D&M Auto Leasing opened its doors for business in 1976, and 40 years later, the company was named Dealer of Year for 2016. With offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, and Houston, D&M Auto Leasing is the largest auto leasing company in the country.
Zollie Frank, considered the creator of automobile leasing, began leasing cars in 1941. As the '40s wore on, both fleet and individual leases became popular.
Short-term rentals took off in the 1950s when Avis, Hertz, and National Car Rental introduced airport locations. In the 1960s, leasing became more attractive with the advent of the leveraged lease concept, in which the lessor benefited from a 100-percent tax credit for the full price of the leased equipment, and the savings were passed on to the lessee. Congress twice revoked this tax advantage before finally reinstating it for good in 1971.
Despite periodic legal, tax, and regulatory challenges, the auto leasing industry has always managed to overcome and even thrive in the American market. Numbers tell the story of the growth of auto leasing in the United States. Between 1965 and 1968, 774,000 vehicles were leased in fleet registrations each year. In 2016, 4.3 million vehicles were leased, representing a more than 550-percent increase since 1968.
