Didn't know you had a Viper. Quite a car.

Has it been reliable? They had a reputation for being shoddily-built.

 

So they are basically making the same $$ with less cars.....lol.

I checked for five days rental for Maui, HI for September and it comes out to $800+ for a medium size sedan.......

maybe it will be cheaper to just use Uber or taxi .....lol

 

Except that Uber will charge you surge rates.

 

Want to see a funny look on the face of an Uber driver?

Ask him to give you a Lyft.

 

I remember reading articles about rental places off loading their inventory. Fair prices too.
I'm still seeing options for under $40 a day with same pickup/drop-off locations which isn't bad. But that's at an airport which is usually less expensive.

However I had an idea in the next year to drive across country, then fly back (San Diego to New York) So a one way Rental. For that they want $130+ per day....it comes to more than it would be to fly round trip for 2 people (if I had the car 6 days...not including gas).

Anyone done a trip that have any insight on per day costs? I feel like an extra 400% increase per day is pretty steep, just because it's different pickup / drop-off locations.

 

I used to work for Hertz Rent-A-Car many many years ago. Pricing is based on demand and special conventioned rates for a particular time period. One-way rentals generally are more expensive per day because you're not returning the car to it's home base or original location you rented from. That location loses one car in their fleet, now they have to rely on a one-way return, or get more cars from a neighboring branch. Now if there was a catastrophe or special event where a certain area needed vehicles, companies will lower the daily rate or waive the drop charge on one-ways.

The most expensive rental i've ever seen during my time in that industry was at $599/day for a Toyota Sienna as a one-way rental. The person who rented it was supposed to fly from Chicago to LA, but their flight ended up being cancelled due to weather. They ended up driving across the country in 2.5 days. They didn't seem to care what the cost was since their company was picking up the tab.

 

Airport locations are typically MORE expensive, not less, because there are additional fees that only apply to airport locations.

With one exception (when the agency actively wants a vehicle moved between regions, which is typically seasonal), one-way rentals are ALWAYS more expensive. Years ago we were on a 2-week-long trip in the DC area, when a Hurricane came through, cancelling all flights and forcing us to drive home. Keeping the car we had would have added an extra $2k+ to our rental fee, because converting to a 1-way carried both a flat fee AND a dramatic increase in the per-day fee. So we wound up returning the car we had to Baltimore, turning around and renting another car from the exact same agency, and driving it home. That if memory serves cost us about $160.

 

I guess I need to check more locations. The most convenient spot (close to my home) was more than the airport so I guess I assumed.

The one way being more expensive makes perfect sense, unless the pickup is over stocked and the drop off is understocked. But 4x more, geez. I would understand better a flat rate/fee rather than upping the price so dramatically on a per day basis.

 

This is what happened to 2 guys that worked with me back during 9/11. All flights were cancelled indefinitely, and they were stuck in California. Both seemed to be in shock, as each ended up renting their own cars for the one-way trip back to Chicago. I have no idea what it cost our company, but it was twice as much as it should have been.

 

had it since April 2017, been reliable, i've only oil changes. 2013+ is a whole different animal than the previous in terms of build quality

 

The micro chip shortage has and will continue to impact auto production. There have been many articles in The Journal and auto mfg. periodicals projecting the impact into at least mid 2022. As far as the rental car companies, Hertz as many know filed for bankruptcy and had to sell off many, many vehicles to raise cash and reduce costs. The solvent companies sold of units as a result of covid and the precipitous drop in travel.

On our trip to Florida in February, I had one heck of a time finding any rental cars. I did find a sub compact soup can for $900/week...fortunately our hosts for the week picked us up at the airport and we hung with them all week any way.

 

At that point it becomes cheaper to just take uber instead of renting. But I wonder who in their right mind buys an used car that used to be a rental.

 

a majority of people shop on price alone. those are the people that would snap up a used rental car without even a 2nd thought.

 

The fact that the rental car companies are very actively purchasing 1000's of cars at auction, have rapidly inflated the used car costs and values.

 

Wow, prices really did double! We were in Maui Dec 2019 and it was $626 to rent a Kia Optima for 8 days (returning to same Kahului/OGG airport). This past Dec 2020 we were on the Big Island and it was $1100 for another Kia Optima for 11 days, but one-way picking up from Hilo and returning to Kona airport. I dare say $800 for 5 days doesn't sound too bad considering we have friends in Maui right now and they mentioned car rentals going for $300/day. People have resorted to renting U-Hauls because no more cars are available!