Customer Satisfaction With Rental Cars Declines as Fleet Ages

US automakers, especially Ford, have been cutting back on less profitable fleet sales, targeting rental car companies.

Chevy's lame-duck 2007 Malibu sold almost as well to fleets as to private buyers.

Rental fleet sales flood the market, undermining residual values, and damaging brand equity.

Ford said recently that the company will meet its goal of a 30 percent reduction in sales to rental fleets this year, cutting production by 135,000 vehicles.

GM's recent drop in market share from 28 percent, to around 24 percent today, is partially due to reduced rental fleet sales.

I have been thinking negative results would be turning up in the car rental business, and the latest J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Rental Car Satisfaction Study confirms this.

Decreased availability of new rental cars is forcing fleets to retain vehicles longer, charge higher prices, and cut costs and service.

Consumers voiced their dissatisfaction about higher mileage cars, especially appearance, in the Power survey. Rentals get lots of scuffing, which is a major profit generator for the rental business.

A big benefit of the airport car rental was the brand new car, presumably clean and reliable.

The eight leading rental brands all had declining year-over-year overall customer satisfaction scores.

JD Power's Overall Satisfaction Index scores;