HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WHLT) – With the rental car industry experiencing a shortage, more people might consider traveling in their own vehicle.
Rental cars have been sold out at some dealerships for the last 18 months. Some experts said this is because of a buying boom.
Employees at Petro Nissan in West Hattiesburg have seen the rental shortages firsthand. An expert said one of the biggest challenges is to keep rental cars available.
“Over the last two or three months, the demand has increased. We’ve seen that continuing on, and people are not using their own vehicles due to finances that were related to COVID,” said an employee.
One of the newest trends this year for rental car buyers includes the most sales being made by millennials.
“Owning a vehicle is kind of becoming a thing of the past, so when things come up such as vacations or outings locally, they use services such as rideshare, but traveling long distances they tend to rent vehicles.”
Experts said there’s no end in sight for the shortages to stop.
“I believe with the pandemic, things we have going on right now, and natural disasters that have affected our areas. I really believe that the shortages are going to continue,” the employee stated.
