Volvo Unveils Overseas Delivery Program

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

In one of the tempting deals seen yet to entice car purchase, Volvo Cars of North America announces a special treat that should really spur some sales. The new Volvo Overseas Delivery Program offers a very tempting offer where you can get the chance to win 2 free tickets to West Sweden and make use of your purchased Volvo vehicle with no extra charge.

The promo starts from July 20 to September 1. Visitors simply have to register at the site and create an ideal Swedish travel itinerary with the online trip planner. The submitted itinerary will be entered for a chance to win which covers one week of hotel stays, flights for two and use of a Volvo car for an unforgettable experience.

Volvo will provide two complimentary airline tickets to Gothenburg, Sweden, where the customer will pick up their new car directly from the Volvo factory. Then, they can head out on a European road trip and simply drop off the car and Volvo will ship it to the United States for free.

Now with that deal, what more can you ask for? No more worries on car rentals or modes of transportation. Better yet, you are using your own car which also comes with insurance good for 15 days.

(Source) Press

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Dollar Thrifty Sites Ready for the Summer Storm on Car Rentals

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Traveling places is the top itinerary for most people looking forward to a memorable summer and you can bet that it will be the busy season for car rentals. In fact some place their car rental reservations online so you can bet quirky connection speeds once that happens. However, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group has that covered as they have done the necessary adjustments to make sure that they accommodate all incoming queries and reservations without hassles or discomforts on the end of the consumer.

Online bookings for car rentals have become a privilege for people on the go. However, failure to forecast and assign the proper bandwidth and programming methodology for sites have become obstacles in driving in more people to the site.

Probably learning from experience, Dollar Thrifty has redesigned its websites, to optimize the online car rental experience. With significant revenue generated from its Web sites, Dollar Thrifty needed to be certain the redesigned sites would perform optimally for all customers under peak loads that exceeded previous volumes.

“The performance of our Web sites is key to profitability, especially during the summer season,” said Charlie Coniglio, Dollar Thrifty’s Vice President of Marketing and eCommerce.

(Source) Press

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Cheaper and Revamped Toyota Prius Comes Out

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

Toyota unveils its answer to the Honda Insight, a cheaper and improved version of its originally dispatched Toyota Prius. Toyota has set the new price to be at $21,600 and has made a yearly sales quota milestone between 300,000 to 400,000 for the new version. For the still available previous versions, Toyota will reported slash the prices despite the new batch’s arrival.

Toyota seems to be preparing for the Honda Insight’s rampage as it not only offers an affordable but sensible car in the making. The market that Toyota is aiming to penetrate are the car rentals and corporate customers aside from the usual private sector car buyers.

Toyota – which also makes the Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models – has long been the leader in the hybrid market, having sold a cumulative 1.256 million Prius cars in more than 40 countries and regions, making the model the top-seller among hybrids.

(Source) Press

Tags: Camry, car buyers, car rentals, Cars, corporate customers, Honda, honda insight, hybrids, Lexus, luxury models, previous versions, prius toyota, private sector, sales quota, sensible car, toyota prius

Car Rentals Shifting to Hybrids

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

It is apparent that to stay in business, you have to go with the flow. For car rentals, staying put with your current line of vehicles will get you nowhere and the real deal is listening to the demands of people today. And this is turning towards offering hybrid cars for rent as the demand for them continues to rise.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car says it’s doubling its rental hybrid vehicles by adding about 5,000 hybrids to its nationwide fleet.

And despite higher up front rental costs, customers are asking for them because it makes returning the cars with a full tank a little easier.

“We’ve noticed that over the past few months our customers are asking for a fuel efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles,” Bob Albrecht said with Enterprise.

Most other rental car companies do offer hybrid vehicles. But the enterprise family claims to have most fuel efficient cars.

(Source) Arkansas Matters

Tags: bob albrecht, car rentals, enterprise rent a car, fuel efficient cars, full tank, hybrid cars, hybrid vehicles, hybrids, real deal, rental car companies

No Rental Means No Auto Sales

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

The relationship is synonymous to the law of demand and supply: no rentals means no new car purchases. That is the scenario at the moment as rentals are not spared from the economic plunge. With people opting to forego renting a car, car rentals seem to be finding little reason to purchase new cars.

With that, car manufacturer sales are hurting as well. A fine portion of their sales come from car rentals who invest in these cars for business. Car rental companies have seen demand for their services fall since the financial crisis erupted in September 2008, prompting businesses and consumers to cut back on travel spending.

With cars sitting idle in their lots, rental companies are much more inclined to scale back their fleets than to buy new vehicles.

(Source) AP

Tags: auto sales, car manufacturer, car purchases, car rentals, financial crisis, new cars, new vehicles, plunge, rental car companies, renting a car

Car Rentals Downsize Car Roster

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

If car purchases are falling, you can just imagine why car rentals are holding back. People turning to car rentals are sure to be decreasing as well and it seems that this is more than enough reason for them to stop new car purchases for now.

A noted practice that car rental companies do is to unload old rental cars to interested buyers. However, it seems that this practice has been affected to by the credit crunch and they are forced to make do of what cars they have on hand. A fraction of their funds used to buy new cars is taken from amounts they get from selling old cars in their fold.

Rental car operators have been hit by the same credit problems that car dealers and consumers are facing. As a result, drastic cuts for new cars are being experienced by automakers. The car rental companies are also finding it difficult to find car dealers willing to purchase their used vehicles thus forcing them to put on hold the purchase of new vehicles available in the market.

Via CarRentals UK

Tags: automakers, car dealers, car purchases, car rental companies, car rentals, car roster, credit crunch, new cars, old cars, rental car

Hyundai Announces Return Your Car Incentive

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

In a move that is certain to entice car buying, Hyundai has relaxed its car lending policies by allowing people to return their cars if they lose their jobs. The program is only applicable to buyers who purchase their car within a year.

This is a move that will certainly be favorable to car buyers who are caught in possible layoffs. Many potential car buyers who want to buy a brand new vehicle are hesitant these days mainly because of fear that they may not be able to pay off their monthly amortization if they should be laid off.

In a way, you can look at this scenario as similar to car rentals. The only thing is you are getting a brand new Hyundai which can be yours if you can fulfill the monthly obligations for at least a year. Not a bad deal if you are dying to own a brand new car.

Via Reuters

Tags: amortization, brand new car, car buyers, car buying, car rentals, Cars, jobs, new hyundai