It’s true, new car loan defaults are decreasing! It’s also true it doesn’t take much of a rocket scientist to understand that by tightening down the lending criteria for consumers looking for new auto loans this would be an expected result.

There are some interesting facts.  Taking a look at the 720 credit score plus category FICO reports that in the May to June 2009 period 1 out of every 411 borrowers went 60 days or more past due on their new car loan payment.  During the same time period in 2008, 1 out of 288 fell past due in the second year which is a 43% reduction.

If you look at the same time periods but in the credit score range or 300 to 599 you’ll find almost an 11% 60 day delinquency rate for new car loans during the period ending April 2009 and a huge reduction down to 8% for the same period ending 2010.