BANDON, Ore. -
During October, the proportion of vehicle transactions that were leases climbed to more than 27 percent, according to CNW Market Research, which said the automaker leading the way as far as leasing penetration upswings was Toyota
Leases commanded 27.6 percent of the market in October, compared with 26.9 percent in September. Meanwhile, 6.6 percent of transactions were cash sales, down from 6.8 percent the previous month.
Financed deals dropped from 66.3 percent of the market to 65.8 percent.
Discussing the increase in leasing share in more detail, CNW president Art Spinella noted: “Among the mass-market brands, Toyota continues to make the largest gains and now (including Lexus) has nearly a third of its vehicles being leased either open or closed end. Lexus remains one of the most popular vehicles in the lease market serviced by third-party lessors.”
He added: “As more consumers lease for personal use, the relative share of ‘business’ leases continues to decline.”

Specifically, the business share was at 37.5 percent year-to-date in October, compared with 40.1 percent at this point of 2009 and 43.7 percent in 2008.

CPO Trends
Moving over to discuss the certified pre-owned segment, the premium commanded by CPO vehicles in October reached the strongest level so far in 2010, according to CNW, which said CPO models were turning about 20 days faster than their non-certified used counterparts.
Specifically, CPO models fetched an average premium of $1,322 over their same non-certified model in October, CNW noted. In September, the CPO premium was at $1,307.
“Consumers continue to be willing to pay ever higher prices for certified pre-owned vehicles,” Spinella commented.
Continuing on, Spinella also noted that the turn rate for CPO vehicles averaged 28.7 days in October. Their non-certified used counterparts averaged 48.3 days.
“The length of time on dealer lots for CPO vehicles is nearly 20 days less than the non-CPO version, up a tad versus September, but well within statistical parity,” Spinella shared.
“The driving force for CPO remain those who would otherwise buy a new model, especially entry-level cars or trucks,” he added, further pointing out that pure economy vehicles have seen their new-vehicle market share dip.
“CPOs are taking much of that displacement. Economy cars have dropped to their lowest level of the year at only 10.4 percent of total sales from this year’s high of 13 percent in February,” Spinella shared.