WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. -

The leasing market continued to show much of the same trends spotted throughout the last several months, as lease penetration was steady from May and approached the 20-percent mark, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

Specifically, leases represented 19.7 percent of new-vehicle sales for June, up from 19.1 percent the previous month and 18.2 percent in June 2010.

J.D. Power senior director Thomas King told Auto Remarketing this week that there was “some modest fluctuation, but nothing significant on a month-over-month basis.”

He added: “In terms of the last few months, we’ve been fairly stable."

As far as the year-over-year gains, it is due to the same factors that have been driving the increases throughout the past few months, King stressed, giving the example of continued increases in leasing availability.

He did note that automakers were a bit more generous with leasing incentives, which played a role in the gains, but all-in-all it was largely the same drivers that have been pushing for the last few months.

For individual segments, though, there were some significant changes. For instance, the leasing rate for pickup trucks was up 143-percent from year ago.

“But that’s because they’re coming off such a low (year-ago) level,” King emphasized.

Sharing more on segment trends, the highest lease penetration was spotted in the compact premium conventional model (53 percent), which was up 4-percent month-over-month and 2-percent year-over-year.

Next on the list was the midsize utility segment at 27 percent. This marks a 7-percent sequential rise and a 64-percent gain from June 2010.

Leasing share for both the compact conventional and midsize conventional segments came in at 26 percent. For the compact conventional, this is a 2-percent drop from May and a 31-percent year-over-year rise. Midsize conventional vehicles were up 1 percent month-over-month and 5 percent year-over-year.

Penetration for midsize vans came in at 20 percent, down 2 percent year-over-year and up 9 percent from May.

Meanwhile, 19 percent of large conventional sales were leases, marking a 20-percent month-over-month hike and a 36-percent sequential gain.

Midsize CUVs had lease penetration of 18 percent, a 6-percent increase from May and a 28-percent spike over the year-ago period.

Next on the list were compact CUVs, where 16 percent of sales were leases. This represented a 1-percent gain over May and a 2-percent decline from June 2010.

Lease penetration for subcompact units was 7 percent, unchanged from May but an increase of 71 percent year-over-year. As for large pickups, their 5-percent lease penetration bested May’s level by 21 percent and the year-ago rate by 143 percent.