the funny thing about ford products is they change a little here and there and call it a milan or a zephyr *shrugs* i personally like some of the design cues from all 3 of the variations...now if they can put all that's good about the 3 cars into one...they just might be onto something

 

Funny thing about Toyota products... change a little here and there and call it an ES.

 

^^^agreed...i think the domestic automakers are tend to cross use their platforms a lot more than the others...at least it's more apparent.

 

A few years ago a Honda dealer told me that Honda management had taken a long look at our market early in their US campaign, and decided not to sell to the rental agencies . . . Two reasons he said:

• Competition for the Hertz/Avis/National/Budget fleets is so strong that these vehicles are sold in huge lots - at or below actual cost. The automakers see rental fleets as large pools of test drivers - the travelling businessman (the kind of folks they want to attract) upper middle class adults, with good jobs, stable credit, etc. The more of this demographic they can put behind the wheel of their car for a day or two each year, the more they will sell to individual buyers. They take a loss on each fleet vehicle and write it off to advertising . . . causing the second problem:
  
  
• With thousands of these ultra-cheap cars flooding the "used" market after only a couple years service, they literally crush the market value of their customer's trade-ins. If the car they sold Avis for $21K this year hits the used market in two years at even $16K, the same car you paid $30K for two years later will not be worth what you think it should be - its got some really low-priced competition out there on the fleet resale lots.

Now that Honda rep was probably overstating the case when he said that the company was protecting the investment of their owners. More likely they don't want to get into a bidding war, take a loss on the original fleet sales and jerk the rug out from under the cars on their "pre-owned" lot. They may not have the market exposure the rental fleets give, but they saw it as an acceptable trade-off to maintain profitable pricing and lower depreciation.

I don't know that this is still the case, but it makes perfect sense. You sure don't see many Hondas (or Toyotas either) in rental fleets today.

 

Fine, Lil...but the original comment I made concerned the possible effect of fleet-sales and rental markets on the Fusion's potential sales figures, not Honda's or Toyota's. Ford, unlike these two companies, sells actively to fleet-sales customers and that, of course, helped bump up the Taurus sales figures for years. The thread dealt with the Fusion's sales figures so far exceeding demand and projections, and I suggested this as one possible reason why.

As far as the high residual values of used Accords and Camrys go, I think it is a matter more of their general build quality, their excellent reputations, and the general public acceptance of these two vehicles as used cars as well as new that keeps their values up....not necessarily how many of them are sold to rental-car agencies.