They’ll probably round it to so they reduce fleets a total of around 200,000.

Its good news for buyers of Ford products because the resale value of those products will go up.

Would it be economically feasible for companies to produce rental-only vehicles? There’d be no resale value issues and, possibly, a low but steady income. Manufacturers could even resurrect some old marques but with fresh, mildly exciting (read: inexpensive) designs.

thank god…i wanna kick my Taurus company car every time i sit in it…but it was better than a PT Cruiser

This is a good move.
Bryce: That’s a great question. I think a company could use one platform and make cop cars, taxis and rentals from it profitably.

The Taurus was a good, solid car, but it just became synonymous with “rental,” or even worse, “government.”

New rental cars shoudn’t even get a model name just “here’s your key, it’s a green FORD, a tan BUICK, a beige HONDA.”

I have been suggesting something similar to what you said for a while. I just don’t know if its possible. General Motors is sort of doing it by keeping the older versions of some models and calling it ‘Classic’. Cars such as the Malibu Classic that go to fleets only. I think it’s a good idea. The Crown VIc practically was fleet-only, I don’t know why they ever tried to sell it to consumers.

the Taurus was NOT a solid car!! my 2006 tends to go where it wants to on the highway and if you wanna pass someone, you better give it a few extra seconds to do so. The steering input is DEAD…dead like 90 year old trying to screw….it just doesnt happen! and it likes to downshift when u dont want it too….but like i said…it was probally better than a PT Cruiser…even though im a Mopar fan

Commodore, they sold it to consumers because it cost them next to nothing. Throw some different wheels on it and maybe a leather interior if youre feeling fancy and o wow you have a poor mans town car.

sik: a guy tried to sell me a Taurus with 285,000 miles on it!

sik – 06 tauruses arent good. If anyone ever mentions the Taurus as a good car they are probly talking about the first few generations, not the recent ones. Recent ones are crap, which is why they went fleet only and eventually out of production. Maybe your car was a formal rental or something if you bought it used? I am hoping the 08 ends up being a bit better.

Thank god their cutting the losers in their business plan. Daily rentals do not build consumer interest in the vehicle, they only decline the value of that vehicle. Honda has never jumped into that arena, and look where they are! Slk- your 2006 Taurus may be one of those friday units built, but by in large, 2000-2007 model years are identical in drivetrain and interior feel. The grill and dash was changed in 2006, but it was a rental car only by then anyway. In the book “the millionare next door”, a two year old Ford Taurus was the car found most often in the driveway of millionares. That was because they were a huge bargain at 1/2 value after 2 years and quite reliable. Get your boss to fix the car and drive it until that new Chrysler come into the company fleet…no more cheap fleet Fords. The new Taurus is 5000 dollars more!

no i got the car brand new with 7 miles on it. the 2006’s were only fleet cars you are right, but that still no excuse for building a xxxxxx car like this is. they did improve on the one aspect of the car though. i had a 2004 as a temporary car until my ‘06 came in, and they moved the shifter from the steering column to the center console, which was a good thing because it made a big clunk when it shifted into gear when it was on the column.
when i realized that the car was a total POS, i just decided to beat it to the ground and put as many free miles on it as i could. i put 45k miles in one year driving…and it didnt cost me a dime. i just need 10k more miles to get our next car, a Audi A4

I have to drive cars often at my dealership (including Fords) and I absolutely HATE the column shifters. Try to put it in reverse, and you get drive because it moves down too easily. Try to put it back up into reverse, and then it sticks on neutral. I guess at least getting to drive is easier.. but you’re right, the only Taurus that’s really drivable would be one with the floor-mounted shifter.

yeah with the column shifter it was easy to do neutral drops…which is the only way to get it to burn out, usually unintentionally.

Regarding rental only cars:
I bet that developing and marketing rental-only cars wouldn’t add up for the bean counters. It would mostly depend on the deals that could be struck with the rental companies. Right now, the word is that sales to rental companies are not too profitable, probably because the auto maker can’t recoup enough profit per car on big-volume deals. I’m sure Ford would make some theoretical profit for every Taurus sold to Hertz, but would that offset the increased warranty work demanded by the rental wear-and-tear or the company’s desire to recoup more profit per vehicle just to overcome its general financial straits? If the profit margin is low, then the company would be better off to focus its volume on non-rental sales.
And the beauty of capitalism is: if it could be profitable to sell rental-only lines of cars, changes are an American company would have tried it already.

SEEMS AS IF ITS NOT PROFITABLE.

The old Taurus’s? I own a first gen. Taurus station wagon, and aside from the rat fur carpeting, it’s an amazing car. Transporting people, camping, it does everything.
The new ones though I’m not crazy about. I sat in one- not a bad car, but I would choose other offerings over it.

It would be profitable to continue older generation cars and sell them to rental fleets only, such as they did with the Taurus for some time. That way it doesn’t interfere with resale value for the new generation, and you still get to drive the “nameplate” although not the actual generation.

Of course, there’s problems with that too, but fewer than selling new models in large numbers to rental agencies.

There may be too many discerning renters who wouldn’t dare to temporarily drive around in a non-mainstream product. I think it’s foolish but that’s the mindset a lot of us have these days. We’re too good to be seen driving something that no one’s heard of, even if it’s only for a day.