Thrifty - Why in the past few weeks, are all car rental rates so high?

Rates in Portland and elsewhere that i check, have gone up substantially...what was a $105 weekly rate a few weeks ago, is now $190+, and it's not just Thrifty. I'm a frequent renter and don't recall past summers being anything like the last few weeks...

My $140+ Seattle car resvervation for 8/1 jumped to $309+.
If I didn't have the price locked in, it would have been expensive.

Just for the heck of it and for good comparison, check rates in ANC for the next week or two.

And don't do it just at Thrifty.com--go to Travelocity and look at everybody.

The rest of the country will seem cheap in comparison!

I am also experiencing the increase. Renting in the summer in Florida -> prices go up? :confused:

I usually use Costco/Alamo. However, Alamo have increased from $160/week to $240/week for a midsize. (all in) Thrifty has gone up but not that much!

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The major automobile manufacturers recently announced that they were going to do less business (on a reduced price basis) with the rental car companies. Thus, the supply of cheap, new cars into the rental car stables is being restricted. Therefore, the price will inevitably go up.

The major automobile manufacturers recently announced that they were going to do less business (on a reduced price basis) with the rental car companies. Thus, the supply of cheap, new cars into the rental car stables is being restricted. Therefore, the price will inevitably go up.
Good point. What's actually happening is that the Big Three are severely cutting back on program cars (cars sold to rental agencies at deep discounts with guaranteed repurchase agreements) and discounted leased cars, which basically allow the rental agencies to bypass the problem of buying new cars and eating the depreciation. (The idea is to lease the car or make payments on it for $450-700 per month, depending on the kind of vehicle, and then make that back...which can be hard to do at $10 and $15 per day, since even if the car were on rent 100% of the time, revenues would not cover the lease payment.)

This also allows rental agencies to constantly rent fairly new cars.

Actually, GM and Ford have already cut back on leases. That's why we're seeing a lot more Chrysler products in rental fleets across all brands (not just Dollar and Thrifty, which have historically been affiliated with Chrysler). Soon, though, Chrysler is going to be following the competition's lead and cutting back on lease fleets.

Once this happens, rental agencies will be carrying a much higher ratio of so-called risk cars, where the rental company buys vehicles outright and is responsible for their eventual resale. Expect to see some side effects because of this like higher prices (since, as JohnWM mentioned, rental agencies are paying more for the cars) and not-constantly-new cars (1-2-year-old cars with 20-30,000 miles will probably be the norm).

Some links to check out for more information:
http://www.fleet-central.com/arn/t_inside.cfm?action=article_pick&storyID=925
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/stories/MYSA061907.01E.rentalcar.2c2e8a9.html

(P.S. Prices in Anchorage have dropped like a rock now that the tourists have [mostly] all gone home: for anyone who missed or didn't check it when I posted my previous post, at that time, the cheapest economy car available in the city was over $90 per day...)