CARY, N.C. –
During his first quarterly conference call as chief economist at Cox Automotive, Jonathan Smoke chuckled for a moment when an investment analyst from Goldman Sachs asked about the rate consumers are keeping the vehicles they had just spent anywhere from 24 to 36 months leasing.
“Thanks for asking the most difficult thing to quantify in the entire marketplace,” Smoke said during the call on July 10. “We wish we had a precise number because it clearly has an impact on what we see at auction and what we see with the pricing dynamics.”
