Black Book--while expanding its services to the remarketing and fleet industries--will provide used-vehicle data to Enterprise Fleet Management. Black Book will offer current and short-term future values and will examine every vehicle remarketed by Enterprise. Black Book will benchmark the results against current values.
More than 40 attorneys general are asking the Federal Trade Commission to require dealers to include a car history for all used vehicles. Dealers worry the extra regulations will lead to more lawsuits. AGs say Wisconsin already has similar measure, so should all other states.
The credit crunch is affecting new vehicle orders by the rental car companies. Rental companies are having trouble getting financing for inventories, and franchise dealers are finding it difficult to get financing to buy used rental vehicles. This is troubling for the Detroit-3 who typically sell 15% of their new cars and trucks to rental companies.
Avis is cutting jobs, closing off-airport locations, reducing fleet size, and restructuring depts to cut costs. It acquired $2.45B in extended financing which will permit it to buy replacement vehicles through a deal with GM.