Drove the new Chrysler Sebring last weekend, and for the first time the curse of the rental car became crystal clear to me. Not because the Sebring comes off as an obvious rental car, but because it made me realize that -- in today's ultra-competitive market -- supplying fleets and rental car companies can be hazardous to your company's long-term bottom line. Some people try to defend the value of fleet sales, even if they negatively impact resale value and brand image. I mean, these companies need to buy cars from somebody, so why fight it? Take the guaranteed business and be happy about it, right? But driving the all-new Sebring raised another point that hadn't previously occurred to me -- one that now seems painfully obvious. A point that goes way beyond depreciation and image control.
Think about it, if you're an automaker and you know a large percentage of a given model will go to fleet sales, what are you going to be thinking at every decision point in the car's development and build process? If you're Honda or Toyota, and you know that relatively few Accords or Camrys are headed for fleet sales, you can be confident that the car's selling price will stay relatively close to MSRP. In fact, you have a great incentive to make sure the car will appeal to customers at MSRP, or sales will tank and you won't have another outlet by which to unload them. If your're GM or Chrysler or Ford, and you know a huge percentage of Malibus or Sebrings or Fusions will go to fleet sales, then you know you have to be able to sell a large volume of those cars at B-to-B (business-to-business) prices -- and still make a profit. That means keeping your costs as low as possible, which (in my guess-timation) means cutting corners you might not otherwise cut.
The new Sebring is actually pretty solid in terms of appearance, both inside and out. I like the exterior lines and proportions, and the cabin features several expensive-looking trim panels. Yeah, it's all plastic-fantastic once you start tapping and scratching things, but the look is easily as upscale as the Japanese competition. However, beyond the prettier pieces of metallic plastic on the door panels and dash, there are items lik the emergency breake handle that are as cheap looking and feeling as anything I've seen in the category. Worse, the mid-grade engine in our test car (a 2.7-liter, 190 horsepower V6) offers adequate performance but sub par refinement. After starting the car there is an excessive buzzing sound for several seconds (perhaps the starter spinning down?), and at higher RPMs there's simply too much vibration. Steering feel and precision is adequate, but not up to segment leaders. Chrysler is convinced that this mid-grade trim (there's also a 2.4-liter four-cylinder and a 3.5-liter V6) will be the volume selling model. They are probably right...but are those sales to private individuals or rental car agencies.
Bottom line -- this car will make a very nice rental car, but it can't match segment leaders in terms of build quality or refinement. One has to wonder if the domestic manufacturers realize they can't please all the customers all the time, and the guaranteed fleet sales are just too tempting to pass up. There's probably a business argument for that line of thinking, but in a world moving away from large trucks and SUVs it seems like the domestic makers should be going after the car market full force. Maybe there's a middle ground here. When Ford introduced the Fusion but kept the Taurus for fleet sales it made perfect sense to me. Perhaps the domestics should start a standard practice of using last generation vehicles for fleet sales and never letting current models be used for fleet purposes, at least not until the next generation version comes to market. Of course, that would only work if every manufacturer agreed to it. If, for example, Ford and GM went that route but Chrysler was willing to let their current models be used for fleet purposes they would probably get the bulk of the fleet business.
Either way, I'm betting Honda, Toyota and the other imports are happy to be free of the "fleet sales fix," despite the potentially lucrative (short term) aspects.
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