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They left off the part where rental companies sold off a bunch of inventory in 2020 because low demand and fixed lease payments. They thought they could flex u
by conductr 5y ago
They left off the part where rental companies sold off a bunch of inventory in 2020 because low demand and fixed lease payments. They thought they could flex up inventory when travel resumed. It was a reasonable assumption at the time as I don't believe anyone was talking about chip shortages back then and new cars were being heavily discounted as well.
FWIW - I rented a car in May and paid about $2000 for 4/5 days. I forget the specifics but the midsized economy class was only about 10% cheaper than a luxury SUV, so I upgraded. It was in Boston.
- brailsafe 5y agoDid you personally pay that!? What made it worth it? I paid about $400 for a new Rav4 recently in Canada after seeing crazy prices like yours, which still seemed high.
- conductr 5y agoYes, I paid. I shopped around and considered alternatives. But it was our first COVID era travel/vacation. It was originally meant to be an international trip but since everything was still very restricted we decided to moved all our reservations up to Boston and visit the cape cod area. We did that with plenty of time, not last minute. But after switching flights, hotel, booking new excursions, etc we went rental car shopping and realized we were in too deep to back out. Having a toddler during lockdown was exhausting and we really wanted a vacation lol.
- brailsafe 5y agoHey, I feel you and that's a killer response that makes sense to me. The $400 car I mentioned was similar, though no kid. Was hoping for a more extensive less-local trip, but had to make the best of it and were surprised with prices having not heard about the shortage. Congrats on being able to get out for a bit my friend.