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Originally posted by: thewizard16
"Wow... How the heck does the F-series sell so much? Fleet sales for companies? I can see it being high, but not DOUBLE that of the Camry, or over two hundred thousand more than the Silverado... "

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Wide vehicle range, from sub-$20k hauler to $35,000 luxury vehicle to heavy duty work truck. Not to mention fierce owner loyalty and an excellent dealer network.

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Originally posted by: The Bartender
"F150 fleet sales are no greater than most other vehicles, although that also depends on what you call "fleet" sales.
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Explain, please.

And welcome to the forum!

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Originally posted by: The Bartender
"Well, most manufacturers describle fleet sales as only those sales to companies they have fleet arrangements with AND that are also truly using the vehicles as part of a COMMERCIAL fleet.  For example, GM sells lots of vehicels to Enterprise Rent A Car.  Those are clearly fleet sales.  A local company my shop deals with buys 10-15 GM pickups a year for thier business (surveying and construction project oversight).  But they just buy them from a local Chevy dealer who gives them a pretty hefty discount for buying 5 vehicels at a time.
You and I would call the latter transaction a fleet sale, but GM doesn't. 
Enterprise also has a leasing division.  Some manufacturers don't consider the sales to such busineses fleet sales because the vehicle is often regsitered under another name, whether business or individual.
It can get complicated.  If you lease a car through GMAC, the vehicle is titled to GMAC, but GM doesn't consider that a fleet sale.  Honda sells lots of Accords to lease companies every year, although still not in the volumes that other manufacturers do."

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The GMAC aspect makes sense, but the rest doesn't. If a vehicle is being sold to be part of a fleet, especially if five are bought at a time, I don't see how they can not call them fleet sales.

Oh well, I guess it makes their statistics look better, even if they still don't make a good profit from those vehicles.

The F-series sales is still no short of a phenomenon. Thats a lot of trucks they sell. I wonder though how much $$ they make per truck. I remember seeing a graph of how much every carmaker makes per car, and I think GM was the one that made the least. The immense load of UAW and pensions does not help either. I hope they have some strategies to counter these for the next generation of workers - as they are bound by contract for the current one.

One point surprises me is that there is Civic and not Corolla. I have seen a few Corolla rentals but never seen a Civic (same goes for Camry vs Accord). And still, the outgoing Civic outsells the newer Corolla. Owner loyalty, I guess.

But the Si don't sell much I guess. right?

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Originally posted by: Maxxum
"But the Si don't sell much I guess. right?"

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The Si doesn't, but the standard coupe does. The Hybrid adds a fair amount as well.

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Originally posted by: ifcar
" The GMAC aspect makes sense, but the rest doesn't. If a vehicle is being sold to be part of a fleet, especially if five are bought at a time, I don't see how they can not call them fleet sales. Oh well, I guess it makes their statistics look better, even if they still don't make a good profit from those vehicles."

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If GM doesn't know they are fleet sales, as indicated by the company having a fleet account with GM, then they aren't counted as fleet sales, necessarily.

However, as the data on a vehicle purchased is tracked quite extensively, GM has a pretty good idea what is going on with such purchases.

As a side note, it's illegal for a US dealer to sell cars that are intended for overseas use.  There have even been cases of dealership being punished by GM for selling cars to companies that planned to ship them overseas, even though the dealer had no knowledge that this was going to happen.  (I personally know one of the managers at the dealership in question, and he swears they had no clue what the buyer was doing; they assumed they were staying in the US, as this dealership knew the penalties for unauthorized overseas sales.)

I've never been sure what laws it violtaes, but it apparently has something to do witht he various international trade agreements.  Plus, there are a few countries on "do not sell" lists, places that you cannot sell ANY consumer products to without the US government's approval.

To restate, I just know that GM has made it VERY, VERY, VERY clear that KNOWINGLY selling a car to someone who plans to take it out of the US could result in franchise termination.  Selling a car to someone and not being aware of their intended destination for the car can net you fines, as noted.  How, exactly, we are supposed to figure out what people intend to do with the car has never been explained, other than the obvious answer of "ask them".  Great.  But what if they lie?

This can even apply to Canada/Mexico, because there are specific versions of vehicles for those markets.  A US spec car may not be legal due to emissions standards in Canada, for example.

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Originally posted by: ifcar
""

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Perhaps, but Canada and Mexico? Are they really that different?