Can Ford fight off depreciation? - Rental companies

Cars on the books of companies like Hertz or Avis have a hard life. In general, they're not cared for by the people who rent them, and they can rack up big mileages and lots of little knocks in a relatively short period of time.

Rental companies also buy them in big numbers, to get big discounts, and they don't keep them for particularly long.

So, while the sales figures might look good if a car manufacturer does a big deal with a rental company, it's bad for resale values when the tired, high-mileage cars spill on to the used-car market.

Ford's UK director of marketing, Mark Ovenden, hopes reducing the number of cars sold to these companies will bolster resale values, but turning your back on daily rentals can be a hard habit to break. Ovenden, of course, realises this and says reducing these numbers will be a gradual process. 'We're not taking the needle out right away,' he says.