WASHINGTON, D.C. — Reviewing the records available from the Federal Reserve, SubPrime Auto Finance News discovered that the median amount financed at auto finance companies reached a new record in May.

This could perhaps be indicative that despite the struggling economy, consumers are gaining more confidence is spending higher amounts on vehicles.

What was the new record amount financed? According to the Federal Reserve, this figure came in at $29,133. This compares to $28,383 in April and $27,365 in March. The second highest amount financed since 2004 came in 2007 when consumers financed an average of $28,287.

In another interesting finding, the Fed reported that the average loan to value ratio and loan term also crept higher.

More specifically, the median loan-to-value ratio inched up to 93 in May, compared to 90 in April and 88 in March.

As for maturity or loan length, this stood at 62.9 months in May, compared to 60.8 in April and 59.5 in March.

Like its other finding, the Fed also discovered that the average interest rate also grew for the month, reaching 3.47 percent, up from 3 percent in April, 2.72 percent in March. But down from 4.71 percent in the first quarter.

As for 48-month new-car loans at commercial banks, the average interest rate appeared to slide a bit to 6.79 percent. However, these figures were not available for April or March. The last available data was from the first quarter of this year when the median interest rate stood at 6.92 percent.

Overall, the Fed said, "Consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 1.5 percent in May 2009. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3.75 percent, and non-revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 0.25 percent."