Interest Rate Hike Expected To Have Minimal Impact on Auto Loans

SANTA MONICA, California – America’s first interest rate hike in nearly a decade is not expected to put the brakes on auto loans, according to Edmunds.com.

“We don’t expect auto loan rates to rise in the near term especially with automakers continuing to offer successful low-APR promotions,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com’s director of industry analysis. “We’ve seen particularly in the last several months that more and more shoppers have been drawn in by these low interest rates, so as long as they continue to respond to these deals, automakers will do everything in their power to continue offering them.”

Zero-percent interest rate offers have been a big driver of the auto sales recovery.

In 2015, nearly 10 percent of dealer-financed loans were secured at zero percent.

Zero-percent APR offers on Thursday include the 2015 Chevrolet Cruze, with a zero-percent APR offer for 60 months, and several zero-percent APR offers on the 2015 Ford Fusion.

Auto sales are expected to top 17 million this year for the first time since the Great Recession.

The U.S. central bank on Wednesday raised rates by 0.25 percentage points.

The board of governors of the Federal Reserve said it “expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases” in interest rates in the future.

Edmunds says: Car shoppers should not walk away from deals due to this modest interest rate increase.