If there ever was any hesitancy among women to lease vehicles, it appears that is going to change quite dramatically, according to a recent survey from Swapalease.com.

The national online car lease marketplace recently conducted an online poll of 700 drivers this spring, and found women have shifted gears when it comes to leasing.

The Swapalease study indicates that 42.2 percent of female respondents said they had never leased a vehicle; only 23.6 percent of men said the same. Likewise, 26.2 perecent of males in the survey said they had leased five or more vehicles in their lifetime versus 15.5 percent of women. 

However, this gender gap drastically shrank when respondents were asked their likelihood of considering a lease for their next vehicle.

In fact, it’s practically negligible.

More than two thirds (67.2 percent) of women said they would be “likely” or “extremely likely” to consider leasing their next ride; the proportion of men saying the same (70.4 percent) was only modestly higher.

“The increased number of women interested in leasing their next vehicle can be attributed to the fact that women are more educated about car lease shopping today,” said Anne Fleming, president and car buying advocate for Women-Drivers.com and a guest columnist for Auto Remarketing.

“Leasing isn’t as mysterious anymore to women, and our Women Satisfaction Index shows that women have a better experience at the dealership today when leasing a vehicle.”

Interestingly enough, though, there are a few differences between women and men when it comes to their leasing preference for certain brands – even with many brands generating the same amount of traction with each gender.

For instance, men were more likely than women to favor BMW and Cadillac. The opposite was true for Honda, Lexus, Toyota and Nissan.

“Women shop with practicality and value in mind compared with performance, which supports why women would choose these brands,” added Fleming.

Men and women also had different appetites for their respective leasing terms. Two fifths of men favor 24-month terms, and just over a third of women gravitate toward 36-month leases.

When it comes to payments, Swapalease found women were more likely to seek leases with lower monthly payments; 44.2 percent of women sought after $299-per-month leases and less than a quarter of men (24.7 percent) did the same.

To see some more overall trends in the leasing market, see the Auto Remarketing story here.
 

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.