Mazda5: 44% fleet sales in US

Wow...Those are some very interesting stats....Can't believe Honda & Toyota sell so many vehicles in NA compared to other brands......Unbelievable.
 
This really scares me. Our resale will be horrible if they keep this up!! I know why they do it, the 5 is the perfect vehicle for a family on vacation, but it really cheapens people's impression of a vehicle if they see it on rental lots. No wonder they don't advertise the 5 at all, they just plan to sell it to rental companies and not the general public. This really ticks me off.
 
I can. Most Toyotas and Hondas are assembled in North America.

The 4Runner numbers are high for a Japanese assembled Toyota, but that can be attributed to making too many with V8 engines when most people know a Hybrid is on the way. Toyota probably "dumped" what they could at an attractive price.
 
opus said:
This really scares me. Our resale will be horrible if they keep this up!! I know why they do it, the 5 is the perfect vehicle for a family on vacation, but it really cheapens people's impression of a vehicle if they see it on rental lots. No wonder they don't advertise the 5 at all, they just plan to sell it to rental companies and not the general public. This really ticks me off.
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You're right about the stigma this attaches to the 5; however I plan to enjoy mine regardless of what people think or say about it.
 
Mazda is probably dumping the 5 inventory (into rentals) based on sales numbers. With that in mind, more people may actually buy one based on how much they enjoyed the rental.

Personally. I hope the numbers stay low. I don't plan on getting rid of mine, nor do I wish to see many others on the road. I like having something different.

opus said:
This really scares me. Our resale will be horrible if they keep this up!! I know why they do it, the 5 is the perfect vehicle for a family on vacation, but it really cheapens people's impression of a vehicle if they see it on rental lots. No wonder they don't advertise the 5 at all, they just plan to sell it to rental companies and not the general public. This really ticks me off.
Click to expand...
 
Surprising to me. All the 5s I see have a dealer plate or sticker on them.

I thought projected sales were around 10,000, so midyear retail sales of 4300 doesn't sound all that bad. Having a stick-shift Sport without even a CD changer, I'm expecting basically zero resale value.

Could be worse. We could be driving Dodge Avengers. I also feel sorry for the 734 saps that bought Tauri this year (didn't even know it was possible). The one car that really surprised me was the Volvo S40, at 37.5%. Didn't know it was possible to rent one.

As for the low sales volume, other people don't know what they're missing. Bring on US $4/gallon gas and maybe things will start changing.
 
I think you got it wrong

opus said:
This really scares me. Our resale will be horrible if they keep this up!! I know why they do it, the 5 is the perfect vehicle for a family on vacation, but it really cheapens people's impression of a vehicle if they see it on rental lots. No wonder they don't advertise the 5 at all, they just plan to sell it to rental companies and not the general public. This really ticks me off.
Click to expand...

Mazda isn't "dumping" 5's they are using rental car companies to get people to buy them. Mazda knows a test drive isn't enough to push someone, they have to be behind the wheel for an extended period of time to really appreciate the attributes of a particular car. Part of what pushed me to buy a 3 was the experience I had driving a rental. Although I test drove a 3 three times, it was the two days I spent with the rental that pushed me over the edge.

Mazda's approach is smart and resell has nothign to do with whether a car is in a rental fleet or not. Toyota plants millions of Camrys and Corollas as rentals. And it doesn't seem to kill their resale. Ironically my time with a Camry rental soured me on the car. Sure at first the car seemed solid and drove smoothly, but after a week behind the wheel over 1000 miles, I hated that car's numb steering, overly soft ride and boring interior.
 
Antonio DiMarco said:
Mazda isn't "dumping" 5's they are using rental car companies to get people to buy them. Mazda knows a test drive isn't enough to push someone, they have to be behind the wheel for an extended period of time to really appreciate the attributes of a particular car. Part of what pushed me to buy a 3 was the experience I had driving a rental. Although I test drove a 3 three times, it was the two days I spent with the rental that pushed me over the edge.

Mazda's approach is smart and resell has nothign to do with whether a car is in a rental fleet or not. Toyota plants millions of Camrys and Corollas as rentals. And it doesn't seem to kill their resale. Ironically my time with a Camry rental soured me on the car. Sure at first the car seemed solid and drove smoothly, but after a week behind the wheel over 1000 miles, I hated that car's numb steering, overly soft ride and boring interior.
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According to the numbers, for 2007 alone there's approximately 177,000 people out there who may disagree with you (burnout).....I however agree with you having driven my father-in-laws 2005 Camry.
 
antlind said:
Wow...Those are some very interesting stats....Can't believe Honda & Toyota sell so many vehicles in NA compared to other brands......Unbelievable.
Click to expand...

Not really too Unbelievable. Both Toyota and Honda are typically the choice for reliability. Priced ideally for Middle class families. FS-DE (ugh) My family has been with Toyota for 20+ years now, before that it was a Fiat. But that was on a different Continent. :)
 
Rental experience worked for my brother. He was away on business with a bunch of coworkers and equipment and ended up getting a 5 as his rental vehicle. Turns out he loved it. Bought one for the family when he got home.
 
When a car becomes a staple on a rental car lot (ie, Cavalier, Impala, Neon, PT Cruiser, etc), people's conception of that car, right or wrong, becomes negative as it's viewed a mass produced pile of poo... just something that the manufacturers are cranking out in high volume. I don't know how to explain it really, and that may just be my personal view on it.
 
Rocket said:
I don't see how fleet sales hurt resale. I don't see why it is negative. Someone will have to school me...
Click to expand...

Supply and demand: if there's a flood of freshly used, low-mileage vehicles on the market, prices and resale value drop. This certainly could affect the Mazda5 as there aren't many vehicles sold at retail to begin with.

It's a big problem for vehicles such as the prior Ford Taurus and current Chevy Impala, both of which sold a majority of vehicles to fleets. Some of these freshly used cars show up in the newspaper ads as "Program Cars".
 
Let's look at the good news here.

First, the Mazda5 is listed as a 'Subcompact Car' and not a 'Minivan'!

Second, the Mazda6 doesn't fare much better.

And third, 44% fleet sales of the Chrysler 300 haven't ruined it's image.
 
I dunno, I get people saying "I rented one of those when I was in <x>, and it was really nice..."
 
Methinks starlightmica has a better handle on the situation than I did :)

Anyways, here's one major point to consider. While yeah, the percentage of total sales to fleet is high for the 5, the total amount of cars is still very low... this is still a rare car relatively speaking. The Chevy Cobalt has a similar Fleet percentage as the 5, but there's also literally 10x the number of them on the road. Even though the 5 is growing in popularity, it will never be in the same ballpark of say, the PT Cruiser.
 
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