OEMs, dealers eye opportunities for consumer loans, flexible financing

OEMs and dealers are recognizing a need for more consumer financing and flexible offers to close deals as borrower profiles change to include a wider variety of consumers.  

Equipment finance and software investment is projected to rise at an annualized rate of 5.4% in the fourth quarter, culminating in a 9.9% increase in 2025, according to an Oct. 22 report by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation. 

Equipment finance originations jumped 4% month over month in September to $10.5 billion, marking three straight months of increases, according to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association.   

OEMs are seeing robust demand from consumers whose primary vocations are unrelated to equipment industries, prompting them to explore financing options for these customer types, Jeffrey Ratliff, director of sales and marketing for OEM Takeuchi, told Equipment Finance News at Equip Expo in Louisville, Ky., last week.  

Customers can include individuals who purchase equipment for personal use, for example those who run a small farm as a side business or operate construction equipment to maintain or renovate their property, he said.  

Dealer financing needs “are changing in the customer types that are buying,” he said. “We’ve seen more and more [agriculture] customers with small farms … getting into track loaders and excavators. … I think that we have to continue to find solutions for them.” 

Harley Brattain, former general manager of Aurora, Ore.-based Equipment NW, previously told EFN that sales would rise 30% if customers could get equipment financed for personal use.  

Flexible financing   

From skip payments to Terminal Rental Adjustment Clause leases, flexible financing has gained prevalence in 2025 in the wake of economic challenges and tariff uncertainty. 

Still, many dealers continue to seek new lender partners to accommodate various borrower profiles and present more options at the point of sale, Ernie DeWinne, president of San Antonio-based DeWinne Equipment Co., told EFN at the expo.  

Partnering with local banks and credit unions that have established relationships with new customers is one way to achieve this, DeWinne said.  

“If they’ve already got an account there, they’ve got an opportunity for financing,” he said. “We’re trying to work with some local financial companies to give more options to our customers.” 

DeWinne Equipment is also working with its OEM partners to diversify financing offers, DeWinne said. Outdoor power equipment manufacturer Gravely, for instance, has several options that are effective, “whether it be a lease or whether it be a simple-interest note or a compound interest,” he said. 

Furthermore, Gravely parent company AriensCo is recognizing the importance of flexibility while learning “what your customer is intrigued by,” Ariens Director of Credit Emily Hoyer told EFN. 

“You still have the customers that want the 0% [APR], but also the customers that want the low monthly payments,” she said. 

In fact, purchasing decisions are often more influenced by monthly-payment structures than the overall cost of a machine, DeWinne said. 

“We don’t start out necessarily at a sale price. We start at a finance price because there’s some fees involved,” he said. “Maybe it is a 48-month note at 2.99%, but if we go here, the price changes. … A lot of them are just looking at the payments.” 

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