Who's Buying Those Cars?

When you're shopping for a new vehicle, what criteria makes it to your list of important things to have? For some, that new vehicle must have every safety feature. For others, its all about the creature comforts or style. Still others shop solely on price so they're looking at interest rates, monthly payments and cost of ownership.

There is one other consideration that ought be on that list of 'must-haves' and that's to take a look at who is buyer of that car? I'm not refering to demographics or marketing programs. I'm talking about rental fleet companies.

Fleet companies buy in volume. They don't buy just one single car, they buy dozens at a time and because they buy such quantities they are able to negotiate tremendous discounts that are not available to the average buyer.

You may ask how this affects you when you're looking at a car? Initially it doesn't, not until you drive that vehicle off the lot. The problem comes when fleet companies sell those vehicles that have been used and abused. Rental fleet companies flood the auctions with used rental vehicles and they command a much lower aksing prices. In other words, they drive down the value of that car or truck. That's when it becomes bad news for the consumer who looks to trade their vehicle in a few years or return a lease only to find they have lost significant value in their vehicle.

Honda does not have special pricing for rental fleet companies. That is one of the reasons why they command respectable resale value. When you consider for example that the Honda Civic has been Canada's best selling car for 13 years in a row, it becomes even more impressive when you consider that they reach those numbers one buyer at a time.

So next time you are shopping for a vehicle look to see who the buyers are; you may find that they are much different than you!