For those who are in the market for a new or used vehicle, acquiring a lease turn-in can be a great choice. Lessors often impose mileage limits and condition requirements in the lease agreement, so the vehicles are typically in tip-top shape.
We decided to find out out which makes and models were treated the best (and worst). To do this, we examined the condition of lease turn-ins listed on the wholesale marketplace over the past six months.
The wholesale marketplace is where dealerships buy and sell their stock of cars. In order to make it easy for the dealers to discern the state of the cars at a glance, a third party examines and rates each vehicle before it goes to auction. The condition scores go like this: 5 = “Like New”, 4 = “Clean”, 3 = “Average”, 2 = “Below Average”, 1 = “Rough” 0 = “Scrap Heap.”
The Top 10:
What we can tell from this data is that lessees tended to baby their big cars. Nine out of the 10 top vehicles fell into the category of trucks and SUVs – evidently, driving around a shiny, spotless truck does good things for the driver’s ego.
The lone exception was the tiny Fiat 500e. It must be that the drivers of this charming little eco-friendly vehicle love the look. The lower average mileage on these suggests they’re lightly used.
The Bottom 10:
Of the kinds of vehicles featured in the bottom 10, minivans and daily commuters tended to appear more frequently, and with good reason. Vehicles such as the Honda Odyssey, Honda Civic, and Toyota Corolla typically take on more practical use as people haulers or transportation to and from work, meaning they’re extra susceptible to kiddos with sticky hands and coffee spills.
*Data: We examined 271,866 vehicles of model year 2015 listed by lease turn-in sellers between the dates January 1, 2018 – June 17, 2018.
**Makes with less than 1,000 distinct vehicles listed in the past 6 months were excluded from the sample. The lowest third-party condition rating for each VIN was used to calculate the average condition of each make.