While many of the August auto finance metrics Edmunds compiled and shared remained stable on a year-over-year basis, analysts did spot one rise that should be pleasing to finance companies.

Edmunds noticed increases in down payments in August for both new- and used-vehicle transactions, compared to the same month last year. For new models, the average down payment climbed by 5.9 percent to land at $3,667.

The average used-vehicle down-payment jump was even more, coming in at $2,480, which represented a 7.2 percent increase year-over-year.

Looking back to five years ago, Edmunds found that down payments on both used and new financing is much higher. Analysts pegged the rise on the new-model side at 9.1 percent and 14.7 percent for used vehicles.

As seen in the chart below, Edmunds determined four of the other major auto finance metrics did not change much in August.