Editor's note: The headline and first paragraph in an earlier version of this story had an incorrect percentage. The first paragraph also incorrectly referred to the number of loans of 73 to 84 months instead of share of loans of that length.
LAS VEGAS -- The share of new-vehicle loans lasting 73 to 84 months has risen sharply in the past eight years, according to Experian.
In the first quarter of 2009, 11.7 percent of new-vehicle loans were 73 to 84 months, Karl Kruppa, senior automotive solutions consultant for Experian, said at CU Direct's Drive '17 conference here last week. Through February 2017, 33.8 percent of loans were 73 to 84 months.
Even within that bucket, term lengths are creeping up. In the fourth quarter of 2010, three-quarters of new-vehicle loans in the 73- to 84-month category were between 73 and 75 months, Kruppa said. "Now we are seeing more and more lenders willing to go all the way up to 84 months," he said. In the fourth quarter of 2010, 17.1 percent of new-vehicle loans were 84 months. In the fourth quarter of 2016, 28.7 percent of new-vehicle loans were 84 months.