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Toyota Motor Corp. has begun offering customers 84-month loans on new cars in an effort to help dealers ride out the most severe downturn in the U.S. auto industry in the past decade.

The seven-year loans are unusually long. Just a few years ago, 72-month auto loans were rare.

The move reflects the lengths to which auto makers are going to pump up sales without resorting to the hefty cash rebates that they have relied on in the past. Over time, big cash discounts eat into profits and tarnish an auto maker's image. Most are now trying to curtail the practice. Chrysler recently began offering navigation systems and other interior upgrades at no additional costs to tempt buyers.

George Borst, chief executive of Toyota Financial Services, said at a financial-services conference in San Francisco that the company started offering seven-year car loans in late summer. These loans, which carry slightly higher rates than 72-month deals, have risen to represent 4% of all cars Toyota Financial Services lends money on.

A Toyota Financial spokesman said there were too many variables to say what rates are charged on the loans. But rates quoted by Toyota dealers ranged from 6.9% to 7.59% for 84-month loans, compared with 5.85% to 6.84% for 72-month financing.

Mr. Borst said he sees the loans growing to represent 5% of business. He said Toyota's in-house lender, known as a "captive finance arm," started making the loans after realizing it was losing business to other noncaptive lenders offering loans with longer terms.

Toyota Financial Services originates loans for about three-quarters of the cars financed in the U.S. at Toyota dealers, or about 50% of total sales for the auto maker, a spokeswoman said. She said the seven-year loans are given only to customers with top credit.

GMAC Financial Services, the largest auto lender in the world, offers 84-month loans but says they make up a tiny portion of its business. Ford Motor Co.'s credit arm did some pilot programs related to 84-month loans, but isn't aggressively offering them. "We don't like these loans," Ford Motor Credit Chief Executive Michael Bannister said on the sidelines of the conference.