Opel to Join GM in Renting Cars Rather than Selling Them

Opel is – apparently – coming to America. But not to sell cars. It will rent them, just as its former parent company, GM, plans to do.

This is The Future.

It is the way the affordability problem caused by Uncle’s mandates and a debt-driven economy that has made it possible for people to “buy” cars they really can’t afford will be “solved.”

Payments can be stretched to six or seven or even eight years, but a nexus is reached at which the car has depreciated beyond the remaining value of the loan.

That nexus has been reached.

Solution? Instead of paying monthly, pay hourly.

And now Opel is joining the party.

“We announced our progressive entry to North America by launching mobility services with our partners,” Gregoire Olivier of Peugot – Opel’s new owner – said in a statement on Wednesday. “We are writing the beginning of this new step overseas.”

PSA’s five-year strategic plan, “Push to Pass,” announced last year, outlines a 10-year strategy for re-entering the North American market.

Automakers are moving rapidly to diversify their portfolios with car-sharing and other mobility businesses, with companies including Daimler, BMW and Volvo offering an array of options like “free float” sharing in major cities and business-to-business fleet services.