Historically speaking, new Ford buyers have preferred to finance their purchase rather than lease, which somewhat bucks overall trends in the automotive market. However, 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 choosing 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, though that isn’t the case with new Ford buyers.
According to Experian’s Q3 2024 State of the Automotive Finance Market report, 79.36 percent of new Ford buyers opted to finance their purchase in the last quarter, compared to 20.64 percent who chose to lease. This is one of the highest finance rates in the market, trailing only Dodge (85.19 percent), GMC (84.83 percent), Chrysler (84.44 percent), and Toyota (80.59 percent), in fact.
Ford’s figure was down slightly from Q1 2024, when its finance rate was 82.59 percent, as well as 80.33 percent in Q2 of this year. Prior to that, the automaker posted a finance rate of 81.37 percent in Q3 2023, followed by 80.23 percent in Q4 of last year, which were also among the highest of any automotive brand during those timeframes as well. If nothing else, it’s an interesting data point, given the fact that some automakers have customers who lean heavily toward leasing rather than financing – most of which are luxury brands, whose vehicles tend to depreciate at a more rapid rate.
In terms of overall sales, Ford posted an increase of 0.7 percent to 504,039 units in Q3 2024, good enough to become America’s best-selling brand over that time period. Ford was also tops in terms of truck, hybrid truck, van, three-row SUV, and sports car sales over the past quarter, too.
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