Other Car Rental Programs (ie. Alamo, Enterprise) - Fox Rent a Car: Las Vegas - early return fee plus other fees?

I have never heard of this before. I have worked in the Car Rental Industry when I was younger. It was common practice for people to return their vehicle early or extend the rental. All the customer was charged was the daily rate as indicated in the rental agreement.

Now, I am surprised to read that Fox Rent A Car charges $10 + daily fee to return your vehicle early. If you extend your rental, you are dinged another $10 + daily rental fee. You are also charged for an additional driver, even if that additional driver is your spouse.

What's going on??

I have never heard of this before. I have worked in the Car Rental Industry when I was younger. It was common practice for people to return their vehicle early or extend the rental. All the customer was charged was the daily rate as indicated in the rental agreement.

Now, I am surprised to read that Fox Rent A Car charges $10 + daily fee to return your vehicle early. If you extend your rental, you are dinged another $10 + daily rental fee. You are also charged for an additional driver, even if that additional driver is your spouse.

What's going on??

I would avoid fox altogether. Las has a consolidated rental car facility off airport and fox has a facility that is off site from that. In other words you need to take a shuttle to a shuttle to your car. Both arriving and departing.
Admittedly they're a little cheaper but I've always found a good deal with Alamo or thrifty.
Las time I was there a few months ago I had a premium car for a week for about $200 total

Wow, I totally forgot about that that their car rental place is off the consolidated car rental facility. The thing is, even with changing cars (splitting the rental), we save about $50-70 over a 6 day period, actually 5 days and 8 hours (due to dropping times). It's a lot more to go with someone else. In the past, we usually deal with Alamo, Thrifty, and Enterprise.

I have never heard of this before. I have worked in the Car Rental Industry when I was younger....

What's going on??

The rental industry is changing; costs are increasing (cars are more expensive), and they're looking for ways to improve their bottom lines.

Actually, cars are not more expensive these days. Dollar for dollar, they are more economical then they were in previous years. Maintenance is less and interest rates to finance them are quite low. Perhaps overhead and other expenses are increasing. However, my guess is that just like with the airline industry, the travel industry is trying to squeeze money from the consumer any way they can. If things continue, I would not be surprised if [some] car rental agencies will start charging a surcharge if your vehicle if it is returned dirty (unwashed).

Actually, cars are not more expensive these days. Dollar for dollar, they are more economical then they were in previous years. Maintenance is less and interest rates to finance them are quite low.

I should clarify: the lucrative buyback programs that the rental agencies used to rely on to supply them with a virtually unlimited number of cheap cars without tying up lines of credit have mostly dried up. Some remain, but with the U.S. auto manufacturer bankruptcies and subsequent labor agreement restructurings, production has tightened up.

Nowadays, rental companies have to buy most of their cars ("risk" cars). The best deals are coming from the Far East auto manufacturers, so you're seeing a lot more Japanese and Korean cars in the fleet mixes. Because these cars are bought and financed instead of leased on short-term buyback programs, you're seeing cars stay in the fleet longer (50,000 miles is the new 25,000 miles). Purchasing and financing the cars also ties up lines of credit, meaning that there are a finite number of cars the banks will let the rental agencies buy.

All of that means that fleet costs are up, and intense competition among the value brands has driven the prices in many markets to rock-bottom prices. Thus, unbundling (which has always been prevalent in the rental industry) is an attractive way to help make up the difference.

I should clarify: the lucrative buyback programs that the rental agencies used to rely on to supply them with a virtually unlimited number of cheap cars without tying up lines of credit have mostly dried up. Some remain, but with the U.S. auto manufacturer bankruptcies and subsequent labor agreement restructurings, production has tightened up.

Nowadays, rental companies have to buy most of their cars ("risk" cars). The best deals are coming from the Far East auto manufacturers, so you're seeing a lot more Japanese and Korean cars in the fleet mixes. Because these cars are bought and financed instead of leased on short-term buyback programs, you're seeing cars stay in the fleet longer (50,000 miles is the new 25,000 miles). Purchasing and financing the cars also ties up lines of credit, meaning that there are a finite number of cars the banks will let the rental agencies buy.

All of that means that fleet costs are up, and intense competition among the value brands has driven the prices in many markets to rock-bottom prices. Thus, unbundling (which has always been prevalent in the rental industry) is an attractive way to help make up the difference.

Very well put, as always! I do think you've missed one important point though - car rental companies were losing money hand over fist up until the GFC hit a couple of years ago, due to unsustainably low prices. When things changed as a result of the GFC, as you've mentioned, they put prices up and as a result, they've started making money! My suspicion is things will never go back to the way they were with unsustainably low prices.

And one other comment from a personal perspective - I hope 50,000 miles doesn't become common place! The highest mileage vehicles I've rented in Australia have had about 50,000km (~30,000 miles) and they're beyond their use by date due to the hard life a rental car endures!

when things changed as a result of the GFC, as you've mentioned, they put prices up and as a result, they've started making money! My suspicion is things will never go back to the way they were with unsustainably low prices.

The prices are unlikely to drop as low as they might have been before the financial crisis. However, if you look back to the FlyerTalk threads from the years when the car rental rates exploded, it seems unlikely the rental companies would want to go back to those days, either. Those were the days when people decided the value proposition of having a rental car over a taxi, bus, train, or airport shuttle increasingly was no longer there.

So while the rental agencies were purchasing fewer cars, it seemed that the customers were not interested in renting a significant number of the cars they did buy. I repeatedly saw cars at my local rental agencies parked in the same positions, apparently untouched, for several months. Having a handful of very expensive cars for rent, with maybe one customer every three weeks, is probably not profitable enough to run the business.

This trend was further prodded along when many clients started refusing to pay for consultants' car rentals, and when many corporations responded by switching to discount rental brands, and/or mandating compact car rentals instead of the usual, more lucrative midsize.

The prices are unlikely to drop as low as they might have been before the financial crisis. However, if you look back to the FlyerTalk threads from the years when the car rental rates exploded, it seems unlikely the rental companies would want to go back to those days, either. Those were the days when people decided the value proposition of having a rental car over a taxi, bus, train, or airport shuttle increasingly was no longer there.

So while the rental agencies were purchasing fewer cars, it seemed that the customers were not interested in renting a significant number of the cars they did buy. I repeatedly saw cars at my local rental agencies parked in the same positions, apparently untouched, for several months. Having a handful of very expensive cars for rent, with maybe one customer every three weeks, is probably not profitable enough to run the business.

This trend was further prodded along when many clients started refusing to pay for consultants' car rentals, and when many corporations responded by switching to discount rental brands, and/or mandating compact car rentals instead of the usual, more lucrative midsize.

I agree that they have settled somewhere in the middle - that middle being somewhere between an average of 50% and 100% higher in most cases than what they were at the lowest point, at least in my experience in Australia.

An example of this:

Next week I'll be hiring a full size sedan from CNS for 4 days - it will cost me AUD250 with one day free on a corporate rate through my employer. The standard rate is about AUD300 including a free day. Either 3 or 4 years ago, the same car cost from the same place at the same time of year (peak) cost me AUD150!

There are many other examples too (that one is at front of mind!).

And one other comment from a personal perspective - I hope 50,000 miles doesn't become common place! The highest mileage vehicles I've rented in Australia have had about 50,000km (~30,000 miles) and they're beyond their use by date due to the hard life a rental car endures!

It depends on the car, IMHO.

A Camry with 35,000 miles appears in much better shape than a Hyundai Sonata with 15,000 (2010 model; I haven't seen the supposedly-much-improved 2011 Sonatas).

The Camry's resale value is also higher...

2 years ago at SFO. Enterprise tried charging me more for returning the car 8 hours before. We had a flight out at 10am. The Hyatt had a shuttle to SFO, so we thought we'd sleep in and return the car the night before @ 11:30pm. When they gave me the receipt it was 2x the price. The guy said for that price we originally paid we had to keep the car. But because we brought it in 30 mins early it auto-re rated. he unhappily changed it back tho.