August 9, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
How leased and owned vehicles stack
up
Compared to vehicles owned by
consumers, leased vehicles are more likely to have air conditioning, automatic
transmissions, and four-wheel drive. Leased vehicles also are much more likely to have
been new when obtained by the consumer.
[Chart data—TXT]
Virtually all leased vehicles on the road in 1996 had air
conditioning; 98 percent were air conditioned, while 80 percent of owned vehicles had air
conditioning. There was less of a discrepancy between leased and owned vehicles regarding
transmissions—86 percent of leased vehicles had automatic transmissions, as did 76
percent of owned vehicles. The smallest difference between the two involved four-wheel
drive, which was present in 18 percent of leased vehicles and 11 percent of owned
vehicles.
Most leased vehicles were new when obtained by the lessor (93 percent), while less than
half of owned vehicles were new when purchased by the current owner (37 percent). On
average, owned vehicles were 7 1/2 years older than leased vehicles.
These data are a product of the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey
program. Additional information is available from "Consumer Expenditure Survey:
Quarterly Data from the Interview Survey, First Quarter 1997:Trends in Automobile
Leasing," BLS Report 930.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »