SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -

The share commanded by leases among all new-vehicle finance originations in the first quarter remained relatively steady against prior-year comparisons, according to Experian Automotive, which found that the lease penetration rate again exceeded 24 percent.

More specifically, in the Q1 2012 State of the Automotive Finance Market report, Experian said that new lease share of new financing was at 24.44 percent.

Down slightly from a year ago, this compares to 25.20 percent in the first quarter of 2011. The leasing rate was at 24.05 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

Looking at overall financing numbers (including new and used), leasing commanded a 10.56-percent share, compared to 11.06 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

Breaking overall leasing numbers down further, 96.22 percent were new leases and 3.78 percent were used leases. Those numbers are fairly consistent with the year-ago period (96.51 percent for new; 3.49 percent for used).

Top Players in New-Vehicle Leasing

Moving along, Experian also looked at the biggest lease providers in the new-vehicle market. With regards to the strongest share of the new lease market, American Honda Finance topped the list (16.5 percent), followed by Toyota Financial Services and Ford Motor Credit, both of which were at 11.4 percent.

Nissan Infiniti Financial Services was next at 10.8 percent, according to Experian,  followed by Ally (9.0 percent). Hyundai Capital America took a 7.5-percent share, while Volkswagen Credit came in at 7.3 percent. Mercedes-Benz Financial pulled in a 6-percent share of the market, followed by BMW Bank of North America (5.6 percent) and Chase Auto Finance (3.0 percent), respectively.

Ranking these same lenders based on the percent of their new-vehicle financing that are leases, Mercedes-Benz Financial (76.21 percent) topped the list, with BMW Bank of North America (56.92 percent) in second, officials noted.

Hyundai Capital America was at 52.95 percent, followed by VW Credit at 52.41 percent. Nissan Infiniti Financial Services had 46.19-percent penetration, with American Honda Finance at 43.03 percent.

Next up, Toyota Financial Services (31.05 percent) and Ford Motor Credit (31.23 percent) were close in this measure, as well. Ally came in at 21.61 percent, and Chase Auto Finance was at 11.54 percent.