Even as auto loan debt has risen over the past year, consumersare generally managing to stay current on their payments.

According to TransUnion's Industry Insights Report, the nationalauto loan delinquency rate, which is the percentage of accounts60 or more days past due, remained relatively flat year over year,moving from 0.79% in the second quarter of 2012 to 0.80% in thesecond quarter of 2013.

Meanwhile, average auto loan balances continued to increase,jumping more than 4% between Q2 2012 ($12,875) and Q2 2013($13,435).

“It's encouraging to see consumers take on more auto debt while delinquencies remain low. Consumersclearly are more confident in managing additional debt,” said PeterTurek, vice president of automotive for TransUnion.

The states with the highest auto loan delinquencies in thesecond quarter were Oklahoma, Mississippi and Alabama, TransUnionsaid. During the same period, North Dakota, Minnesota, Vermont andWashington had the lowest delinquent loans.

While subprime borrower debt increased more than 7% in the last year,delinquency levels for this segment remained about the same, movingfrom 4.94% in Q2 2012 to 5.02% in Q2 2013, according toTransUnion.

As a percentage of borrowers, the subprime group did not changefrom last year, still constituting 14.9% of all new accounts.

“This is a positive sign since increased balances for thesubprime group indicate that they are receiving new loans,” Tureksaid.

He added, “The fact that the increase in delinquencies is only aminor one is especially important, as we often find that borrowerswho have problems making payments do so within the first year of aloan.”

Turek said TransUnion expects to see auto loan volumes rise inline with overall auto sales and other demand drivers such asreplacement of older vehicles and improving employmentnumbers.