Rate data methodology.

What we collect

We track advertised APRs - the rates U.S. lenders publish on their own websites for new car loans, used car loans, auto refinancing, and lease buyout loans. Advertised rates are "as low as" figures: they assume top-tier credit, and usually a shorter term, a newer vehicle, and autopay discounts. They are each lender's floor, not the average rate borrowers actually receive.

We deliberately track the floor because it's the number lenders compete on and update first. When advertised rates move, funded-loan averages follow weeks later - so this data is an early read on lender pricing posture.

How we collect it

• Automated collection. Our own collectors read the public rate pages and data endpoints of the lenders we track automatically - as of August 2026 that includes Bank of America, Navy Federal Credit Union, and LightStream, with more lenders being added. Each observation is stored with the lender, loan category, term, APR, and a timestamp.
• Editorial verification. Lenders we don't yet collect automatically are verified by hand against their published rate pages and entered with the date checked. Rate tables label nothing as live that isn't.
• No survey data, no third-party feeds. We don't license rate feeds or reprint other sites' tables. If a number is here, we observed it at the source.

How the monthly Rate Index is computed

The Auto Loan Rate Index is built from the raw observations above:

1. For each calendar month, each lender's observations in a category are averaged into one monthly figure per lender.
2. The category index is the equal-weighted mean of those per-lender figures. Equal weighting matters: a lender we check daily would otherwise drown out one we verify weekly.
3. The "lowest" figure for a month is the single lowest advertised APR we observed from any tracked lender that month.
4. A month is published only once it has a sufficient number of observations. The current month is shown as "month to date" and can move until the month closes; closed months are frozen.

What this data is not

• Not funded-loan averages. Sources like Experian's State of the Automotive Finance Market report what borrowers actually signed, across all credit tiers, with a quarter's delay. Our index reports what lenders advertised, for top-tier credit, in near-real time. Both are useful; they answer different questions.
• Not offers. Nothing here is a quote or a guarantee of credit. Your rate depends on credit profile, income, term, vehicle age and mileage, and state.

Revisions and corrections

If we find a collection error (a misread page, a lender site change that broke a collector), we correct the underlying observations and the affected monthly figures, and note material revisions on the affected month's page. Spot a number that looks wrong? Tell us via the contact details on our About page - we take data reports seriously and respond to all of them.

Citing this data

All rate data on this site is free to cite in journalism, research, newsletters, and blogs, with attribution to AutoLoanRate.com and a link to the page you're citing. Each Rate Index page includes a suggested citation. For custom cuts of the data or questions from press, reach out via the About page.

Independence and compensation

AutoLoanRate.com is an independent comparison site, not a lender. Some lender links are affiliate links, which means we may be compensated when you check your rate through them. Compensation never changes a collected APR, a monthly average, an index figure, or a lender's position in a rate-sorted table - those are data, and the pipeline above has no input for money.