Anyone coming over on holiday soon and needing to hire a car ?

[Suenneil]

Worth reading if you are considering looking to hire a car over the Summer months when visiting Spain. It is something that has been brought up previously as a potential problem this year ..... not only a lack of cars due to the fact many companies have downsized their fleet due to the financial crisis .... but the prices have gone up as a result! Sue

Sur in English online - 14.07.09

The hire car market is currently facing up to a difficult paradox. Demand for hired vehicles is at present much higher than supply, yet companies cannot increase their vehicle fleets due to a lack of credit offered by banks during the economic crisis.
Cristina Pernía, employee of Record Go, a hire car company based in Málaga airport, said that her company has had to resort to their fleet of used cars, some of which have more than 200,000km under the bonnet. As such, prices have soared, trebling to 90-100 euros per day, a trend which looks set to continue through to September. Other businesses are advising customers to book now if they want a car for August, and others are booked up throughout summer already, especially where smaller, cheaper cars are concerned. Certain companies have even resorted to hiring out employees' own vehicles, in order not to lose trade.
The financial crisis has wreaked havoc for rent-a-car companies, according to Ana María García, president of the Hired Vehicle Business Owners' Association (Aesva). Last June, hire car businesses bought 18,656 new vehicles, whereas this year the figure has dropped by 89.5% to 1,947 registrations.
Companies are turning to loans direct from car manufacturers, and from outside the banking sector, in order to finance new fleets. The possibility of travelling outside Málaga to find cars has been ruled out since the situation is similar throughout Spain. Ana María García hints that the greatest shortfalls in supply lie with large tour operators, and that holidaymakers searching for hire cars should try small and medium-sized businesses instead.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Suenneil

Worth reading if you are considering looking to hire a car over the Summer months when visiting Spain. It is something that has been brought up previously as a potential problem this year ..... not only a lack of cars due to the fact many companies have downsized their fleet due to the financial crisis .... but the prices have gone up as a result! Sue

Sur in English online - 14.07.09

The hire car market is currently facing up to a difficult paradox. Demand for hired vehicles is at present much higher than supply, yet companies cannot increase their vehicle fleets due to a lack of credit offered by banks during the economic crisis.
Cristina Pernía, employee of Record Go, a hire car company based in Málaga airport, said that her company has had to resort to their fleet of used cars, some of which have more than 200,000km under the bonnet. As such, prices have soared, trebling to 90-100 euros per day, a trend which looks set to continue through to September. Other businesses are advising customers to book now if they want a car for August, and others are booked up throughout summer already, especially where smaller, cheaper cars are concerned. Certain companies have even resorted to hiring out employees' own vehicles, in order not to lose trade.
The financial crisis has wreaked havoc for rent-a-car companies, according to Ana María García, president of the Hired Vehicle Business Owners' Association (Aesva). Last June, hire car businesses bought 18,656 new vehicles, whereas this year the figure has dropped by 89.5% to 1,947 registrations.
Companies are turning to loans direct from car manufacturers, and from outside the banking sector, in order to finance new fleets. The possibility of travelling outside Málaga to find cars has been ruled out since the situation is similar throughout Spain. Ana María García hints that the greatest shortfalls in supply lie with large tour operators, and that holidaymakers searching for hire cars should try small and medium-sized businesses instead.

A friend of mine who works for/with a car hire company also says that due to the predictions that there was gonna be a slump in tourism this year, alot of the car hire companies wanted to reduce the number of cars they had.

Jo xx

[SteveHall]

The Costa Blanca is just as bad - if you are coming over and thinking you can pick up a car at the airport (certtainly San Javier/Murcia) or Alicante .....think again.

[Suenneil]

Originally Posted by jojo

A friend of mine who works for/with a car hire company also says that due to the predictions that there was gonna be a slump in tourism this year, alot of the car hire companies wanted to reduce the number of cars they had.

Jo xx

No doubting you there Jo ... it made sense if they were basing business on projected visitors .... and its obviously helped to create the situation quoted. We were speaking to a car hire place recently (we have friends arriving this weekend and they asked us to help find one for them) ... and he said they used to renew the cars after they had reached a certain number of Kilometres on the clock - or by a specific age - this time they got rid of them but replaced none .. so were left with a much smaller number ..... which now isnt enough!!

Maybe I should get my OH on the bus and rent mine out for the season!!!

[Suenneil]

Originally Posted by SteveHall

The Costa Blanca is just as bad - if you are coming over and thinking you can pick up a car at the airport (certtainly San Javier/Murcia) or Alicante .....think again.

There you are! you popped up as I was replying to Jo ... hope you are feeling good today Steve .... Sue

[jojo]

So the poor old tourist and indeed the motor industry ultimately suffer

Jo xxx

[thrax]

We are paying a visit end of July to mid August and we always hire a car. We use Sixt and have a discount card etc BUT the make of car we usually hire at this time of year and which would normally cost around 280 euros is, this year, 1250 euros. When I checked for October, the price had plummeted to around 400 euros so I guess everything said above is very very true...

We won't be hiring - my wife's parents live near Arenas and will pick us up and act as a friendly taxi service for our stay - not ideal but unlike regular tourists we are lucky to have such an arrangement. So the car hire company loses out this time. And yes, I did call them and tried my very best German powers of negotiation and got absolutely nowhere at all....

[Suenneil]

Originally Posted by thrax

We are paying a visit end of July to mid August and we always hire a car. We use Sixt and have a discount card etc BUT the make of car we usually hire at this time of year and which would normally cost around 280 euros is, this year, 1250 euros. When I checked for October, the price had plummeted to around 400 euros so I guess everything said above is very very true...

We won't be hiring - my wife's parents live near Arenas and will pick us up and act as a friendly taxi service for our stay - not ideal but unlike regular tourists we are lucky to have such an arrangement. So the car hire company loses out this time. And yes, I did call them and tried my very best German powers of negotiation and got absolutely nowhere at all....

My god thrax! thats an outrageuos amount!!! ...... good job you have an alternative option as you say ..... Sue