Micra rentals

[MetroMPG]

As mentioned in the "Micras spotted in the wild" thread, the last Micra I saw turned out to be a rental car.

This one came from the local Enterprise office, so I dropped by to see if they had any others on the lot. No more Micras, but there were a couple of Versa hatches (previous body style) and a new Versa Note. You think Enterprise has an arrangement with Nissan?

Which got me thinking...

Isn't it a little surprising that a brand new model would be going into rental fleets? I thought car companies tried to avoid this because the profit margins in fleet sales are exceedingly thin, and the extra supply in the used car market drives prices down (rentals only keep the car for about a year).

I'm sure I've read that some car companies have a policy of not selling to fleets for these reasons.

Another reason for fleet sales is to goose sales numbers.... something Nissan shouldn't have to do with a brand new model.

I checked Enterprise's Canadian website to see what they listed for cars... ironically, they have a picture of the Chevy Spark in their "economy" segment. To be replaced by the Micra??