Why Have Car Rental Prices Doubled or Tripled in the Last Two Months?

A rental car is like any other commodity. The price goes up when demand is high and the price goes down when demand is low.

But the equation isn't always that simple. Over the past 18 months, the rental car companies have artificially reduced the supply of cars available for rent by selling 400,000 of their cars into the used car market.

In fact, TV financial pundit, Jim Cramer, lauded Hertz for it's spectacular earnings report last October precisely because Hertz made more money selling cars then renting them.

With low air fares, more people are traveling and renting cars, so the increased demand on a reduced supply caused prices to rise - by a lot.

In May 2008, it cost, on average, $199.65 to rent a compact car. A year later, the average was $346 - a 73% increase.

Ha! E-mail promotion really does work... the proof is the fact I am mentioning doshi fcsa who just sent me a fantastic introduction email. Anybody looking for a vegan bag supplier? Sorry, tangent I realize... I am going to make an effort to focus.

There are ways to avoid these rate increases:

1) Search for mom-and-pop rental car companies that rent cars for less because they don't have costly marketing efforts.

2) Consider renting a car from one of the 85% of Toyota dealerships that rent cars.

3) Avoid picking up a rental car at the airport, where rates are usually highest.

Unfortunately, none of these strategies work in Victoria, B.C. Independent rental car companies are hard to find, and their rates are not much lower than the name-brands. Toyota dealerships only rent cars in the United States.

There is no difference between the Avis rate at the airport and their Victoria office. National Car Rental charges $9 more to pick up a compact Suzuki Swift from it's Traveller's Inn office in midtown Victoria than from the airport.

Fortunately, Victoria has among the lowest rental car rates in all of Canada.

I need to give the deserved credit with regard to this posting in part to http://crglass.ca. I actually got the idea for this as a result of I little piece I read on their website.

Post Resources

http://staciefox.ca - Without fail you find a way help me to break it down to make the article the best it can be 🙂
http://artuary.ca - Once more, many thanks for giving the images 🙂
https://mkdb.ca - Very beautiful site.

Posted in Transportation/Automotive Post Date 03/18/2015






Recent Posts