Car sharing market research

Car sharing more predictive than California auto sales. Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith on CNBC this morning:

HAINES: Are you buying new cars?

GRIFFITH: We are buying new cars.

HAINES: GM and Chrysler cars?

GRIFFITH: We are not buying GM and Chrysler cars. In fact, we have never bought a GM or Chrysler product. What we do is we survey our members, we ask them what kind of car do they want to drive. And when we hear back what they want to drive, if we don't have it, we consider it and look at it. We have never had a request for a GM product. That's unfortunate, but that's the way it is. Out of 300,000 users that we survey every six months, I have never had a request.

BURNETT: That might be the most damning thing I have heard yet.

I remember when Portland Car Sharing, the first one of its kind in this country and one that I had a minor part in creating, bought Dodge Neons. While I personally preferred the Neons over the Saturns that they bought to replace them, the whole idea of buying American cars was far less popular than anyone could have predicted. Once hybrid cars came out, Toyota and Honda fast became the most popular car-sharing vehicles. Now that the more trendy (less DFH) ZipCar dominates this market niche, motorists have a very wide selection of vehicles they can drive.