Originally Posted by
GeorgeJ
If a rental company pays $300/mo to own the car, and let's say they can sell it for the remaining balance, it would only take them 3 days or so per month of rental to break even; if they actually have it rented half the month, what a windfall...
Ha!
Most rental cars are leased on short lease cycles.
That puts the cost much closer to about $750 per month (for a typical midsize vehicle). Higher when you count in maintenance costs, overhead (staff to handle the fleet management), uncollectable damages, etc.
If an agency can maintain a year-round occupancy rate of 80% (fairly good for an average), that means that the break-even point is $31.25 per day. And every time you pay less than $31.25 per day, or the low season makes occupancy rates fall below 80%, someone somewhere else is having to pay more. Hopefully not $100 per day more (I'll agree that's insane), but if you're going to make an argument, at least base it on realistic numbers.
Look for more rental agencies to start buying and owning their own cars (and holding onto them for much longer---60,000+ miles), which will bring the costs down closer to (but not quite what) you gave.
Oh, and think of the value you're still getting: you're renting a $20,000+ car for less than you can rent a $2,000 (used) Genie 36" man lift for a day. Maybe we should storm the gates of equipment rental places with our angry lynch mob--
they're the ones
truly ripping us off!