GAINESVILLE, Ga. -

Though he doesn’t expect Avis Budget Group buying Zipcar to have much of any real impact on used-vehicle values — especially on a short-term basis — Black Book’s Ricky Beggs says there’s an interesting remarketing opportunity that can be spun from the transaction.

Auto Remarketing caught up with Black Book’s managing editor shortly after news broke Wednesday of Avis’ plans to buy the car-sharing network.

“To start with, it’s pretty interesting that they’ve gone this direction,” Beggs said, referring to the move made by Avis. “As you look at the business of Zipcar versus the business of traditional rental, this is a good way for that traditional rental company to expand their business, go in a little different direction and grow some of the opportunities (they) have.”

He stressed this scenario wont’ be “an oil-and-vinegar type of thing,” suggesting that the traditional rental car and car-sharing business models can mix.

But as far as any kind of impact on values of the used vehicles that would be flowing into wholesale markets, Beggs doesn’t foresee a big shift.

According to Zipcar, its global fleet size is more than 10,000 units strong, and the company suggests it is “the world's leading car sharing network.” That said, it would still comprise just a small part of the overall vehicle portfolio at Avis, which itself has 10,000 locations globally.

While Zipcar’s share of Avis’ overall volume would be small, Beggs said, “it’s an opportunity out there for the company.” He noted a changing mentality among young/college-age adults, which arguably don’t put as much of an emphasis of having a car as previous generations.

“It’s a different mentality about cars and transportation than when I grew up, where the first thing we wanted at 16 was to have that car and have that freedom to get around,” Beggs said.

The same isn’t necessarily true about today’s younger generation. As such, there are opportunities for these types of car-sharing programs to flourish.

And there’s also opportunity on the remarketing side.

From the wholesale value vantage point, particularly on a short-term basis, Beggs said, “It’s such a small piece of the market, I don’t see it driving the market one way or the other.” But diving deeper into the remarketing angle, he then brought up an interesting point.

“The more micro look at it says traditional rental puts a lot of mileage on the car in a short period of time. And I think within the Zipcar-type program, that amount of mileage is going to get put on in an hourly usage or a half-a-day usage. It’s a much lower level of mileage,” he continued.

“So you’ve got a traditional rental unit that, say, stays in service for anywhere from 12 to 18 months. It gets a pretty high mileage level before it gets remarketed. And you’ve got a Zipcar-type rental that could stay in service for a year and have very low mileage. I think you’ve got something where they can balance each other out.”

So, for instance,  Beggs said, if Avis were to take units coming out of the traditional rental cycle and place them into the Zipcar program, it could help offset some of that mileage.

This, he added, could create more of an in-demand off-rental unit because it would have “more balanced mileage when it gets remarketed.”