Does anyone have any idea why there is a shortage of rental cars these days?
I would guess that most rental companies massively cut back their inventories over the past year, since no one was traveling.
I used to rent a car for a few days every couple weeks for work, but my last rental was in January 2020.
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There have been a number of published articles saying the companies all sold off big chunks of their fleets to survive the pandemic
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They also can’t get cars.
Manufacturers had to reduce production due to plants conversion for covid manufacturing, and now there’s a severe microchip shortage.
They can’t get new cars.
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Interesting video of 1000’s of cars in storage on Maui
Rental cars are now made of lumber.
(Yep, that’s the ticket!)
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So, I am probably switching from the local company in LA I use for this very reason. They stopped carrying like 75% the type of vehicles I would drive. That and many of the car rentals now in LA and Nashville are exotic and luxury cars used for Instagram influencers to pose next to.
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Here’s a good explanation for what happened and why.
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one word - Unitarians
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Unitarians are responsible for the U Haul shortage, not the rental car shortage.
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Damn Hippies!
lol - funny story about me moving back to Bountiful after 20 years, after being exposed to so many different cultures, religions, worldviews, getting a better handle on my own journey and values.
The neighbors were very welcoming, I knew my wife & kids would be treated well… and for me? As somebody who grew up in Bountiful, drifted away from the religion of my upbringing… I figured I wouldn’t be very high on the totem pole, and that was OK.
Inevitably, the neighbors sent missionaries, which was fine, expected - and a neighbor & his wife invited us to dinner, wanted to get to know us better.
-
“you grew up in Bountiful, but now you’re not active. What happened?”
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“how did you two meet?”
etc.
They wanted to know where we went to church - Calvary Baptist in SLC, predominantly African American. Then, asked what my own views were about religion, our place on Earth, etc, I really screwed up…
me: “If it was completely up to me, I would probably go to the Unitarian Church”
Neighbor: “The Unitarians? Really? That’s not even a real church!!” (One thing I love about this neighbor, who’s a really great guy - he always says exactly what he’s thinking, zero filters. He didn’t mean any harm - that’s just his outlook about the Unitarians.)
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I have always heard the difference between Utah and the rest of the country:
country: where did you go to college?
Utah: where did you go to high school?
I fully get the reduction in car inventory when travel was down, and why they can’t just snap their fingers and have them all back. What I don’t get is how they can take many more reservations than they have cars, then tell people who have been in line watching the single counter rep at work for three hours that they are all out of cars for the day. Horrible operations management.
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having worked for Avis in college. (I once rented a car to the Green Goblin - Willam Dafoe. He was incredibly nice. My one brush with greatness). The reason car rental agencies over book is because they have about a 25% no show rate. If you dont show up to rent a car it’s not like they charge you. Its not like forgetting to cancel a hotel reservation.
Dumb policy I know, but it is what it is.
Understand, but I think the 30 potentially renters waiting in Lihue were not likely to be no-shows. And three hours in line to not get a car? That’s f’d up.
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Man, you have me paranoid now so I went ahead and checked in online for my car rental tomorrow. I still have to swing by the desk so I’m not sure that accomplished anything.
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I came this close to working for Enterprise right out of college. They gave me an insultingly low offer, but it was the only one I had so I took it. I found out two days before I was supposed to start that my boss-to-be was a former soccer coach that I disliked with the intensity of a thousand burning suns. I actually turned down the job and decided to move back in with my parents in Utah rather than go work for him.
I often wonder how different my career path would have been had that guy not been the boss at that specific Enterprise Rental Car office in Colorado Springs.
Weird. When I was in school it was the army recruiters who wouldn’t leave me alone, not the car rental companies.
There is one UHaul van in the parking lot where I am. I’m pretty sure that’s all someone could get. I’m hearing all over that many people have resorted to them.
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