20 Percent Of Ford Buyers Opted To Lease In Q4 2023

In recent years, automotive leases have taken a bit of a hit thanks to skyrocketing prices, record-low inventory levels, and changing consumer behavior, though it stands to reason that new vehicle shoppers may wind up gravitating back to that form of ownership now that the market is slowly correcting itself. In that regard, Ford has long performed quite well, however, ranking among the top leased brands in Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 of 2023, in terms of percentages. Now that Experian’s Q4 2023 State of the Automotive Market report has been released, it reveals that a slightly larger sliver of Ford buyers opted to lease rather than buy in the last quarter of the year, too.

In the third quarter, 18.63 percent of Ford buyers opted to lease rather than finance their purchase, but that figure increased in Q4, according to this new data. In that final quarter of 2023, 19.77 percent of Ford buyers leased their new vehicle, versus 80.23 percent who financed it instead.

Interestingly, this lease percentage was among the lowest in the industry in Q4, falling behind only Dodge (14.14 percent), Toyota (16.15 percent), Tesla (18.85 percent), Jaguar (19.09 percent), Chrysler (19.12 percent), and GMC (19.16). Otherwise, every other automotive brand posted a higher lease percentage rate in Q4 2023 compared to The Blue. Oval.

Meanwhile, according to this same report, while automotive leases as a whole took a dive between 2020 and 2022, that form of vehicle ownership has since rebounded in a big way through the course of 2023, according to Experian. Interestingly, it’s the customers that have higher credit scores that are opting to lease versus finance as well – in fact, 56 percent of lessees in Q4 2023 had credit scores higher than 741 after making up 34.88 percent of the overall market last year as a whole.

We’ll have more lease data to share soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for comprehensive Ford news coverage.