Great Nelly!

One of my friends called me a minute ago -- "hey, man, can you pick me up for work tomorrow?"

His truck died last week and he's been searching for a rental while having it fixed. He told me when he called that the rate for a week was over $1000. What happened to the 45-bucks-a-day thing? Holy smokes!

Creative short-term solution: rent a pickup from U-haul, for less than $500 for a week. (Still mighty expensive.)

Yes, rental car rates are jacked right now. No telling when they'll come back to "normal," if ever.

Rental car companies sold off a lot of their fleets to stay afloat during the "pandemic" economic downturn and now are struggling to keep up with demand. That's part of the issue anyway.

Yes


Simple supply and demand caused by the things Balze pointed out and nothin in the pipe for a re-supply

There was a shortage a few years ago as well. Needed one from Decatur, Alabama to Madison, Georgia.

Rental cars were out, U-Haul had a box van for $19.95. It was up to me to fill it with enough stuff to need one.

I also bought a grandfather clock and some car parts. The lady at the hotel wondered why I had the front clip of an Oldsmobile in the closet.

Maybe the most expensive part of travel right now is rental cars. They sold off all their inventory to stay afloat, then couldn't react to people going back to work and now theres a shortage of vehicles.

Not long ago there was a story in Hawaii of people renting Uhauls because they were cheaper than rental cars.

ETA Balze beat me to it.

yeah, they are

back in March I tried to rent a mid-sized car from Hertz at the Tucson airport (Enterprise had closed many of its off-airport offices)

It was a 12 day wait to get one, and the cost was $1450 a week plus fees

needless to say that idea died a quick death

Yep. In two weeks we are flying into JAX. A compact is costing us over $500 for the week. And that’s near the airport but not actually at the airport.

https://www.caranddriver.com/n...s-until-2022-future/

High Rental Car Prices Expected to Last until 2022, at Least

There could be a seasonal price spike coming for the holiday season, and customers can expect to see rental cars staying in service longer than they used to.

BY SEBASTIAN BLANCO
OCT 9, 2021

as people start traveling again, rental car agencies face shortage

We know that prices for renting a car have gone up—way up—during the pandemic, but even with the numbers declining a bit in September, most analysts think they will go back up for the holidays.
Some experts think things will calm down in 2022, but others don't see prices getting back to normal until 2023. "By February and March next year, all bets are off," one expert told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

There are many problems causing the higher prices, including a lack of new-vehicle production (chip shortage) and a large vehicle sell-off early in the pandemic. Solutions that rental-car companies are taking include keeping their fleet for longer than they used to and trying to move cars around the country so they are available where people want to rent them.

Anyone who's tried to rent a car in the last year or so likely discovered that prices were not what they once were, reaching many hundreds of dollars a day in some areas. Earlier this year, some tourists in Hawaii discovered the joy of saving money by renting a U-Haul truck instead of a standard rental car, for example. As travel starts to pick up again despite COVID's reach, more people might have to figure out similar alternative rental methods until at least next year.

While the costs to rent a car today aren't quite as high as they were earlier in the year, experts are offering different predictions for when the rental scene in the U.S. will get back to something more normal. Some say it will be at least 2022 before prices come down. Others predict a new spike coming this holiday season, including a spokesperson for Enterprise Holdings, according to the Washington Post. And one told the paper that he doesn't see things really getting back to normal until 2023.

"We're kind of in a shoulder season with people going back to school and work after Labor Day, but prices are going to spike back up again in Florida as Thanksgiving and Christmas approaches," the CEO of rental-car price tracker AutoSlash.com, Jonathan Weinberg, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. "By February and March next year, all bets are off."

The problem, unsurprisingly, is a lack of rental cars. As we've written before, rental-car agencies sold off their excess vehicles during the early days of the pandemic and were caught off guard when demand returned sooner than expected. Now, with the chip shortage and other supply chain issues hampering production of new vehicles, these rental companies are unable to beef up their fleets.

Instead, rental companies are changing their policies to keep their cars longer before they cycle them out of the system. Vehicles are being moved away from locations that used to cater to business travel—which is returning, but still not as high as before the pandemic—and into southern vacation hot spots. Also, instead of a 25,000- or 50,000-mile cutoff, some are letting the cars they have reach 90,000 miles on the odometer. Some are also buying used cars at auction to make up for the new vehicles they can't buy. The Post reports that U.S. car rental companies only purchased around 800,000 new cars in 2020, compared to more than double that amount in 2019.

Which all comes together to suggest that rental-car prices will continue to be higher than expected for a while. We may not know exactly for how long, but Yahoo News, citing the online rental company Kayak, said searches for rental cars for the upcoming holiday season are up 230 percent compared to 2019.

We planned a trip to Hawaii a few months ago. They wanted to charge we had a car reserved for 900.00 for 6 days. Just before leaving we checked again and the price dropped to 300.00.

With nobody going there during the shutdown, they dumped a lot of cars back to the mainland. During our travels, we saw numerous lots with cars just sitting there.

Been that way for nearly a year.

My GF bought a 2nd car last year just to rent her old car on Turo. It's always rented and has been a phenomenal investment for her.

quote:

Vehicles are being moved away from locations that used to cater to business travel—which is returning, but still not as high as before the pandemic—and into southern vacation hot spots.

Eh? Who could afford to pay rental rates like that if the cost isn't tax-deductible as a buisness expense? I predict a sudden rise in "buisness" trips to vacation destinations.

I rented a SUV in March of this year for 15 days in Hawaii this coming November.

Got an email from them yesterday that the price had gone up from $700.00 to $850.00 for the 15 days and reminding me when and where to pick it up.

Not bad at all.

With the current airline issues, rental car pricing and COVID restrictions - who the hell is flying anywhere on vacation?

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
With the current airline issues, rental car pricing and COVID restrictions - who the hell is flying anywhere on vacation?

Lots of people. The flights I'm on in a couple of weeks are largely booked completely.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
With the current airline issues, rental car pricing and COVID restrictions - who the hell is flying anywhere on vacation?

Guess you haven't been traveling much recently (which I envy). Last Wednesday I was in Atlanta Airport, and I don't think I have ever seen it that packed ever. I landed there at 0530, and it was already teeming with people even at that early morning hour.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
With the current airline issues, rental car pricing and COVID restrictions - who the hell is flying anywhere on vacation?

Nobody on Southwest LOL...

I went on the Enterprise site and checked for a car. The tiny recycled beer can model (a Mitsubishi - eww) was just under $40 a day. Prior to our ongoing insanity, IIRC, it was $24 a day. So I guess I can actually get a rental, I just have pay more for it.
Other fun fact: Unlimited mileage fee = $275 a week for the beer can.
Limited mileage fee = $800 a week.

I just paid $230 a week in September for Thrifty in Orlando.