A growing share of car owners are underwater on their auto loans, reports the car-buying resource Edmunds. Must Read According to a second quarter report, 26.6% of trade-ins toward new-car purchases had negative equity, up from 26.1% in Q1 2025 and 23.9% in Q2 2024 [1]. This is the highest share Edmunds has reported in four years, meaning a growing number of people are dragging additional debt into a new car purchase, putting them at risk of being underwater on their next purchase. That can create a deb ...