If you are looking for more incentive to buy a new car and have that car shipped to you rather then rent, here is some information for you.  It seems that car rental companies are raising rates across the board in an effort to remain profitable.  On top of that these companies are also slashing jobs to keep a healthy bottom line.  According to USA Today there are several reasons for these changes:

“Besides the weak economy, demand for rental cars has dropped because there are fewer airline passengers to rent cars at airports, and corporations have reduced business travel, says the Standard & Poor’s report by analyst Betsy Snyder.

The car rental companies have also been hurt by their fleet-acquisition policies.

In the past, car rental companies bought most vehicles under repurchase programs that allowed them to sell the vehicles back to manufacturers in a relatively short period, Snyder says. But now the car rental companies buy about half their vehicles without such programs and must sell them on the used car market.”

USA Today goes on to explain that drivers of rentals are finding cars with more miles, that are dirtier, and have more mechanical problems then they might have in the past.  This is due to the longer ownership of the vehicles and job cuts withing the company.  Coupled with the slashed prices of new cars, it seems like now is a much better time to buy then rent a vehicle.

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