Loading ...Consumer demand for smaller rental cars is reversing the practice of trading up.
David Sikorski, a Hertz customer in Texas, booked a mid-sized car for his business trip from Austin to Dallas last month. His reason for booking a mid-sized vehicle was to keep his expenses down on the 400 mile trip.
What he was given was a Ford Explorer SUV, and averaging 16 miles per gallon, not the type of economical vehicle he was looking for.
“I walked right back in and asked for something smaller,” said the computer data specialist from Austin, who was eventually given a Hyundai. “They claimed it was an upgrade, but I sure don’t want an upgrade if it means driving an SUV.”
It’s difficult for rental agencies to secure enough fuel-efficient vehicles from U.S. car manufacturers to meet demand, as manufacturers are dealing with meeting the demand of customers seeking to purchase the same type of vehicles.
Given current customer demand, it’s clear that not enough of the roughly 1.85 million rental vehicles in the U.S. are fuel-efficient, and this is an imbalance that rental car companies are not able to quickly remedy.
According to Sabre, the travel holding company that owns Travelocity.com, compact and economy car bookings are up 10.2 percent and 14.3 percent in April and May of this year as compared with 2007. Rentals of mid-size, luxury, and minivan categories decreased by 1.5 percent, 24 percent, and 15.3 percent over the same period.
“Just six months ago, anybody would have taken a Chevy Trailblazer SUV in lieu of a 4-cylinder Cobalt. Not now,” noted the owner of Vehicle Replacement Consulting Group, Mike Kane. “That’s a big deal. That’s 25 years of history changing.”
www.sabre.com
