Bye Bye, PT Cruiser: Imports Take The Rental Car Crown
Anytime we have to rent a car, we’re pretty certain that our keys will be used to unlock and operate a domestic vehicle, but for the first time ever, car rental companies are actually filling their fleets with more import autos. That means you’ve got a better chance of scoring something from outside the nifty fifty—for better or for worse.
According to numbers released by the trade rag Automotive Fleet, only 48.8 percent of new cars heading to the rental lot came from General Motors, Chrysler, or Ford. We didn’t take too many math classes in college, but we know that means more than 50 percent of rental cars now come from overseas. Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, and Nissan are just some of the new kids on the block—guess that means no more Pontiac G6s for us.
The new king of the market is the Nissan Altima, as businesses look to stock cars that customers actually want to drive and will maintain value over time. As Americans look overseas more and more to get around town, the rental companies have started to do the same.
Some car companies have even jumped head-first into getting their products into the rental market. Hyundai has thirty percent of its US sales going to rental fleets in hopes that they can seduce some new customers. We don’t know how we feel about this whole changing of the guard, but at least there will be less PT Cruisers and their ilk on the road.
Related Stories:
· Imports Claim Car Rental Market [Chicago Tribune]
· Hertz Cars Will Freshen Up Using New-Fangled, Odor-Busting Technology [Jaunted]
· Cars coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Bleuchol]
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