Cox Automotive chief economist Tom Webb didn’t reference the Federal Reserve’s revamped consumer credit report that includes more details about auto financing when he conducted his quarterly conference call this week.

But the metrics the Fed reported probably didn’t provide Webb with much evidence to alter his assessment about lengthening new-vehicle installment contracts.

The Fed indicated the average new-car deal in March contained terms lasting 65 months, the same duration as the first quarter of this year and the fourth quarter of last year.

The Fed added in its report that officials said covers most captive and non-captive finance companies that the average amount financed in these new-model contracts was $27,272 in March, which was flat compared with the first-quarter reading and $517 higher than the fourth-quarter figure.

Furthermore, the Fed pinpointed the average APR on contracts for new vehicles at 5.2 percent in March; again the same reading as Q1.

In his Q&A segment that also delved into where wholesale prices might be headed, Webb answered questions about new-vehicle sales and the financing environment that helped the industry sell new cars and light-duty trucks at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 17.1 million in June.

“Longer terms loans,” Webb said as he paused for a couple seconds before continuing with, “I have a lot of thoughts about that. Personally, I don’t like them. I don’t think the lenders are going to get too burned on them. The underwriting is still pretty good. People are paying their loans.

“Customers probably won’t hold the car until the note is paid off so lengthening the trade cycle, I’m not too sure what it does for that,” Webb continued.

Webb then followed up with the part about these growing contract terms that solidified his opinion.

“What bothers me about them most is it probably hurts customer satisfaction in the long-run,” he said.

“New-vehicle buyers want to trade out on a relatively short period of time,” Webb continued. “Wholesale prices obviously are going to show some weakness. There are going to be people who put themselves into a long-term loan who are going to find it rather painful to get out into another new vehicle. They’re going to have little equity, no equity or negative equity.”