Enterprise Rent-A-Car CEO must have some German politician in him somewhere (not literally, of course). Speaking with Bloomberg, Andrew Taylor’s message comes through loud and clear: Ve must have order! How can you dumkopfs expect our nationalized manufacturers to build cars that save the planet without high gas prices! And so the reporter asks the obvious question (it’s what reporters do best): should we raise the gas tax? Check out Taylor’s eyebrow work at 1:23, and his subsequent journey into the bowels of Wiggles World. The CEO didn’t see that one coming? It gets better. When asked if American cars are any good (2:18), Taylor lauds Ford, Chrysler and “even” GM. With friends like that . . . Or is it a good thing that Enterprise fancies itself Detroit’s “petri dish,” looking to put the Volt into immediate rental service? We report, you deride.
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Higher gas prices is the best thing that can happen to the Obese, Inefficient fleet of 250,000,000 vehicles in the US, a vast number of which are still “StupidUglyVehicles” that get 15 MPG average in real driving, when an efficient car can easily get 30 MPG, twice that, with no hybrid or diesel engine.
On the contrary, low gas prices, if they stay low for years, is a recipe for another disaster, similar to the 1995-2005 SUV craze.
Ironically, even if you do nothing, the system is not an out-of-control “open loop” system, but a well-behaved closed-loop one.
Meaning that, when prices are high, people conserve and demand goes down and eventually oil prices go down and gas prices follow, but when prices are low, people behave like ignorant schmucks, buy obese 5,000 lb 12 mpg v8 crossovers they never needed, and in no time, demand for gas explodes, oil prices skyrocket, and gas prices return to $5 a gallon,
and then you look the sales numbers next month, and, surprise-surprise, the best selling vehicle in the US is the.. Honda Civic with 53,000 units, just like in May 2008!
Not that he’s entirely wrong about the gas tax, but it sounds so ridiculous when a CEO says it. Sounds better than CAFE regs.
Of course he’d say that — Enterprise runs this scam where they try to sweet talk you into prepaying for an entire tankful of gasoline … even if you wind up returning the car with a tank 7/8s full. The only way you don’t get totally robbed in this deceitful scam is if you somehow manage to calibrate your driving so as to return the car on nothing but fumes.
I was inattentive & travel weary enough not to decode their misleading pitch and so got robbed once — then I learned my lesson. Now when they ask I say “Why don’t you just point a gun to my head and steal my wallet Jackass?”.
So yes, this con is a great profit maker for the company, and higher gas prices only fatten those margins, since they’ll never actually need to resupply the whole tankful of gas the suckers pay for.
I can see the “petridish,” but I don’t think that high gas prices would help rental car companies. Gas prices go up means jet fuel goes up too, which means personally I travel less.
Plus after the condition of my last rental that had obviously been abused and not cleaned very well, I’m going to rethink that rental car all together next time. I certainly would never buy a rental.
It’s a shame that the 800 lb gorilla he refers to really prevents a serious consideration of fuel taxes as a way to both properly fund infrastructure investment as well as create a more stable planning environment for the auto industry. A variable tax that puts a floor under fuel prices, introduced gradually over several years, would help everyone, business and consumers, chart a better course for the future. Instead we get CAFE standards which allow politicians to pretend that they’re doing something about the issue without actually requiring anyone to make changes.
Let me get this straight. Somebody whose business is renting cars wants it to become more expensive for people to use their products? How do higher gas prices translate into more revenue and profit at Enterprise? Cheap gas means some people will choose to rent and drive rather than fly.
I love enterprise & their unlimited mileage.
I think the last 2-3 times i’ve rented from them, After taxes I was at $25/day or so and put 2000 miles in 3 days on their cars.
Airhen :
Gas prices go up means jet fuel goes up too, which means personally I travel less.
Not if the gas price goes up due to tax rather than due to the price of oil. Jet fuel has very low (if any) taxation on it in most of the world
He is not promoting higher gas pricing. What he is saying is that we need stability in the price of what cars and small trucks use for fuel.
The wax and wane of gas pricing in this country promotes instability in our choices for our cars and trucks and when the mfg.’s have to always hedge design and technology due to the instability of fuel pricing.
We loose because the mfg.’s will never devote appropriate resources to one meme of vehicle, because they have no ability to plan long range.
They must place more bets on the roulette wheel of fuel pricing and it cost money. Money that could be better spent on focusing resources on designs and vehicle size that are predictable.
ummm, Robstar…just about every mainstream auto rental company allows unlimited miles (unless renting a specialty vehicle)…that Enterprise does it is nothing new.
Another lazy CEO of a fat, lazy American corporation who wants government regulation to make his job easier, regardless of the impact on the life of average Americans.
Now that the baby boomers have taken over American business, American business leadership is the cheap whore to the pimps in Washington who “protect” them, but want all of their profits.
A pox on him.
“I’m not a politician”……
I just sound and act and feel like one!!!!!
What a bunch of crap.
O.K so now we TAX TAX TAX the price of fuel up to ‘European’ standards and the automakers will be successful?????
That math is from another planet.
Automakers like ourselves take chances every day on our level of success.
YOU MAKE A LINE OF CARS FROM FUEL EFFICIENT TO GAS GUZZLER.
or you just make fuel efficient or Gas guzzler.
Dont get the government thinking about a “lets save the auto industry gas tax”
this kind of thinking is SCARY at the very least.
but probably too late….
threer> That may be true, but I haven’t generally found rentals as cheap as $15 + tax/day except with enterprise.
Driving 800 miles for $20-$25 + gas is a pretty good deal.
Let me get this straight. Somebody whose business is renting cars wants it to become more expensive for people to use their products?
A significant spike in gas prices would probably wind back discretionary car ownership and increase the demand for rentals.