Chevrolet to sell Captiva Sport as fleet car

Chevrolet will bring its global 2012 Captiva Sport compact crossover to the U.S. for fleet customers in an attempt to free up the hot-selling Equinox crossover for individual customers.

U.S. deliveries of the five-seat Captiva will start in the fourth quarter, Chevy said today in a statement. A global Captiva is already on sale in more than 50 markets worldwide, and the crossover is a sibling of the discontinued Saturn Vue. GM already builds a Latin American version of the Captiva in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, and will import the car from that plant.

GM has struggled for more than a year and a half to build enough Equinoxes to meet demand, despite running three shifts and overtime at its crossover plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, and adding a third shift at its car plant 130 miles away in Oshawa to help with painting and assembly. In 2010, its first full year of sales, the five-seater finished fourth among U.S. crossovers, behind the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and Toyota RAV4, according to Autodata.

Sixteen percent of Equinox’s 2010 sales were to fleets, so GM hopes selling those customers Captivas instead will relieve some of the Equinox production constraint. The Equinox will still be available for fleet sales, Chevy spokesman Mike Albano said, but the Captiva will be readily available for fleet customers who don’t want to wait for ordered vehicles to be produced.

Still, Equinox demand could continue to increase: As gas prices rise, GM believes consumers will start choosing crossovers over less fuel-efficient SUVs, Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, said last month. The front-wheel-drive Equinox is rated at 32 m.p.g. highway, compared with the 21 m.p.g. highway of a Chevrolet Tahoe.

Equinoxes finished February with a 30-day supply, about half of what analysts recommend, after a couple of weeks of lease pull-ahead incentives.

Chevrolet will offer both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive versions of the Captiva Sport, with either a 2.4-liter, direct-injected four-cylinder or a three-liter, direct-injected V-6 engine.

source :  http://www.freep.com/article/20110311/BUSINESS0101/110311035/1002/business/Chevrolet-sell-Captiva-Sport-fleet-car