain point, buyers would simply refuse to pay such prices for cars.If there is a tipping point, though, it’s still on the horizon, Yoon said.
“We keep thinking that there might be some type of tipping point.Are sales going to crater? And we haven’t seen anything like that.Sales are fine,”Yoon said.“Despite these record prices, despite the kind of overall ‘bad vibes’ in the economy for most people, car sales haven’t really suffered all that much, if at all.”
The reasonpoints to a phenomenon economists call the “K-shaped economy.”8“The people that are buying new cars tend to be households with six-figure incomes,” Yoon said.The share of new-car buyers earning less than $100,000 fell to 37% last year from 50% in 2020, according to Cox Automotive.So although many people feel priced out of a new car,there’s no shortage of buyers at the top to make up the difference.
Chart 2 | The share of new-car buyers earning less than $100,000 a year fell to 37% in 2025 from 50% in 2020Source: Cox Automotive, via Fortune. Chart drawn by the editor.
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Buyers at the bottomof the K-shaped economyfeel the pinch
处于底端的买家在 K 型经济的下半边感受到了挤压
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Fortune spoke with one person feeling the crunch of the new-car market.Abbey Burbach, 35,saidshe can’t afford a new car despite working three jobs totaling 50 to 60 hours a week.“You’re lucky to find a new car for under $400 a month anymore.”
Burbach saidmost of her peers who drive newer-model cars didn’t buy them; they inherited them from benevolent elders.“I know a lot of people who basically begged their parents not to trade in their car,”she said.
The trend is more than anecdotal, Yoon said:The average age of a new-car buyerhas been rising.“It was on a downward trend for a while, but it’s gone up the last couple of years because, again, young people in this kind of market are finding it more and more difficult to be able to buy a car.”
For buyers priced out of new cars,the used markethas always been the fallback plan.That calculus isn’t so simple anymore.
被新车价格挤出的买家，二手车市场一直是他们的备选方案。但如今这笔账没那么好算了。
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When new-car inventory dried up during the pandemic,buyers flooded the used market instead, and prices responded quickly, Yoon said.The average used-vehicle transaction price rose from $20,942 in the second quarter of 2020 to $27,306 by the third quarter of 2021, according to Edmunds data.Today, used-car buyers who financeborrow an average of $30,703 at a 10.6% APR, Edmunds says.
A used-car lot, the fallback for buyers priced out of new vehicles二手车卖场——对买不起新车的消费者来说，这是最后的退路。Unsplash（无版权图库素材，非新闻原图）；图表与数据按 Fortune / Edmunds / Kelley Blue Book / New York Fed / Cox Automotive / Experian 公开数据自绘
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Those priceshave largely stayed put,thanks in part to a slump in leasing.Before the pandemic, leases made up roughly 30% of new-vehicle deals, according to J.D. Power.9That share fell to 17% during the shortage and had recovered only to about 23% in the first half of 2026, the firm’s data shows.
Why does it matter?Because leased carsare a primary source of used inventory for dealers once they’re returned.
这为何重要？因为租赁车归还后是经销商二手车货源的主要来源。
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“These cars come back within 24 to 48 months, or typically 36 months,”Yoon said.“And when that source dries up, literally millions of used cars that are supposed to come back to dealer lots every year aren’t coming back anymore.That has had a pretty dramatic impact on pricing used cars.”
Some help is on the way:Off-lease volume is expected to climb to about 2.66 million vehicles this year and 3.29 million in 2027, up from roughly 2.15 million in 2025, according to Experian estimates cited by JPMorgan.For now, though,buyers are still feeling the squeeze from every direction.
Extended note: A longer term lowers the monthly payment but keeps you paying interest longer and can leave you owing more than the car is worth.
4APR (annual percentage rate)点击看中文解释 ↓
The yearly cost of borrowing, shown as a percent. It includes the interest rate plus most fees, so it is the truest price of the loan.
Why it matters here ▸ Why it matters here ▸ The average new-car APR held at 7% in Q3 2026, unchanged from a year earlier — high rates are a key reason payments keep setting records.
Extended note: Amortization is the slow paying-down of principal; early payments are mostly interest, so a long term repays principal very slowly.
6Interest点击看中文解释 ↓
The cost of borrowing money, charged by the lender, usually a percent of the amount still owed. On a car loan it is the extra you pay on top of the principal.
Why it matters here ▸ Why it matters here ▸ Average interest paid over the life of a new-car loan reached a record $9,938 in Q3 2026.
Extended note: Interest = balance x rate x time; borrow more, for longer, at a higher rate, and total interest balloons.
7Amount financed点击看中文解释 ↓
The total sum you borrow to buy the car — the price minus your down payment, plus any fees rolled into the loan.
Why it matters here ▸ Why it matters here ▸ The average amount financed hit a record $44,664 in Q3 2026, pushing payments up even before interest is added.
Extended note: A bigger down payment shrinks the amount financed and cuts both the payment and total interest.
8K-shaped economy点击看中文解释 ↓
An economy where different groups split in opposite directions: the well-off keep rising while the less well-off fall behind. The shape of the recovery looks like the letter K.
Why it matters here ▸ Why it matters here ▸ New-car buyers are increasingly high-income: those earning under $100k fell from 50% of buyers in 2020 to 37% in 2025.
K 型经济：不同群体朝相反方向走——富者愈富、弱者愈弱，复苏的形状像字母 K。
拓展知识：车市是 K 型经济的一个缩影：顶端家庭照买不误，底端家庭被价格挤出。判断「消费强弱」不能只看平均数据，要看收入分配。同理可见房价、教育等。
Extended note: The car market is a clean example of a K-shaped recovery: strong at the top, weak at the bottom.
9Lease (car lease)点击看中文解释 ↓
A long-term rental of a car: you pay to use it for two or three years and return it at the end. You never own the car.
Why it matters here ▸ Why it matters here ▸ Leases fell from ~30% of new-car deals before the pandemic to about 23% in the first half of 2026, and off-lease cars are a key source of used inventory — so fewer leases means tighter used supply and higher used prices.
To get the worst share of something, as if you had picked the shortest straw in a draw.
But as consumers, we drew the short straw, and have to pay for elevated prices.
抽到下下签——在一群人中摊上最吃亏的那一份。
但作为消费者，我们抽到了下下签，不得不为高昂的车价买单。
stretch the loanstretʃ ðə ləʊn
To make a loan last longer by extending its term (and lower the monthly payment).
For buyers struggling to afford today’s prices, the dealership finance office offers a tempting solution: stretch the loan.
把贷款期限拉长——用还得更久来换更低的月供。
对无力负担当前车价的购车者，经销店的金融办公室给出一个诱人的解法：把贷款期限拉长。
budgebʌdʒ
To move or change even a little. Used of prices or rates that refuse to fall.
That increase came even though rates didn’t budge; Edmunds attributed it to buyers financing larger amounts over longer periods.
挪动、松动（didn’t budge＝纹丝不动），常用来形容价格或利率降不下来。
这一增长还是在利率纹丝不动的情况下发生的；Edmunds 将其归因于买家融资金额更大、期限更长。
feel the pinchfiːl ðə pɪntʃ
To start to feel financial pressure, as money gets tight.
Buyers at the bottom of the K-shaped economy feel the pinch.
感受到手头拮据的压力、被挤压。
处于底端的买家，在 K 型经济的下半边感受到了挤压。
priced out ofpraɪst ˈaʊt əv
Unable to afford something because prices have risen too high — effectively forced out of the market.
So although many people feel priced out of a new car, there’s no shortage of buyers at the top to make up the difference.
因价格过高而被挡在门外、被挤出市场。
所以，尽管很多人感觉被新车价格挡在门外，顶层的买家却并不缺——他们足以填上这个缺口。
stay putsteɪ pʊt
To remain in the same place and not change at all.
Those prices have largely stayed put, thanks in part to a slump in leasing.
待在原地、维持不变。
这些价格大体维持在原位，部分原因是租赁业务低迷。
dry updraɪ ʌp
To gradually disappear or run out, as a source or supply does.
And when that source dries up, literally millions of used cars that are supposed to come back to dealer lots every year aren’t coming back anymore.
逐渐枯竭；（来源、供应）断掉。
而一旦这个来源枯竭，每年本该回到经销商车场的几百万辆二手车就再也不会回来了。
catch a breakkætʃ ə breɪk
To get a lucky moment or a bit of relief.
“There’s nowhere you can catch a break.”
得到喘息的机会、走一次运。
「你无处可以喘口气。」
on the horizonɒn ðə həˈraɪzn
Likely to happen soon — visible in the distance but not here yet.
If there is a tipping point, though, it’s still on the horizon, Yoon said.
即将到来（还在地平线上，尚未发生）。
但 Yoon 说，即便有所谓拐点，它也还远在地平线上。
trade intreɪd ɪn
To give an old car to a dealer as part of the payment for a new one.
“I know a lot of people who basically begged their parents not to trade in their car,” she said.
以旧换新、把旧车折价置换。
「我知道很多人基本上是求着父母不要把车拿去置换，」她说。
bad vibesbæd vaɪbz
A slangy way to say a negative atmosphere or a bad feeling about things.
Despite these record prices, despite the kind of overall ‘bad vibes’ in the economy for most people, car sales haven’t really suffered all that much, if at all.
Q1What record did the average monthly payment on a financed new car hit in the third quarter of 2026?
正确答案：B
正确答案是 B。$787 是第三季度创下的历史新高；A 是一年前的水平，C 是上一季度，D 是「月供超 1,000 美元」的买家占比（21.2%），不是平均月供。 The average monthly payment on a financed new car hit a record $787 in the third quarter, according to Edmunds, up from $777 in the second quarter and $756 a year earlier.A is the year-earlier figure, C the prior quarter, and D is the share of buyers paying $1,000+, not the average payment.
Q2Why does a longer loan term, such as 84 months, raise the total cost for the buyer?
正确答案：B
正确答案是 B。期限越长，前期还款里「利息」占比越高、本金还得越慢；利率高时尤其明显。A 错——本篇说利率没动（APR 仍 7%）；C、D 与期限无关。 The longer you have a loan term, technically the longer you're paying just toward interest, not toward the principal of the loan, especially when the interest rates are so high, Yoon said.A is wrong because rates did not move; the term lengthens the time spent paying interest. C and D are unrelated to term length.
Q3What does the 'K-shaped economy' point to in the car market?
正确答案：B
正确答案是 B。K 型经济指顶端家庭照买、底端被价格挤出；年收入低于 10 万买新车的人占比从 2020 的 50% 降到 2025 的 37%。A 错——总销量并未崩；C 错——租赁占比反而下降；D 错——利率仍高。 The people that are buying new cars tend to be households with six-figure incomes, Yoon said. The share of new-car buyers earning less than $100,000 fell to 37% last year from 50% in 2020.A misreads the data (sales held up); C reverses the trend (leases shrank); D is false (APR stayed at 7%).
