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In addition to the increased cost of filling them with fuel, car rental rates are rising as rental companies try to squeeze profits out of a shrinking fleet, reports the Detroit News. To help decrease overhead, rental companies have removed 300,000 vehicles from their inventory, despite demand that has remained steady. To generate revenue from a smaller fleet, costs to the consumer have increased — though not as much as they could have thanks to intense competition within the industry. More »
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Through the end of April, Chrysler had dropped fleet sales by 45,000 vehicles, a 17% decline from a year earlier, GM reduced its fleet sales by approximately 40,000 vehicles, a 14% drop and Ford posted a 9% decline in fleet sales, translating to 25,000 vehicles. Yes friends, Detroit automakers are avoiding the temptation to suckle at the teat of fleet sales, even in the face of significant sales drops. While the sales reductions will appear as another negative on an already battered sales report, fewer fleet sales — especially to daily rental fleets — should improve residual values for the "Detroit 3" in the long run. And we're all for the hometown folks taking a longer-term view of things for once — but the rental sales aren't the only part of the automakers non-retail strategy. More »
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Proving there's nothing about the traveling experience that's enjoyable to anyone anymore, J.D. Power and Associates 2007 Rental Car Satisfaction Study has found that people have a worse experience renting cars this year compared to last. Based on a completely made-up scale, overall satisfaction dropped 17 points to 750 in 2007, from 767 in 2006 (which is high?). Enterprise tops the list at 777 on the 1,000-point scale, compared to 762 for Hertz and a low 731 for Dollar. The findings are below the jump: More »
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Enterprise, National and Alamo are offering the largest carbon offset program in rental car history, which isn't saying that much. Eco-friendly persons who don't want to take the bus/train can opt to pay $1.25 on top of the cost of the rental (plus insurance, gas fees, et cetera) and the companies will match that amount up to $1 million in carbon offsetts. The plan will be administered by TerraPass, which is an industry leader in letting people buy their way out of their eco-guilt. No word yet on whether Hertz or other rental car companies will offer a similar plan, but it wouldn't surprise us. [Environmental Leader]. More »
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A merger may be in the works between the cleverly named Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group and Vanguard Rental, which operates the Alamo and National brands. The deal could be worth as much as $3 billion and push the combined company into the No. 3 slot in the rental game, behind Hertz and Enterprise. The car rental business isn't what it used to be thanks to problems with the airline industry, which provides demand, and the auto industry, which used to provide cheap cars. Hard to believe an industry dependent on domestic airlines and automakers is having trouble...– Matt Hardigree More »
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