As someone who rents cars from various cities and various agencies 365 days a year, I could tell you a lot of stories. As I vaguely recall, I believe I started this thread way back when I was younger. Yes, rental prices are ridiculous, they got hiked up some time ago and have never come down (and if a certain person wants to show up here and defend the rental companies that they are adhering to their cost model, been there, done that). Rates have NOT been responsive to demand, they have held up the rates. Certain non-corporate locations have yelled foul with no success, and they have gotten around corporate in certain ways I won't mention here. Perhaps the model has been broken, cause in many cases the charges simply don't make business sense, and as a result, I have pursued other options. The current prices bear no resemblance to what the prices were over a year ago. Blame it on their fleet purchase prices or whatever, or the fact that they need to report a profitable quarter, the end result to me (and you) when it comes to a subcompact, compact, or etc. car, is out of whack.