This may be a natural progression of things anyway. Fleets don't just mean "rental car lots", they also mean corporate and government fleets. Because cars last much longer than they did, I'm sure that many government agencies are making do with their older cars much longer. Being somewhat active in my local government, I know that the cities around where I live can't afford to do planned fleet replacements because they're spending that budget on fuel now.
Oh yeah - when they do a replacement, a lot of cities are buying hybrid Priuses, Civics, and Escapes (although they pretty much buy from whatever dealerships happen to be located within city bounds). These vehicles make a lot of sense for a lot of tasks that involve a lot of short trips around town (building inspectors, health and safety inspectors, city engineers, etc).
Oh yeah - when they do a replacement, a lot of cities are buying hybrid Priuses, Civics, and Escapes (although they pretty much buy from whatever dealerships happen to be located within city bounds). These vehicles make a lot of sense for a lot of tasks that involve a lot of short trips around town (building inspectors, health and safety inspectors, city engineers, etc).
