Rental car shortage & GA travel

NoHeat

NoHeat

Final Approach
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I’m finding my plane is becoming useless for much of my leisure travel because rental cars are often unavailable. While it’s not a problem if visiting a relative with wheels or a city center, it is a show stopper for outdoor destinations that have no other ground transportation.

For example, for tomorrow I canceled plans to fly to a weekend getaway, because neither I nor the destination FBO can find a car. So I’ll drive four hours instead.

Anybody else canceled a flight because of rental car shortages?
 
Dunno, but some friends of mine just got back from a Hawaii golf outing and paid $1900(!) for a 6-day rental of a Chevy Tahoe!
 
I almost cancelled a trip recently because of a rental car fiasco but luckily it was salvaged, I went, and I got the car. Have made a few calls recently and more than once have been told “because of the rental car shortage” either a) rates have dramatically increased or b) no cars available.
 
Why is there a shortage of rental cars? Did the demand go up, or the inventory go down?
 
Some folks are renting UHaul trucks because they can't get cars.
 
They sold off their inventory.

I'm not having trouble finding cars, but they are pricey.
 
sarangan said:
Why is there a shortage of rental cars? Did the demand go up, or the inventory go down?
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Car rental companies sold cars when travel stopped at the beginning of COVID. No demand and no cash flow. Car companies, expecting demand to be low, cut orders for semiconductor chips. Demand for cars went crazy and car companies can't keep up, partly because they can't get chips for the systems that new cars require. Rental sales are bottom of the barrel for car manufacturers.
No cars, no way to buy more cars = shortage and high prices
 
I was told today rental car companies actually plan on the cars they own being rented and on the road. Crazy, huh?

Thus, they only have storage capability for a small fraction of their total inventory, which is why when demand dropped dramatically their only option was to sell, and sell fast.
 
I’ve made a number of flights recently where I walked by the FBO desk and overheard a frustrated pilot trying to get a rental car.

In related news, I recently tried to buy a new truck but was told I couldn’t order one and there wouldn’t be enough available that I’d be able to do a dealer search and get it the way I wanted. All due to supply chain shortages….
 
cowman said:
In related news, I recently tried to buy a new truck but was told I couldn’t order one and there wouldn’t be enough available that I’d be able to do a dealer search and get it the way I wanted. All due to supply chain shortages….
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So if car/truck demand is through the roof, does that mean the bicycle shortage is coming to and end?
 
I was in Gatlinburg TN two weeks ago. Uber and Lyft were useless. Taxis were sport. The bus was reliable. Car rental was available for 1500 for the week. I took a lot of buses.

For Santa Fe NM, and Cedar City Utah I had no issues getting a car, but it is a little more pricey than before the pandemic but now horribly so.

Tim

Sent from my HD1907 using Tapatalk
 
TrueCourse said:
I’m beginning to think that smaller airports without crew cars or not served well by car rental agencies may be an opportunity for Turo program cars.
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I Turo'd a Mazda MX-5 last summer, my daughter wanted to drive a stick shift car and the MX-5 was among the few that had them. I wouldn't call the Turo experience exactly convenient.

Honestly, I don't know why anyone would be a Turo owner, I doubt they generate enough revenue to be worth the bother and expense.
 
TrueCourse said:
I’m beginning to think that smaller airports without crew cars or not served well by car rental agencies may be an opportunity for Turo program cars.
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I actually did just that. About 7 years or so I had a spare car that I kept at Cape May airport. I left the keys with the FBO and put it on Relayrides (the former name for Turo). I listed it as available only for pilots using the airport. It worked well until the two FBO employees went rogue and the desk lady gave my car to her druggie boyfriend and trashed the car. Ultimately they ended up in jail for embezzlement, the FBO owner bought my car, and that was the end of that.
 
My wife was quoted $250 a day for a business trip to Tampa last week
 
Just got back from a weekend in Greenville SC. No problem getting a car. Enterprise delivered it to the FBO. $78/day.
 
Brad Z said:
...It worked well until the two FBO employees went rogue and the desk lady gave my car to her druggie boyfriend and trashed the car. Ultimately they ended up in jail for embezzlement, the FBO owner bought my car, and that was the end of that.
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Ouch, the nightmare scenario. That’s all it takes to take the wind out of your sails.
 
FormerHangie said:
Honestly, I don't know why anyone would be a Turo owner, I doubt they generate enough revenue to be worth the bother and expense.
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If the cars are booked enough there is some money to be made, but not a lot. When I read some stories a few years ago I recall some owners that had multiple cars were able to generate some income.

Whether it’s the FBOs, local rental car agencies, or Turo, someone can keep a car busy right now if they wanted to.
 
I just paid double and then some for a two day local rental.

Used car prices are up as well...lots of pressure on the rental market for vehicles.
 
I’m in Vegas right now, and I drove for just this reason. I would have loved to fly, but rentals were just too expensive to justify tryin to shave 4 hours of driving time round trip.
 
Brad Z said:
I actually did just that. About 7 years or so I had a spare car that I kept at Cape May airport. I left the keys with the FBO and put it on Relayrides (the former name for Turo). I listed it as available only for pilots using the airport. It worked well until the two FBO employees went rogue and the desk lady gave my car to her druggie boyfriend and trashed the car. Ultimately they ended up in jail for embezzlement, the FBO owner bought my car, and that was the end of that.
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I always wondered what happened with that venture of yours, as I thought about doing the same at W29 with my 'spare' SUV. Sounds like I am glad I didn't.
 
In fairness, it was an isolated event, and had nothing to do with the pilot renters. It was fairly well used through that summer and was treated well by the pilots using it. I charged as little as possible ($20/day of which relay rides too their cut), so it really only covered the cost of parking and some gas. I just wanted to do it through the app so that anyone using it was insured.

The employees didn't seem to have gone rogue until after October that year.

If I still had a spare car I'd consider doing it again, provided I thought I could trust the FBO holding the keys.
 
Brad Z said:
… druggie boyfriend and trashed the car. Ultimately they ended up in jail for embezzlement …
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Wow. Sorry that happened to you.

I guess that’s a reminder that there is always someone who faces a situation worse than my woes in finding a rental car.

… the FBO owner bought my car, and that was the end of that.
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I always did wonder where FBOs got their crew cars.
 
Brad Z said:
If I still had a spare car I'd consider doing it again, provided I thought I could trust the FBO holding the keys.
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install a lockbox at the location and only give renters the code, which changes as frequently as practical?
 
I'm reminded of a flight I did to a nearby airport to go see a small city I'd not visited since my youth. It was a chance to take out my fancy pants new folding bicycle. As I trundled it past the front desk on the way out the fellow said they had cars if the bike thing didn't work out. It didn't work out.

Young Steingar could ride ten bicycle miles quite easily, but not so old Steingar. Those muscles seem to have gone the way of my old waistline. So I put away the bicycle and asked about the car.

$70 rental. I did have to ask the guy why he thought I'd spend $70 to go get lunch. The dearth of crew cars is not doing small airports any good at all.

I suspect the rental car shortage will pass, but it'll probably take a couple years.
 
Brad Z said:
I haven't used it recently, but check out https://turo.com/. Basically like AirBnB for cars.
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I just used Turo.com to bail me out on an upcoming trip to Alaska to do some float flying. Rental cars were not available for months and now that there is limited inventory coming back online nothing is less than $250 a day.
 
Tantalum said:
Need a GA plane that will fit a car, at least a small one.

Something like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Aerovan

Something like 2,800 useful and sub 100 knot cruise speed.. but the idea was right!
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That's great -- I've never seen that one!

I think it would be difficult to find a car from the mid-40s that would weigh less than 2800 lbs (even more so after subtracting passengers and fuel from useful load).
 
ColoPilot said:
That's great -- I've never seen that one!

I think it would be difficult to find a car from the mid-40s that would weigh less than 2800 lbs (even more so after subtracting passengers and fuel from useful load).
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A couple motorcycles, an ATV, or a side by side would do the trick though.
 
+1 for Turo if you can find a car in your area. Even with my Hertz discount, my friend paid like $100/day for a Ford Fiesta, which I guess is decent compared to other posts.
 
While the car thing annoys me too, I find it funny that pilots willingly spend hundreds of dollars an hour and then get upset when they can no longer rent a car for $50 a day..

Also, Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, all these things suck now.. watch hotels and yellow cabs come back into fashion
 
Tantalum said:
While the car thing annoys me too, I find it funny that pilots willingly spend hundreds of dollars an hour and then get upset when they can no longer rent a car for $50 a day..

Also, Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, all these things suck now.. watch hotels and yellow cabs come back into fashion
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Yep, funny. I always laugh when CSOB pilots complain about $10 or $15 parking. The transients parking rate in the deck I used to park my car in downtown Atlanta was $18/day, no in-and-out privileges; I had a monthly rate.

Taxis and rideshares were hard to come by in Savannah a few weeks ago. We were surprised. Taxis were worse than Uber/Lyft. I was at the FBO and someone was asking about a taxi. The desk person tried 3 or 4 companies and the earliest was over an hour. I was furiously working on an Uber or Lyft before they switched to that. :D Lyft was significantly cheaper.

I’m annoyed at how much rental cars are now, but compared to flying in private, you are right, still cheap compared to that.
 
Tantalum said:
While the car thing annoys me too, I find it funny that pilots willingly spend hundreds of dollars an hour and then get upset when they can no longer rent a car for $50 a day..

Also, Uber, Lyft, AirBnB, all these things suck now.. watch hotels and yellow cabs come back into fashion
Click to expand...

Sorry those of us in **** the deplorables parts of the country aren't just bleeding money from our pockets like those in California and we still have a budget. When the cost of rental car or landing/ parking fees can double or triple the cost of a trip it makes you pause. Last time into a C the parking and handling fees cost more than the 4 hour flight. And now the rental car is almost that much for a long weekend as well. Its not being cheap, its called finances. Now if you want to pick up the difference since money is no object in California, I will send you my paypal info.

Next trip the car again is going to cost 50% more than the flight.
 
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