Fewer Vehicles Pushes US Car Hire Prices Up
Car hire prices in the US are getting increasingly expensive as more rental firms reduce their vehicle inventory and charge more money for the remaining cars in their fleet.
Customers taking holidays to New York could expect to pay more than $300 (£183) to rent a compact car for a week, an astonishing increase of 53 per cent for the same car last year.
Despite the dramatic rise in car rental pricing, holidaymakers visiting America can be glad that the winter season has cooled demand for car hire. At the August peak the same car was attracting prices north of $430 (£263) which made renting during the summer holidays extremely taxing on family finances.
The reason why prices have gone up is that car hire companies have cut their capacity in order to have less maintenance overheads for excessive stock. Leading rental companies Hertz, Avis, Alamo and Enterprise have all announced fleet reductions with some car hire companies selling one in every five of their cars.
For travellers taking a trip to Florida, car shortages are becoming a problem which means companies can afford to push prices to even higher premiums. Florida deals in Orlando and Tampa Bay are particularly difficult to find according to analyst Neil Abrams, president of the Abrams Consulting Group.
With fewer new cars being bought by car hire companies, customers are also paying more for older cars with more miles on the clock. Where before cars would be traded in at 20,000 miles, now rental companies are holding on to their vehicles: 50,000 is the new 20,000 in the car hire industry.
Car Hire News posted by Benny Henson on 28 October 2009
Stock Tickers: HTZ AVE
Car hire, car rental, US, holidays to New York, rent a car
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/tighter-rental-car-fleets-spark-higher-rates-older-cars/1047295
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