[Supermans]

Originally Posted by jsenn

Some of you may have heard that as of 8/1/08, Chrysler will not be leasing their vehicles anymore through their primary bank. You will still be able to lease the vehicles, but you'd have to go through a third party bank which means the rates and residuals will be through the roof. As it turns out, the same dude who owns Chrysler owns 51% of GMAC (GM retains the other 49%). This could spell the end of leasing for us as well! The problem banks have with leasing right now is that they are losing their a$$es (pardon my language) once the leases are up and they try to sell the lease returns via auction.
The pre-owned truck market is in a slump right now and a truck or SUV that may have been worth $25,000 a year ago at lease end is worth $15,000 in todays market. Granted gas is going down, and our economy can't stay this way forever, but the banks are tightening up on what they are putting on the road. Rates are going up and residuals are getting lower, so leases are starting to not make sense anymore.
What does this mean for GM you ask? I don't know the national average or anything, but at my dealership about 35% of all new cars and trucks that we sell are leases. If the national average is anywhere near that, GM could be in trouble if we lose our ability to lease vehicles.

I'm quite sure this would mean most people would lease from Toyota and Nissan in that case..