The vehicle you drove is a Chevy-badged version of the now defunct Saturn VUE. In order to recapture some of the costs associated with launching the Saturn version in the US (crash/emissions testing) Chevy is offering it strictly to fleet customers. The vehicle is sold to the general public in other nations where the local crossover market isn’t quite as competitive (and incomes usually aren’t as high as the US). This strategy allows GM to fill lower-profit fleet (rental) orders with a lower-cost product; rather than the Chevy Equinox which has strong demand on the higher-profit retail side. I’ll also speculate that someone in marketing didn’t want it to be so obvious that Chevy was simply replacing a Saturn grille with a gold bowtie, so they keep it out of the showrooms by offering it only to fleet customers. However, when the rental agency is done with them, they are completely legal to sell to the public as used cars.
This happens all the time in the auto industry. Often there is a product which is adequate (and inexpensive), but not cutting edge technology. If a manufacturer offers it, the enthusiast magazines will pile on, labeling it “outdated junk”. Most auto writers get paid by the exaggeration. GM also did something similar when it launched a much-improved Chevy Malibu, around 2008…. They continued to build the old version for a few years with limited options and colors (simplifying production) strictly for the fleet market. Ford offered the Crown Vic/Grandma Rquis/Towncar strictly to fleets (rental/police) for the last two years of production, hoping retail customers would move on to the more advanced Taurus/Lincoln MKS models. Chrysler did it in the 90s by offering low-cost “America” versions of their older products to the general public (Shadow/Sundance) while their replacements were in the same showrooms (Neon).
There is nothing at all wrong or disingenuous about this strategy. Plenty of people simply want basic transportation, but in our hyper-driven media, anything less than cutting edge is lampooned. So manufacturers have simply learned a way to keep these products out of showrooms and auto-writers hands, while recapturing as much of their initial investment as possible. (Perhaps that’s why they called it “Captiva”, lol.)
And if you think the Europeans and Asian manufacturers are any different, you’ve likely never ridden in a stripped down, vinyl-seat Mercedes taxi, seen the products VW offers in Brazil (hint, the microbus just ended production), or know the product lines offered in the protected Japanese/Korean markets.
As for extra fleet durability, you wouldn’t see anything different among rental fleets. Police/Taxi fleets usually have beefed-up electrical systems to deal with the extra lights and computers, extra welds for jumping curbs, higher-speed rated tires, and extra thick upholstery. By the time these vehicles are offered to the public as used cars, those advantages are usually negated by thousands of hard-use miles.
If you’re looking for a small/mid-sized SUV I’d highly suggest a test drive in the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, as soon as your local dealer gets one (they’ve just begun production).
