SCHAUMBURG, Ill. -

Experian Automotive released an analysis this week of the most prevalent areas of the country for leases and certified pre-owned sales.

Unsurprisingly, the areas with the highest rates of leases compared to overall new-vehicle registrations were larger metropolitan areas.

Top 5 Metropolitan Areas, New-Vehicle Lease Penetration (Experian)

  1. Detroit – 67.9 percent
  2. New York – 49.8 percent
  3. Flint, Mich. – 49.1 percent
  4. Youngstown, N.Y. – 46.5 percent
  5. Cleveland – 43.7 percent

On the used-vehicle side, the areas with the highest CPO sales rates, compared to overall vehicle sales, were smaller metropolitan areas, the top five of which are in Texas.

Top 5 Metropolitan Areas for Highest Percentage of Certified Used Vehicle Sales (Experian)

  1. San Angelo, Texas – 26.7 percent
  2. Victoria, Texas – 25.1 percent
  3. Corpus Christi, Texas – 24.4 percent
  4. Odessa, Texas – 24.3 percent
  5. Lubbock, Texas – 24.2 percent

The above results, which focused on data collected from Jan. to Sept. 2014 in areas with a minimum of 10,000 new-vehicle registrations (for the new-vehicle data) and certified used vehicles ranging in age from 0 to five years, goes to show that certain areas of the country can contain vastly different types of hot and cold spots for different sales methods.

“Not every market is the same,” said Brad Smith, Experian’s director of automotive market statistics. “Economic and social issues often drive sales. Detroit, for example, benefits from the presence of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, as well as numerous suppliers and many friends and family programs. By gaining insight into consumer purchasing behavior in their market area, dealers and manufacturers can take more targeted actions with regard to managing their inventory, capitalizing on growth opportunities, gaining new customers and improving profitability.”

The analysis also revealed several other interesting points, according to Experian:

  • MINI has the highest percentage of certified used vehicles compared to total vehicle registrations (minimum 100,000 vehicle registrations) at 32.7 percent.
  • Ram was second, with 28.9 percent of vehicles sold being CPO, followed by Hyundai (28.3 percent), Mercedes-Benz (28.3 percent) and Kia (27.7 percent).
  • Toyota Camry had the highest volume of CPO registrations, followed by Nissan Altima, Ford F-150, Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Silverado.