Rental Companies Buy Up Used Cars as Chip Crisis Get Worse
- Hertz, Enterprise turn to auctions with new cars scarce
- Car crunch will boost rates for companies -- and hurt renters
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The semiconductor shortage has slashed vehicle production so much that rental-car companies can’t get the new cars they need, so they have resorted to buying used vehicles at auction.
This is uncharted territory for the likes of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and Enterprise Holdings Inc., which have made their profits by purchasing new vehicles cheaply in bulk, renting them out for as much as a year and selling them at auction. In the past, they have bought some used cars to shore up an occasional unforeseen burst in demand, but rarely for the mainstays of their fleets.