Originally Posted by
soitgoes
I would hope that this imbalance will be a short-term phenomena: I would expect (hope?) that car rental companies will beging altering their fleet to include fewer SUVs and other gas-guzzlers.
However, fuel prices change faster than rental car companies turn over their fleets (probably 1-2 years for a full turnover). Also, shortages of small cars from the car companies may get in the way of rental car companies shifting their fleet mixes (retooling factories from trucks and SUVs to small cars without advance planning is not instantaneous), just as retail buyers are finding new car dealers filled with unwanted SUVs but sold out of small cars.