GM Boosted September Results With Fleet Sales; Malibu Was Only 47% Retail

[ByTheLake]

Originally Posted by Ambalanche

I've seen a ton of Malibu's in rental fleets lately.

Maybe that's not entirely bad. The Malibu is a good product, and if GM can't get non-GM drivers to consider its vehicles, perhaps if they spend a few days in a Malibu (as a rental) it would reflect positively on GM.

[RadRiv455]

Originally Posted by dindak

I have seen a ton of Camry's in rental lots and cab fleets lately also.

I was in Philly a couple of weeks ago and my choices were Volvo or an Aura at National Rental Car...I chose the Aura.

But I've been seeing very odd cars/trucks at rental agencies lately (meaning non-GM/Ford/Chrysler). GM has really stepped away from this business...but a company has to do what it has to do...

But a Volvo at a rental car agency???

[benroethig]

Originally Posted by civilzues

I thought the Malibu fleet was the the classic? Am I wrong or is GM producing both?

For one year. The remaining Malibu classics are gone. Also, any vehicle can be purchased fleet. Selling to fleet is not necessarily a bad thing, selling to fleet with discounts is.

[cincygoblue]

EVERY article about fleet sales, always has statements like "fleet sales were up x%" and "rental fleet sales are low profit sales" or "rental fleet sales can hurt resale". No one said that most of these vehicles were to RENTAL fleets. Many may have been, but lots of company vehicles get sold as fleet sales, as well as government and others. Fleet doesn't necessarily mean rental.

Also, perhaps there has been unsatisfied demand in both the rental and non-rental fleet segments. Maybe retail sales have been so strong that GM couldn't commit to fleet contracts until they knew retail customers were getting what they needed. Maybe this is a 1 month, easy to do, dump to meet fleet demand. AND if the rental fleet sales were the upscale models, they could actually help improve perceptions and lead to more retail sales. AND if they were upscale models, perhaps GM made some decent profit on every one.

This could actually be a good thing. We just don't know the details.

[Evo69]

Too many people on this board equate fleet sales as if its only sales to rental companies.

There are large corporations and govt. depts who uses and need sedans for their employees and now is the time for replacements and new buys.

What would dismay me in the utmost is if those large institutions started to buy large fleets of foreign makes, that would be bad news IMO.

[nsap]

I think something is missing here. I am quite certain that some of those rental/fleet sales were the OLD Malibu. I'm sure there are still some classics on the market.

[paul8488]

What troubles me more than the high percentage is the actual number of Malibu retail sales for the month of September... under 10,000. Honda can hit over 40,000 units per month, and they always have very low fleet numbers. 10,000 per month is way too low for GM's best midsize car ever.

[civilzues]

Originally Posted by benroethig

For one year. The remaining Malibu classics are gone. Also, any vehicle can be purchased fleet. Selling to fleet is not necessarily a bad thing, selling to fleet with discounts is.

thanks for the info!

Originally Posted by nsap

I think something is missing here. I am quite certain that some of those rental/fleet sales were the OLD Malibu. I'm sure there are still some classics on the market.

I would have to agree w/you. why would they fleet, OVRE 50%, last years NACOTY. makes no sense.

[squat]

GM is increasing fleet sales while chrysler is trying to reduce theirs. I wonder which strategy is the best, obviously on paper it looks like GM since they increase their sales numbers but what are the long term effects?

[Bigbee60]

The Classic Malibu stopped production at the first of the year. I doubt any are still being sold to fleet as the 2008 production run was very small.

For 2009, the new Malibu has an LS trim 1FL package specifically for fleet sales. As noted above, these are not meant to be rental car company specials, but are meant for sales rep. type sales. The 1FL package has either the ohc 2.4L I-4 or ohv 3.5L V-6 engines mated to the 4 speed automatic transmission. Lots of options are available and these models are not strippers. As someone noted above, they also come at a fair price point and are not dumped as loss leaders. I walk by a fleet garage in Queens and have seen quite a few of the new bodystyle Malibus in white being prepped for service the last few weeks. This is the turnover season for most large fleets. GM puts out a very detailed fleet brochure each spring that highlights the upcoming year models available to fleet buyers. It's not all low rent stuff either - fleet customers can buy the Corvette ZR-1.

[ericmvest]

Apparently General Motors is not the only one selling core product to fleet sales. I rented from Hertz five out of the last six weeks in two different airports and saw many Corollas and Camrys.

[Cortazzo]

Originally Posted by dederer

The real issue is did GM make money from the sales of this vehicle? Toyota stopped manufacturing vehicles becuase of low sales, but GM kept selling at reduced prices. Who lost the most money?

I work at a very large rental company, Toyota sells us tons of cars, and they usually aren't the most expensive.

[ZOOMY]

Originally Posted by Evo69

Too many people on this board equate fleet sales as if its only sales to rental companies.

There are large corporations and govt. depts who uses and need sedans for their employees and now is the time for replacements and new buys.

What would dismay me in the utmost is if those large institutions started to buy large fleets of foreign makes, that would be bad news IMO.

I agree, not every single month of sales is going to be 10K cars to fleet. It would be terrible if all these fleet companies and government bought Camrys. The other thing is that as rental cars this is some of the best advertising GM can get even if they aren't making much on these cars. People will look at a rental car lot and think "Gosh they have all these _____ cars so those must be good." If all they have is Camrys and they see them in their neighbors driveway too the thinking will be that they are just the must have car. I would rather them feel that way about the Malibu. I rented a G6 and if I were in the market for a new car I would seriously consider one based on my experience. I'll pay more for a different rental before I rent a foreign car.

[zete]

It's also US government year end. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

[racy]

Originally Posted by paul8488

What troubles me more than the high percentage is the actual number of Malibu retail sales for the month of September... under 10,000. Honda can hit over 40,000 units per month, and they always have very low fleet numbers. 10,000 per month is way too low for GM's best midsize car ever.

+1

GM is going to have to fight tooth and nail to get into the midsize club with high sales numbers.

For those worrying about September, just wait 'till October. Most economists think we haven't hit bottom yet.