Rental Car Shortage
 

I'm sure a lot of you have seen mention of rental car shortages in the news. I did my first business trip in 16 months and when I arrived at the Charlotte airport things have definitely changed. Where there would normally be 80-100 cars to chose from there were about 20. Options were basically: Full size SUV, Minivans, Nissan Versa. I ended up with this:

2020 GMC Denali XL. Not quite a UHaul truck but pretty close. I am impressed with the mileage so far. 18 mpg in mixed driving. (average speed 29 mph)

Attachment 30922

Aha!! You rented what I consider a hearse. Thanks for the find/clarification

I'll be downtown this morning, I can ask how many rentals they have. Last time I was there, they were stockpiling about 50 FUV for delivery.

They might rent some at PDX. I had a supplier in last week. He ended up using Uber because he couldn't book a rental.

A coworker from another location come in the week before that. He ended up flying to Seattle and driving to Portland so he could get a rental car.

I can't see renting for $100 a day though. Our rate is $240 a week for a Midsize which I can upgrade to anything on the lot with very few exceptions. For example Charlette did have a BMW 3-series is their premium area. In normal times I could take that car. This time the attendant wouldn't let me have it so I took a $75K SUV instead. I can't see the logic but I guess a $40K BMW is more "Premium" than a $75K GMC.

I got distracted and didn't stop at Arcimoto. So I called and asked. Their rental fleet is 12 total, with 0-7 available on any given day of the week. $16/hour, IDK about daily rates.

It wouldn't actually surprise me if a shortage on cheaper rentals there could actually be a deliberate measure from rental companies. Unless many Uber drivers there also rent a car to work as it's been quite common in my country.

Yeah I have driven by the enterprise here several times in the last week and no cars at all.

Check out Turo. More interesting vehicles if nothing else.

I know about Turo. My company reimburses rental cars booked with National Rental Car through the Corporate Travel Portal. That is how they get rates like $240 a week. Book outside of that and you pay out of pocket.

Cheapest car on Turo in Charlotte, NC is $61 a day for a Nissan Versa.

I also doubt too many private individuals are going to let me pick up a car at 1 am and drop it off at 4 am.

What's wrong with the "official" explanation? Working the night shift here in reno for Budget/hertz, we were constantly loading older cars on and new fresh cars off haulers as they became qualified for replacement.

Delta: no need for cars during plandemic, so none are in stock. JIT planning doesn't normally deal with oddities well particularly on long lead items.