Fitch: Kicking the Tires of the US Rental Car Industry

Fitch: Kicking the Tires of the US Rental Car Industry NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fitch said today that while the rental car industry has been restored to pre-9/11 levels, the financial deterioration of U.S. vehicle manufacturers and rising interest rates have combined to produce growing rental car fleet expenses and depreciation costs, only a portion of which have been passed on to the vehicle renter. Indeed, the financial deterioration at domestic vehicle manufacturers, combined with intense price competition and increasing interest rates are negatively impacting profit margins at the some of the largest rental car companies in the United States. In a report released today, Fitch takes a closer look at the major rental car companies, namely Hertz Global Holdings and Vanguard Car Rental Group, both of which plan to issue public equity securities in late 2006, in addition to publicly-traded Avis Budget Group (NYSE:CAR) and Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (NYSE:DTG).