A growing share of car owners find themselves underwater on their auto loans, and they are dragging that debt into their next vehicle purchase, according to new data from the car-shopping site Edmunds.com.

Why it matters: High car prices and steep loan rates have combined to create an affordability crisis for U.S. car buyers already under broad financial stress.

• When car buyers roll up debt owed on their trade-in into the purchase of their next vehicle, they can really get into trouble. 

By the numbers: More than 1 in 4 new vehicle trade-ins are underwater, a four-year high, according to Edmunds' Q2 data.

• Americans with upside-down car loans owe an average of $6,754, Edmunds found. 
• Nearly one-third of car owners stuck with negative equity between $5,000 to $10,000 on their trade-in carried that debt into their next car loan.
• The average monthly payment for buyers who rolled negative equity into a new loan climbed to $915 in the second quarter, compared to $756 a month for the overall industry. 

Reality check: Potential tax deductions for new car purchases won't offset the thousands more consumers will pay in interest by trading in a car with negative equity, Ivan Drury, Edmunds' director of insights, said in a press release.

The bottom line: Car owners are at risk of getting stuck in a cycle of debt they can't escape.

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