Monthly payments of $1,000-plus hit a new quarterly high in the first quarter of 2026, according to Experian Automotive, with the upward pressure led by high-end pickups and SUVs from Detroit 3 brands.
For the quarter, the share of $1,000-plus new-vehicle payments was 19% for the whole industry, versus 17.4% just a year ago.
In the first quarter of 2020, $1,000-plus new-vehicle payments accounted for just 4.8% of new-vehicle loans, according to Experian.
“It will be interesting to see what happens when and if it comes down. But for the first quarter, we certainly didn’t see it,” said Melinda Zabritski, head of automotive financial insights for Experian Automotive, in a phone interview.
Blinged-out trucks aren’t a new phenomenon, but a breakout from Experian of which vehicles account for the rise in $1,000-plus payments is still a little surprising.
“What drives the $1,000-plus payments is pickups,” Zabritski said in an interview ahead of the May 28 release of the Experian Automotive State of the Automotive Finance Market report for the first quarter.
The Ford F-150 is number one on the Top 25 list of new vehicles in terms of share of $1,000-plus payments. The F-150 accounted for 5.9% of all new-vehicle loans with a payment of $1,000-plus in the first quarter. That’s not including Super Duty variants of the Ford F-Series, which also appeared among the Top 25.
The Top 25 included 11 pickups and 14 SUVs, Experian said. Eight of the Top 10 were full-size pickups. The exceptions were the Chevy Tahoe and the Toyota Grand Highlander, Experian said.
The average monthly payment, the average amount borrowed and the average loan term all increased in Q1 versus a year ago, even though the average interest rate declined marginally in the first quarter compared with a year ago.
The average new auto-loan rate was 6.39% in Q1, down from 6.7% a year ago, or 6.85% in the first quarter of 2024.
At the lower end of the affordability spectrum, Zabritski pointed out that 20% of new-vehicle loans in the first quarter had an average monthly payment of $500 and below, concentrated in the passenger-car segment as opposed to trucks, and mostly among import brands.
If even $500 sounds like a lot, bear in mind that the average monthly new-car loan payment was $770 in the first quarter, up from $748 a year ago, according to the Experian report.
“There are still vehicles out there under $500. There’s availability, but it’s still very much in the car segment,” Zabritski said.
