Credit unions and other lenders are seeing a decrease in delinquent auto loans.

According to Experian Automotive's State of the Automotive Finance Market report released Wednesday, 30-day automotive loan delinquencies decreased from 2.72% in the fourth quarter 2012 to 2.63% in the fourth quarter of 2013, while 60-day auto loan delinquencies remained flat at 0.74%.

The percentage of loan dollars that were 30 days delinquent rose just slightly from 2.22% in Q4 2012 to 2.26% in Q4 2013. The percentage of loan dollars that were 60 days delinquent rose slightly from 0.55% during the same period.

Experian said the average chargeoff amount for auto loans gone bad jumped from $7,277 in Q4 2012 to $8,520 in Q4 2013

However, the report also showed outstanding automotive loan balances increased 11% from Q4 2012, reaching $798.5 billion in Q4 2013, which is the highest level since Experian Automotive starting publically reporting the data in 2007, the firm noted.  

The increase in open loans spanned across all lenders, with finance companies showing the greatest increase of 21.2%, followed by credit unions with 13.2%, then banks with 10.5% and captives by 5.3%, according to Experian.

Meanwhile, Experian found that an increase in repossessions was driven entirely by finance companies, which provides a significant majority of their loans to credit-challenged customers, the report noted.  

In Q4 2013, finance companies nearly doubled their repossession rate, jumping to 2.84% from 1.61% in Q4 2012.

The report showed that overall repossessions were up 42.8% in Q4 2013, going from 0.46% in Q4 2012 to 0.65% in Q4 2013.

Credit unions led the pack when it came to the least percentage of loans under repossession, according to Experian. Credit unions saw a slight decrease from 0.16% in Q4 2012 to 0.15% in Q4 2013. Banks decreased from 0.24% to 0.23% and captives also decreased, from 0.36% to 0.34% during the same period.

“The record level of open loan balances combined with the reduction in late payments shows that consumers who have purchased a vehicle are not only reliant on financing, but also firmly committed to making their payments on time,” Melinda Zabritski, Experian Automotive's senior director of automotive finance.