Consumer Car Buying Advice Blog

In a conference call this afternoon, Jim Press, Vice Chairman and President of Chrysler LLC announced that due to dropping residual values, particularly on trucks and SUV’s, Chrysler Credit will no longer lease vehicles.

Transition plans have not been finalized

While plans have yet to be finalized regarding the transition period during which training will take place for dealer sales personnel, Press intimated that a “bridge plan” would be put into place to allow dealers to transition from leasing offered by Chrysler Credit to other lending institutions.

Leasing will end August 1st

While details have yet to be finalized on the transition plans, the cutoff date for leasing has been set for the end of July. According to company spokesman Bill Porter, “Effective August first we will no longer offer lease products in the United States.

Although the announcement came as a surprise, Chrysler, among the U.S. automakers, has been especially hard hit by the move in vehicle sales from trucks and SUV’s to small cars.

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