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REPORT: Dollar Thrifty to cut percentage of Chrysler products from as much as 76% to 30%
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, known in the retail world as Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental, will be buying about 40,000 fewer Chryslers than it did last year. Previously, the company was contractually bound to ensure that 75% of its fleet was composed of Chrysler vehicles. After the bankruptcy kerfuffle, the contract has been revised to compel Dollar Thrifty to purchase a new minimum number of vehicles, and the company is using the freedom to increase its model mix.
Instead of being so Pentastar-heavy, from now on, Reuters says that Dollar Thrifty's fleet figures to be 30% Chrysler, 34% Ford, 20% General Motors, 6% Nissan, and 10% left over for Hyundai and Kia. The model mix transition should also help Dollar Thrifty stabilize the income from fleet sales; the company took a beating when the residuals market took a dump, especially due to the fact that it was trying to flog so many products from a company thought to have a dubious future.
All three domestics have talked about getting away from low-margin fleet buyers for some time now. Still, the 40,000 hit to Chrysler's sales still probably isn't the best of news – Chrysler didn't want to get this far away from fleets.
[Source: Reuters]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex 9:18AM (10/14/2009)
Just got back from a trip with the little lady. We rented from Thrifty and were to get a Dodge Caliber or similar vehicle. You can imagine my relief when we were given a Subaru Impreza.
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Kumar 9:28AM (10/14/2009)
Not surprised. It was good for a while to have rental companies with a majority brand. I could count on using a car rental as a test drive too.
I wonder if Thrifty is adding Subies nationwide. It seems that Budget has them sometimes, and it's purely regional for Enterprise.
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Frank 9:38AM (10/14/2009)
I don't know about Dollar but Thrifty was previously owned by Chrysler, similar to how Ford controlled Hertz. Those ties were severed some years ago and now that C11 has ended the old contract of 75% Chrysler purchase it's a good move for them to diversify.
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AngeloD 9:50AM (10/14/2009)
Now Chrysler is going to have to build cars that last more than 60K miles, and have car interiors that customers can stand for more than 3 days.
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Andre Neves 10:04AM (10/14/2009)
Are the rental-car interiors on some of their cars getting too cheap for the rental companies?
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ChaoZ 10:43AM (10/14/2009)
Maybe they're just tired of dealing with customers cutting their hands on the crappy plastic.
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montoym 11:36AM (10/14/2009)
I'll admit that I won't miss the base model Dodge Journey they gave me a few months back. That thing was one of the worst vehicles I've ever driven. It couldn't get out of its own way if it were in a free fall. That was at sea level too, no less, I'd hate to see how much more gutless that thing could be at 6000ft where I live in CO. Not to mention the bargain basement interior, lack of a 3rd row, weak stereo etc.
It was also a strange rental in general. My coworker and I really didn't want a PT Cruiser which they threatened us with. I eventually talked them into the Journey(talk about rock and a hard place) after the lady from Thrifty actually turned against the PT Cruiser as well (which was almost comical). She even brought up the fact that the PT didn't even have Cruise Control. Sadly, she forgot to mention that the Journey didn't either.
I will stand up for the Journey a bit though, I rented another a few weeks later from Enterprise and it was an SXT with the V6, the difference was immense. This one had cruise control (how any car can omit this anymore is anyone's guess), had power, had a much better stereo(with Sirius), had a 3rd row seat (which we actually used). I actually didn't mind driving that one.
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Smokem 1:05PM (10/14/2009)
Chrysler is just doing what they're good at doing which is making rental cars.
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Brad 12:50PM (10/14/2009)
I use Dollar about once a month, and am always thrilled when I can nab a Fusion instead of one of the lonely Sebrings, or worse, those damn PT Cruisers.
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imoore 12:57PM (10/14/2009)
I'm suprised Dollar Thrifty is still in business. I thought they disappeared years ago.
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NicksGarage 1:39PM (10/14/2009)
I usually rent from Thrifty or Dollar because I WANT to drive a Chrysler
product. Problem is that the last few times they try to stick me in
something else. Last time it was a Kia Rondo which would have been ok
but it didn't have a covered luggage area. I had a lot of driving to do
with my computer and camera equipment and that wouldn't have been too
safe. Had to struggle to get them to give me an Avenger which I was
throroughly pleased with over 600 miles that weekend.
One of the other companies said I'd have to upgrade to a full-size car
in order to get one with a trunk, they offered up the Toyota Corolla as
a full-size! I've rented those before and they are not full size. People
need to remember that rental car companies are the ones who order the
cars stripped down, it's not the manufacturers doing.
Disclosure: I own several Chrysler products including old muscle cars
and a PT Cruiser daily driver.
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Larry 5:02PM (10/14/2009)
Hmm, maybe Thrifty/Dollar could be a way to introduce the NA public to Fiats ...
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Joey Mazz 5:41PM (10/14/2009)
There goes the only business that Chrysler had...
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