Majority Of Lincoln Buyers Financed In Q2 2024

During the pandemic, automotive production was thrown completely off track for a variety of reasons stemming from plant shutdowns to supply chain and labor shortages. This led to a major shift in consumer habits, with many opting to finance rather than lease, and many lessees also opting to keep their vehicles once their term was up. With the market stabilizing and returning somewhat to normal, more and more consumers are opting to lease, but both Ford and Lincoln customers have long preferred to finance – a trend that didn’t change in Q2 2024.

In the second quarter of the year, Ford continued to post one of the highest finance rates in the business at 80.33 percent, compared to 19.67 percent of its customers that opted to lease – the third highest among all brands, behind only GMC and Dodge, according to Experian’s Q2 2024 State of the Automotive Finance Market report. It is worth noting that Ford’s finance rate has decreased slightly over the past few quarters, however, so there may be a slight downward trend brewing there.

As for Lincoln, it closed out Q2 2024 with a finance rate of 55.16 percent versus a lease rate of 44.84 percent – quite high for luxury brands, which most customers tend to lease due to their more rapid rates of depreciation and higher sticker prices. In fact, Lincoln’s finance rate was higher than BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Infiniti, Lexus and Audi, trailing only Jaguar and Land Rover in terms of luxury brands.

Regardless, this trend is nothing new for Lincoln, whose owners have long preferred to finance their vehicles rather than lease them. In the first quarter of the year, 55.84 percent of Lincoln customers financed their new vehicle purchase, compared to 44.16 percent who leased, which is nearly identical to these results from Q2, in fact, even as the overall industry continues to see a resurgence in terms of leasing.