Longer Terms for Car Loans

With the housing market the way it is, it was only a matter of time before the auto loan market followed. However, one thing that the auto loan industry is doing that it does not seem that the mortgage industry is doing is working with their clients to actively change the terms of their auto loans.

Let’s say that you have an auto loan for four years and are having a hard time making the payment. You can refinance your car loan and spread it out longer – five years, even up to 80 months! That is a long time to be paying on a car loan, but in some cases if the choice is losing the car or paying for it longer, there really isn’t too much of a choice to be made.

According to JD Power and Associates, most auto loan financiers are now offering up to 108 month auto loans for their clients. They say that there aren’t a lot of people that have the loans this long, but it drastically reduces the amount of their payments so they can afford to keep their car.

They say that although you could end up paying on a car loan that is nine years long, and the car that you are driving will hopefully still be running – if there is a choice between the lesser of two evils, keeping the car will usually win out. Mortgage companies might want to start looking at 60 year loans – then perhaps they would be able to give back some of the homes they have had to foreclose on.



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