Ford Motor Credit Company has sold $3.74 billion of bonds backed by car-loan payments, a record asset-backed sale for the company and one of the largest ever for the asset-backed market.

The sale by Ford Motor Co.'s finance unit is the largest since last March when Peco Energy Co., which has since been renamed Exelon Corp. following its merger with Unicom Corp., sold $4 billion of bonds backed by electric utility bill payments.

Ford set prices on three portions rated "triple A," including $1.46 billion of one-year securities priced to yield 6.769 percent, or 10 basis points more than a Eurodollar futures contract.

Ford also sold $1.12 billion of two-year securities priced to yield 6.720 percent, or 12 basis points more than interest rate swaps of comparable maturity, and on $314 million of three-year securities it priced to yield 6.761 percent, or 14 basis points more than swaps.

The "single A"-rated portion, $133.6 million of three-year bonds, was priced to yield 7.021 percent, or 40 basis points more than swaps.

Details aren't available on an addiitonal $720 million in class A-1 and A-2 bonds that Ford had planned to market directly to investors. The company retained $152 million of bonds rated "triple B" and "double B.