According to an article on Autoremarketing taken from online retailer swapalease.com, customer credit approvals increased by 27% in 2012 from 2011.  The biggest increase came in the final 60 days of the year where approvals jumped more than $55 compared to the same time frame in 2011.

With customer credit being a critical factor for most dealerships it will be very interesting to see if this trend continues in the first and second quarter of 2013 in light of the increase in payroll taxes and effects of the fiscal cliff.

The second half of 2012 showed the largest growth in the last 36 months of credit approvals according to US banking sources.