Fuel-Efficient Cars in High Rental Demand

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With gasoline costing more than $4 a gallon, consumer demand for smaller rental cars is soaring.

But thanks to a major shift in the cozy relationship among U.S. carmakers and companies such as Hertz, Avis and Thrifty in recent years — and, as a result, the way rental agencies acquire their fleets — the availability of fuel-efficient rentals has become extremely tight.

Simply put, not enough of the nation’s roughly 1.85 million rental cars are gas-savers to satisfy demand, an imbalance rental agencies cannot quickly remedy. As a result, car rental companies are struggling financially, and long-held pricing models that put more luxurious vehicles ahead of crank-window econoboxes are being turned on their head.


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