Leasing can give powersports dealers another option for getting customers into new models, even if they don’t want or qualify for traditional financing.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase, especially in the past five to six years, in dealers looking for something else,” Laura Middendorf, chief financial officer at Horsepower Financial Services, said last week at Powersports Finance Summit 2026 in Atlanta.
Horsepower, which specializes in leasing motorcycles, off-road vehicles and side-by-sides, sees that option as complementary to traditional financing, Middendorf said.
While powersports lenders often extend competitive consumer offers, those deals don’t always position dealers for repeat business, she said, adding that leasing is sometimes an alternative.
Volume growth relies on stable asset values to keep lease terms attractive.
Powersports residual values are up 3.4% year-to-date versus last year, with 2025 values roughly comparable to 2019, Scott Yarbrough, market intelligence consultant at National Powersport Auctions, said at the summit.
Residual value performance varied across key segments YTD, according to Yarbrough:
- Campers and fifth-wheel values are up 3.7%;
- Watercraft values are up 2.3%;
- Sport bike values are up 1.4%; and
- RV values are down 1.2%.
“If the industry wants to move to leasing, the best thing in the world is increased residual values,” Yarbrough said. “Anything that can be done to drive up the value of the used vehicle will minimize the amount that a customer is paying to lease.”
Lease deal add-ons
A vital part of lender-dealer collaboration is enabling dealers to structure customized consumer lease deals that incorporate profitable back-end products, such as GAP, Middendorf said.
“That’s another area of profit for the dealer while they’re getting squeezed on bike prices right now,” she said. “They can make some of that up.”
Encouraging those add-ons is important for Horsepower, too, because it owns the asset in question.
“We are keen to protect it because it’s ours until the consumer buys it, so we encourage the dealers to have it,” she said.
Stay up to date with all the news from Powersports Finance Summit 2026 here.
