Ford And GM Rollback Rental Car Fleet Sales And Allow Asian Automakers To Step In

For decades, the rental-car market served as a security blanket for the Detroit 3. Weak sales month? Just dump some cars onto Enterprise or Avis lots to prop up the totals.

But over the past few years, General Motors and Ford Motor Co. have become less reliant on that profit-eroding habit, according to a review of industrywide rental sales data by Automotive News. Picking up the slack has been a mix of Asian automakers -- most notably Hyundai-Kia, and to a lesser extent Nissan and Toyota. American Honda's fleet business is negligible.

The chaos of often-sporadic bulk sales to rental companies distinguishes the rental market from the more predictable and profitable commercial and government segments of the fleet business.

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skytop - 12/14/2015 3:48:01 PM

0 Boost

You mean I will be able to rent a new Acura NSX or Nissan GT-R from my local car rental store?

jameswisrik - 12/15/2015 7:30:49 AM

-1 Boost

Good....never did like Ford/GM that pretend to be made in USA...but were really made in Canada/Mexico any way

MDarringer - 12/15/2015 8:53:04 AM

-2 Boost

Sales are sales and even fleet sales make a profit, so conceding sales is counterintuitive.

TomM - 12/15/2015 10:25:26 AM

+3 Boost

General motors has already has several models that are reaching production limits in the USA - especially the New Mid-Size Trucks - and GM profit margins are the highest they have been in decades. Conceding lower profit sales to be in favor of production of highly profitable models is the correct business model - and that is what GM is doing. Both low end cars - the Cruze and the Malibu are being replaced - and that should only support this model as well. But - it is not as if GM cannot decide to make a sale to Rental Companies - it is more like they don't have cars available that they need to. (Except maybe at Cadillac - but that is a different world)