Used Vehicle Leasing? Alive and Well through Select Credit Unions.

For the last few years I have been engaged in pre-owned vehicle leasing, at least until there were no independent POL lenders left. When U.S. Bank pulled out of the pre-owned leasing space in 2008 my initiatives were shut down. The only lenders left were the high line captives primarily supporting their CPO initiatives. At least that is what I thought. Imagine my surprise when I found out about the credit unions engaged in pre-owned leasing through an organization called CULA, for Credit Union Leasing of America.

CULA credit unions are not yet in all 50 states but they are expanding rapidly. They are currently concentrated mostly in Colorado, the upper Midwest and in the Northeast. These credit unions also do new vehicle leasing, although their programs are not always competitive with strongly subvented captive programs. Sometimes the credit unions provide a compelling proposition using the OEM rebate and the CULA/credit union lease in lieu of the OEM provided interest rate. The CULA credit union residuals have strengthened recently as would be expected given the shortage of pre-owned inventory, the expected stability of oil prices, and the anticipated and promised discipline on the part of the OEMs to control of the temptation to oversell units to daily rental companies and fleets.

Does anyone know of any other lease lenders in the pre-owned space and which states they do business in?