Originally Posted By: Seventh
"Just get a few loaners" crowd I don't think has any idea how much overhead that is.
Having personal experience with the costs of maintaining a small (4-5) fleet of loaners I can tell you it's TENS of thousands of dollars a year.
Insurance alone is brutal. Not to mention maintenance, registration, etc. Customers abuse them, damage them, never fill the tank, you always have at least one of them down for maintenance or repairs.
People are "too busy" to bring them back and pick up their car (ie: pay bill). You name it.
It's not simple or cheap.
It's probably why Enterprise makes more sense. None of the overhead. I've seen a few body shops that have a separate desk for Enterprise. Even some dealers have a separate desk for them when they run out of loaners.
As for old guys driving parts, yeah, I had a potential tenant like that once, he just made minimum wage driving around auto parts. Unfortunately his income and his unemployed daughter with 2 kids (with iphones) didn't make enough money to qualify for the apartment.
"Just get a few loaners" crowd I don't think has any idea how much overhead that is.
Having personal experience with the costs of maintaining a small (4-5) fleet of loaners I can tell you it's TENS of thousands of dollars a year.
Insurance alone is brutal. Not to mention maintenance, registration, etc. Customers abuse them, damage them, never fill the tank, you always have at least one of them down for maintenance or repairs.
People are "too busy" to bring them back and pick up their car (ie: pay bill). You name it.
It's not simple or cheap.
It's probably why Enterprise makes more sense. None of the overhead. I've seen a few body shops that have a separate desk for Enterprise. Even some dealers have a separate desk for them when they run out of loaners.
As for old guys driving parts, yeah, I had a potential tenant like that once, he just made minimum wage driving around auto parts. Unfortunately his income and his unemployed daughter with 2 kids (with iphones) didn't make enough money to qualify for the apartment.