Auto Enthusiast

I read on Sixt's blog today that more locations are coming in the US: Philadelphia, Boston, and Dallas. I wonder what the timeline will be, and the extent to which those locations will offer one-ways. I found some other trade articles online that suggest all will be franchises run by different, local existing mom-and-pops. So they will forfeit the natural one-way traffic in the Northeast between Philadelphia and Boston, as well as between Dallas and their current downtown Austin location.

As I explained in another thread, car rental one-ways, especially within a region, are very popular in the US, in part because Americans don't use long haul train service the way Europeans do. Sixt should keep this difference in mind as they expand. So an independent licensee for a local roundtrip train or airplane customer may work well in a European city, but corporate stores are in many ways more suitable for most large cities in the US.

SpeedRicer

Another poster mentioned in the SAN thread that Sixt allows one-ways from that location -- even though that location seems to be a franchise (in fact, I met the franchisee/owner himself before, and that's his only location). So it may still be possible even if Sixt is using the franchising model.

Glad to hear that Dallas is on the upcoming list -- I rent there a lot and will give them a try once they're open. ^

Auto Enthusiast

I can't help but wonder how they would do that, unless they're using a commissioned agent model like Avis and UHaul. This requires corporate-supplied vehicles that can randomly circulate without needing to be retrieved, which negates some of the risk offloading that franchising is intended to do.

NDDomer86

Let's hope that the franchisee for the Philadelphia location is not the same one who operates the Charlotte and Greenville locations (who indeed has some cars that are bought from auction and plated in Pennsylvania).

If so, expect 3-5+ year old cars in terrible condition and high (50k+) mileage.

Edit: Looks like it is in fact not the same franchisee thankfully

SpeedRicer

Based on the last conversation I had with a manager when picking up at SAN last week, it sounds like the cars are franchise-owned but they still account for them somehow even when they've gone one-way. No idea on the specifics of how it works, though.