According to Japanese newspaper the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, both Mitsubishi and Mazda plan to slash fleet sales to boost profitability.

Mitsubishi has designs on bumping its sales totals in Canada and the U.S. by 16 percent (to 181,000 vehicles) this fiscal year. To do so, it will effort to cut sales incentives among fleet buyers, as well as move to increase marketing geared toward the general buying public. Mazda will take similar measures in hopes of reducing its fleet sales from 12 percent to 10 percent.

Why the move to cut fleet sales? They are generally lower-profit transactions (versus individual private sales), and are often cited as a prime reason for lower resale value and brand perception issues.

[Source: AFX News Limited via Forbes]