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Automakers are running from lease deals as fast as they can, but customers are snapping up the last available leases. On July 27, Chrysler announced that it would stop offering leases in the United States on August 1. In the last four days in which customers could qualify for a Chrysler lease, an almost unprecedented number of car shoppers signed a new lease deal..

Crain’s Detroit Business reports, "Dealers wrote leases last week in record numbers in an effort to move as many vehicles as possible before Chrysler’s Aug. 1 deadline."

Paul Steel, who operates three Chrysler dealerships in Michigan, told the Wall Street Journal "It has been a frenzy. Everyone is trying to get in now on a three-year lease hoping that Chrysler Financial will get back in the game by the time their lease is done." Steel kept dealerships open until midnight through each of the last four days of leasing.

Tom DeHaan, the sales manager at Courtesy Chrysler in Grand Rapids, Michigan told ABC affiliate WZZM that his dealership’s sales goal for the month of July "was made in just the last four days."

The surge in leasing has helped dealers move 2008 models off of their lots, but the news may not all be good for dealerships. The WSJ says the change "may indicate that some people are buying sooner than they otherwise would have, suggesting sales in coming months could suffer."

Dealers looking to make alternative lease arrangements with banks "will likely be disappointed," Crain’s speculates. Bankers "say they have enough on their plates trying to deal with nonperforming commercial and residential real estate loans already in their portfolios without expanding into another troubled line of business."

Leasing may be dead at Chrysler, but you can still research the best Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles for purchase with U.S. News’ car rankings and reviews.