Vast Majority Of Ford Buyers Opted To Finance In Q4 2024

For quite some time now, new Ford buyers have preferred to finance their new vehicle acquisition 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.

Rather, most Ford buyers continue to prefer to finance their new vehicle rather than lease it, which has been the case for some time now, according to the Q4 2024 Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market report. In Q2 2024, 80.33 percent of all Ford customers opted to finance their vehicle purchase, versus 19.67 percent who chose to lease, and in Q3, those figures came in at 79.36 percent finance and 20.64 percent for leases. Not much changed in the final quarter of the year, as 79.97 percent of Ford buyers chose to finance their new vehicle acquisition, compared to 20.03 percent who leased their vehicle.

This finance percentage was once again among the highest in the industry, bested only by GMC, Ineos, Mitsubishi, Chrysler, Dodge, and Ram. However, this doesn’t apply to every model in Ford’s lineup. In fact, as Ford Authority previously reported, 56.63 percent of Ford Mustang Mach-E customers opted to lease their new EV in the last quarter of the year, compared to 38.96 percent who financed it and 4.41 percent that paid cash. This falls in line with most of the top 10 best-selling new EVs over that time span, as the majority of Honda Prologue, Hyundai IONIQ 5, Cadillac Lyriq, Chevy Blazer EV, and Rivian R1S customers also opted to lease – though most Tesla Model Y, Model 3, and Cybertruck customers financed their new vehicle.