Crossovers Not Seeing Growth in Leasing?

A year ago, roughly 7.4% of drivers polled said they would shop for a crossover if they needed to go out and lease a vehicle that day. A year later, that number dipped slightly to 7.1%. With all the explosive growth in Crossover production, is it not a vehicle that appeals to the lease crowd?

Does Payment Threshold Really Matter?

A year ago, the average lease payment was listed at $474.80. Today this number is $506.13, an increase of 6.8% on payment threshold. What’s more, a year ago nearly one in five people said they would look for a payment between $200 - $299, and a year later this percentage has slipped to just 12 percent. Furthermore, the $500 - $599 payment category saw the largest YOY jump, from 10.7% to 19.2% today.

Vehicle Preferences Driving Most Change Today

Historically, a change in family size has been among the leading reasons why people have wanted to transfer out of their current vehicle lease. A year ago, 11.5% of people said this applied to them, and this number has dropped further to 8.8% today. Conversely, 29.4% of people said they want to change their current vehicle type, and 23% indicated a desire to change their vehicle brand.

"Our latest lease trends show that Crossover saturation may be setting into vehicle leasing, as the number of people who say they want to lease a crossover appears to be falling slightly from a year earlier," said Scot Hall, Executive Vice President of Swapalease.com. "Perhaps price and incentives play a role here, but it's also possible that people are desiring other model types when leasing a vehicle today."

Click here to see the Q2 Lease Trends Report from Swapalease.com.