Car rental companies used to be at least partially owned by manufacturers: for instance Avis was partially owned by GM [1] (at least 29% at one point). These we

Car rental companies used to be at least partially owned by manufacturers: for instance Avis was partially owned by GM [1] (at least 29% at one point). These were used to offload excess inventory and prop up production of lower-feature cars. It will be interesting to see how these services are used strategically by manufacturers - possibly refreshing these fleets when consumer demand is low; and subsequently how this is signalled to service users. It does look like for now these are full featured cars. Enterprise currently has a car-sharing service as well. [2] Disclaimer: I work for GM, but not in this area; these opinions are solely my own. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avis_Rent_a_Car_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avis_Rent_a_Car_System 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Rent-A-Car#Enterprise_CarShare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Rent-A-Car#Enterpri...