Last year in Fort Myers , 4000 rental cars caught on fire (yes, four THOUSAND) in a huge rental car parking lot. I bet that didn’t help. $100 million dollar loss to the rental car companies.

^True story.

You think it’s bad now, just think how this will work when we all have electric cars for our 90% needs and we try to rent a car for the other 10%.

The rental car companies sold most of their inventory in 2020 after COVID hit. The auto manufacturers also are way behind because of compenent shortages to build new cars. Normally the rental car companies bought oddball cars the dealers didn't want (overflow), well the auto manufacturers can't keep up with what they're dealers need, so the rental car companies can't get any product.

I do a lot of one way yacht deliveries around the U.S. the past 6 months and have had THE worst time getting a rental car. Most of the time impossible to get one. One I had to hire a car service at a $100 an hour for a 6 hour drive and had to pay for 12 hours. UBERs are hard to find in a lot of towns also.

The grass was growing up around something like 18000 of them here while the islands were shut down and they got shipped away before any of our firebugs got at them. Now the tourists are swarming in and the companies don’t have enough cars until they can replace them all. It was bad for spring break period.

“On the island of Maui, the cheapest car rental is $722 a day for a Toyota Camry.”

https://carinmylife.com/car-re...-is-722-for-a-camry/

I bought one from CarMax in November the instant it hit the lot. They were selling faster than they could put them out.

I picked up a year old Rogue Sport for $14k after seeing them on the dealer lot for $25K+.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I wonder how Turo has affected the rental car industry, if it has at all.

My gf just upgraded her car to one 3 years newer. She didn’t sell her old car though and has been renting it out on Turo. Booked nearly every day.

quote:

Originally posted by P210:
The grass was growing up around something like 18000 of them here while the islands were shut down and they got shipped away before any of our firebugs got at them. Now the tourists are swarming in and the companies don’t have enough cars until they can replace them all. It was bad for spring break period.

“On the island of Maui, the cheapest car rental is $722 a day for a Toyota Camry.”

https://carinmylife.com/car-re...-is-722-for-a-camry/

Good Lord. I thought Hawaii rental rates were outrageously high when Mrs.BurtonRW and I visited the Big Island and Maui a couple of years ago. Cheapest car I could get in Hilo was over $100/day and Maui was about the same.

Guess I'm not going to HI soon even if they decide to let us vaccinated folks in w/o quarantine eventually.

I miss the Priceline "name-your-own-price" service. Before they did away with that, I don't think I ever paid more than $25-30/day for a full size sedan. Someone always picked up a bid in that range eventually.

-Rob

Trip to Scottsdale mid February of this year arriving at 10:00PM. Four people and four sets of clubs.
Reserved a Grand Caravan to haul everything @ $360 per day. Stood around for 90 minutes while the hired
help tried to keep up. Two employees at the Hertz counter and sixteen customers waiting. Total cluster.

Holy crap! I rented a Grand Caravan last August for two solid weeks. Cost me under $800 for the whole trip!!

-Rob

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:
Holy crap! I rented a Grand Caravan last August for two solid weeks. Cost me under $800 for the whole trip!!

-Rob

Yeah Burton, if you were intending to make me feel better, not there yet.

Just use Turo. Better cars and better prices (usually).

quote:

Originally posted by BurtonRW:

quote:

Originally posted by P210:
The grass was growing up around something like 18000 of them here while the islands were shut down and they got shipped away before any of our firebugs got at them. Now the tourists are swarming in and the companies don’t have enough cars until they can replace them all. It was bad for spring break period.

“On the island of Maui, the cheapest car rental is $722 a day for a Toyota Camry.”

https://carinmylife.com/car-re...-is-722-for-a-camry/

Good Lord. I thought Hawaii rental rates were outrageously high when Mrs.BurtonRW and I visited the Big Island and Maui a couple of years ago. Cheapest car I could get in Hilo was over $100/day and Maui was about the same.

Guess I'm not going to HI soon even if they decide to let us vaccinated folks in w/o quarantine eventually.

I miss the Priceline "name-your-own-price" service. Before they did away with that, I don't think I ever paid more than $25-30/day for a full size sedan. Someone always picked up a bid in that range eventually.

-Rob

I'm going to the Big Island in the fall and I've got a SUV reserved and already paid for with Budget Rent a Car.

$42.00 and change/per day for 2 weeks.

You've just got to rent in advance.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
I wonder how Turo has affected the rental car industry, if it has at all.

My gf just upgraded her car to one 3 years newer. She didn’t sell her old car though and has been renting it out on Turo. Booked nearly every day.

I had never heard of Turo before reading this thread... I always learn something here.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
Last year in Fort Myers , 4000 rental cars caught on fire (yes, four THOUSAND) in a huge rental car parking lot. I bet that didn’t help. $100 million dollar loss to the rental car companies.

Wouldn't it be the insurers that took the hit on that?

There is an Enterprise used rental car lot here and it's full. There must be at least 100 cars and truck in it. Maybe that's where they are going. Is this the time of year for their turnovers?

At that kind of rate, I'd rent a Uhaul truck instead. Ugly, but cheaper.

https://www.businessinsider.co...terprise-turo-2021-4

Experts reveals the best way to avoid out-of-control rental car fees as America is hit with massive nationwide shortages

Brittany Chang 7 hours ago

A rental car could consume the bulk of your vacation budget if you don't plan ahead, experts warn.

Airline and hotel costs are still lower than pre-pandemic prices, Nerdwallet recently reported. But right now, the US is facing a massive rental-car shortage that's causing vehicles to either sell out or sell for high prices.

As a result, if you're planning a spontaneous vacation that will require a rental car, be prepared to pay more for your vehicle than your flight or accommodations, especially if you're looking to visit popular destinations like Hawaii, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, and Puerto Rico.

"People are quickly realizing that they need to take the cost of the rental car into account because it's no longer just an add-on," Jonathan Weinberg, the founder and CEO of AutoSlash, told Insider. "It literally could be the majority cost of your trip, so folks who are planning things last minute are unpleasantly surprised by it."

Rental car company Hertz is already expecting "strong demand" through the summer, which could cause decreased availability in certain markets, according to an email statement sent to Insider. Enterprise echoed this in its email statement sent to Insider, adding that it has been working to grow its fleet size to address this increasing demand.

If you're wondering how to avoid these issues ahead of your summer vacation, consider planning ahead, although you could still see prices that are double or triple the typical costs. But if you'd rather book a last-minute trip to a hotspot like Florida, be prepared to see rental car prices about five to 10 times the average.

Rental vehicles in Hawaii averaged at about $50 a day two to three years ago. Now, some are going for $500 a day, according to Weinberg. And in extreme cases, prices have even hit $700 a day, Chris Woronka, a senior hotel-and-leisure analyst at Deutsche Bank, told Insider.

There's no one specific issue that's been causing this problem: the rental-car shortage is a result of a "perfect storm" of reasons, according to Woronka. For starters, there's currently a rising number of travelers planning post-COVID-19 "revenge vacations." This is then being compounded with a decreased fleet size after several car rental companies sold off parts of their fleets during the COVID-19 in order to save money.

And at the moment, any chance of increasing fleet sizes again is being hindered by skyrocketing used car prices and a lack of new cars due to the computer-chip shortage.

"No matter how much shuffling the rental car companies do with the vehicles that they have on hand, I just don't think it's going to be enough," Weinberg said.

quote:

I'm going to the Big Island in the fall and I've got a SUV reserved and already paid for with Budget Rent a Car.

$42.00 and change/per day for 2 weeks.

You've just got to rent in advance.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hope it works for you. I do not trust these folks. We planned a trip to Hawaii, including rental car payment. We flew into Maui and found they had rented out our car and none was available. They drove us to the hotel in a van. The car was delivered several days later and I had to fight to get credit. I am never going back. The Big Island was nice but Oahu and Maui were not.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

I'm going to the Big Island in the fall and I've got a SUV reserved and already paid for with Budget Rent a Car.

$42.00 and change/per day for 2 weeks.

You've just got to rent in advance.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hope it works for you. I do not trust these folks. We planned a trip to Hawaii, including rental car payment. We flew into Maui and found they had rented out our car and none was available. They drove us to the hotel in a van. The car was delivered several days later and I had to fight to get credit. I am never going back. The Big Island was nice but Oahu and Maui were not.

When did this happen? I've been going to Hawaii every year since 1983 and never had a problem.

November 1982