New Ford Buyers Have Pretty Good Credit Scores

In the recent past, a handful of studies have found that new Ford buyers tend to have good credit scores, especially when compared to those that purchase vehicles from other mass market brands, or even premium brands, for that matter. We haven’t gotten much of an update on this particular topic since last spring, but it appears that not much has changed in that regard either, according to Ford Vice Chair and CFO John Lawler.

“Ford Credit generated EBT of $343 million, down slightly year-over-year,” Lawler said while speaking during the automaker’s Q2 earnings call with investors. “As expected, auction values declined by 9 percent, and lease return rates continued to normalize from historic lows. Credit losses and insurance losses were also higher, but mostly offset by an improvement in financing margin. We continue to originate a high-quality book with U.S. retail and lease FICO scores, again, exceeding 750 for the quarter. Our exposure to EV residual risk is low as EVs represent less than five percent of our lease portfolio.”

Back in June 2022, an S&P Global Mobility study from 2022 discovered that Ford Bronco buyers were wealthier and more loyal than Jeep Wrangler customers at that time. Bronco buyers were slightly younger with marginally higher incomes than Wrangler owners, and had higher credit scores on average, while Wrangler owners were eight times more likely to lease than buy when compared to Bronco owners. Better credit also means that Bronco owners were shelling out lower monthly payments than Wrangler owners for both loans and leases, yet another sign that Bronco buyers were better off, financially speaking, at that time.

Then, just last March, Ford Credit revealed that its customers had an average credit score of 750, which is still considered top tier in today’s world. Given this news from Lawler, it appears that not much has changed over the past year-plus, as new Ford buyers are still exhibiting excellent financial habits, it seems.

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