Australia’s cheapest car loans of 2022

By Tara McCabe and Cooper Langby
Fact Checked
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Man sitting in car with Mozo Experts Choice 2021 badge for Personal Loans

If, like many of us, you don’t have the money upfront to buy a car, you’re probably looking at taking out a loan.

It would be understandable if 'cheap' is on the top of your car loan wishlist – with fuel, registration, car insurance and mechanic bills, it already costs a fair bit to keep a car on the road. Plus, when you take out a loan you’ll already be paying at least a little more than you would if you bought a vehicle outright, since there’s interest to be repaid and potentially fees on top. If you’re looking for a great value car loan, our list of award-winners may offer what you’re looking for.

To help you narrow down your options, our team of expert researchers trawled through the fees and features of car loans tracked in the Mozo database to reveal the list of Australia’s cheapest car loans. The best-value options were crowned as winners across various categories for the 2022 Mozo Experts Choice Personal Loan Awards. These categories included:

  • Car Loan
  • Excellent Credit Car Loan
  • Used Car Loan
  • Excellent Credit Used Car Loan
  • Green Car Loan

The awards for 2022 were announced last November. If you're looking for a car loan this year you may want to consider the award-winning cheap car loans below, and you can read further for more details about how we selected winners in different categories.

OurMoneyMarket Car Loan
  • Flexible repayment options
  • No monthly, exit or early repayment fees
  • Interest rate: From 5.35% p.a. (5.65% p.a. comparison rate*) based on an individual borrower’s credit assessment

OurMoneyMarket’s Car Loan picked up a Mozo Experts Choice Award∧ for Used Car Loans. Offering customers the opportunity to pay off their loan in weekly, fortnightly or monthly installments with no exit fees or early repayment fees, OurMoneyMarket provides plenty of flexibility with their car loans. With interest rates starting from as low as 5.35% p.a. (5.65% p.a. comparison rate*) based on individual borrowers’ credit assessment, those with a good credit history will be able to pick up a low fixed rate on their used car loan. There is an establishment fee payable when signing up to this loan, which starts at $250 minimum based on loan grade and total loan amount.

Wisr Secured Car Loan
  • Flexible repayment options
  • No ongoing or early repayment fees
  • Interest rate: From 4.74% p.a. (5.58% p.a comparison rate*) based on an individual borrower’s credit assessment

Wisr picked up a Mozo Experts Choice Award for its Secured Car Loan∧, winning one of only two Excellent Credit Used Car Loan awards for 2022. Customers can choose to repay their loan weekly, fortnightly or monthly, with no early repayment fees. With interest rates beginning as low as 4.74% p.a. (5.58% p.a. comparison rate*) depending on individual borrowers’ credit assessment, those with an excellent credit rating looking to pick up a used car loan could score themselves a good deal with Wisr.

loans.com.au Clean Green Car Loan
  • Low rate fixed car loan
  • 0.7% discount on qualifying electric and hybrid cars (T&Cs apply)
  • Interest rate: 4.29% p.a. (4.83% p.a. comparison rate*)

The loans.com.au Clean Green Car Loan picked up a Mozo Experts Choice Award for Green Car Loans∧. The Clean Green Car Loan offers a low fixed rate of 4.29% p.a. (4.83% p.a. comparison rate*) with a 0.70% discount (T&Cs apply) on qualifying electric and hybrid cars. Currently, you need to get in touch with loans.com.au to find out if the car you're looking to buy qualifies - but the eligibility criteria means that your vehicle needs to produce significantly lower emissions than other cars its size. Customers can choose to repay the loan weekly, fortnightly or monthly, and can also choose to add a balloon repayment if a final lump-sum payment is desired. There are no ongoing fees with this loan after customers pay an initial $400 establishment fee.

Heritage Bank Car Loan
  • Flexible repayment options
  • Unlimited extra repayments
  • Interest Rate: 4.89% p.a. (5.53% p.a. comparison rate*)

The Heritage Bank Car Loan picked up a Mozo Experts Choice Award∧ for Used Car Loans. With flexible repayment options, unlimited extra repayments and the option to repay the loan in full at any time, Heritage Bank gives you plenty of room to fit the loan around your finances. With an interest rate of 4.89%p.a. (5.53% p.a. comparison rate), it ranks among the cheapest used car loans we assessed for 2022, with a $5 monthly fee and $200 application fee that can be financed into the loan.

Cheapest Car Loans

If you’re looking to buy a shiny new car driven no further than to its spot in the sales lot, the  winners of this award might be for you. That’s because this category is designed specifically to find the cheapest car loan for customers buying a new car. While there isn’t one specific loan or lender that will be cheapest for everyone, our judges went through a rigorous research process to identify car loans that are among the cheapest.

For this award we took a scenario of a $30,000 loan, repaid over five years and worked out the overall cost, including any interest, fees and charges. “We found the total price to be paid for each loan, and gave awards to what we deemed the cheapest car loans,” Mozo Expert Judge Peter Marshall said.

The winners were:

Australian Military Bank also scooped up a separate award for cheapest Excellent Credit Car Loan. That’s for customers with an excellent credit rating, looking to buy a new car.

Cheapest Used Car Loans

If new isn’t your style, then finding a quality used car might be a great option. These products each bagged a Mozo Experts Choice Award for cheapest Used Car Loan∧. 

“To pick the winners for this award, our research team compared the total cost of a $15,000 loan, repaid over five years," Marshall said.

"That includes the principal loan amount, interest payable over that time period and any fees and charges that come with it.”

Same as the new car loan, the results were ranked from the cheapest to the most expensive, before our judges awarded the winners. 

The winners were:

Additionally, Pepper Money’s Secured Personal Loan and Wisr’s Secured Car Loan picked up awards for cheapest Excellent Credit Used Car Loan. This award category is designed for customers who are looking for a used car loan and already hold an excellent credit rating.

Cheapest Green Car Loan winner

As you might have guessed, this last award category seeks to recognise Australia’s cheapest car loans for ‘greener’ cars. Of course green is a little vague, so let’s break that down.

“The Green Car Loan award only considers loans that offer special rates or fees aimed at encouraging Australians to buy low-emission vehicles,” Marshall said.

After identifying loans that met this criteria, the research team calculated the overall cost of a $30,000 loan, repaid over five years. The experts were especially impressed with loans.com.au’s Clean Green Car Loan (detailed above), which was the only car loan to bag the award this year and also took out the title last year.

Why choose a Mozo Experts Choice award winner?

Like a lot of things in the financial realm, car loans can be confusing. First you have to think about the interest rate. Then you have to make sure there aren’t any sneaky fees. And finally, you’ll need to investigate if there are any loan features that might help you save money or pay down your debt sooner.

This can all be a bit overwhelming, but that's where we come in. Mozo is dedicated to comparing financial products so they’re easier for you to research and assess yourself – and we’ve been doing it for over a decade.

Marshall says the research team knows where to start and what to take into consideration when looking at loan costs.

“For the Car Loans category – which only considers loans intended for customers purchasing new cars – we assessed 83 different personal loans, to see which ones had the most competitive pricing,” he said.

That’s just the tip of it though. To allow for any price variations over time, the team made calculations on three different dates over a three month period. This took into account the applicable interest rate and all mandatory fees (like application, service or exit fees) for each loan assessed. 

As you can see, a lot of work goes into comparing these financial products so we can accurately highlight the best-value personal loan products on offer in Australia. We don’t take this responsibility lightly and each year we do the calculations again so that Australians always have the most up to date information on what the most competitive personal loan products are.

Want to read more about our expert analysis? Check out the Mozo Experts Choice Car Loan Awards methodology report for more information on how the awards are conducted.

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