In further bad news for US automakers, it was revealed that American car rental companies are nixing American made cars and are buying more than half of their fleets from foreign car makers. The big three US automakers, General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford, have finally lost market share to the Far East manufacturers, Nissan, Toyota, and Honda.

This represents a huge shift in fleet buying trends over the past three years. In 2006 American made vehicles accounted for more than 80% of the rental fleet. Those numbers have been steadily decreasing ever since. Last year the number was down to around 66% of the fleet being comprised of American made cars.

“It’s amazing how things turn around. It used to be you’d never see foreign cars in fleets, but the companies re-examined their businesses and decided to embrace non-US brands,” commented Neil Abrams, a rental car expert.

It appears that Nissan is the big winner in the trend shift. In today’s rental car market the Nissan Altima is king, having dethroned the Chevy Impala as the most popular selling rental car in America. In addition, Hertz, who used to prefer the Ford brand, now has more Nissans in the fleet than Fords.

Thanks to www.chicagotribune.com for the above quote. For more information on this story please visit their website.