We know that prices for renting a car have gone up—way up—during the pandemic, but even with the numbers declining a bit in September, most analysts think they will go back up for the holidays.Some experts think things will calm down in 2022, but others don’t see prices getting back to normal until 2023. “By February and March next year, all bets are off,” one expert told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.There are many problems causing the higher prices, including a lack of new-vehicle production (chip shortage) and a large vehicle sell-off early in the pandemic. Solutions that rental-car companies are taking include keeping their fleet for longer than they used to and trying to move cars around the country so they are available where people want to rent them.Anyone who’s tried to rent a car in the last year or so likely discovered that prices were not what they once were, reaching many hundreds of dollars a day in some areas. Earlier this year, some tourists in Hawaii discovered the joy of saving money by renting a U-Haul truck instead of a standard rental car, for example. As travel starts to pick up again despite COVID’s reach, more people might have to figure out similar alternative rental methods until at least next year.While the costs to rent a car today aren’t quite as high as they were earlier in the year, experts are offering different predictions for when the rental scene in the U.S. will get back to something more normal. Some say it will be at least 2022 before prices come down. Others predict a new spike coming this holiday season, including a spokesperson for Enterprise Holdings, according to the Washington Post. And one told the paper that he doesn’t see things really getting back to normal until 2023. “We’re kind of in a shoulder season with people going back to school and work after Labor Day, but prices are going to spike back up again in Florida as Thanksgiving and Christmas approaches,” the CEO of rental-car price tracker AutoSlash.com, Jonathan Weinberg, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “By February and March next year, all bets are off.”The problem, unsurprisingly, is a lack of rental cars. As we’ve written before, rental-car agencies sold off their excess vehicles during the early days of the pandemic and were caught off guard when demand returned sooner than expected. Now, with the chip shortage and other supply chain issues hampering production of new vehicles, these rental companies are unable to beef up their fleets. Instead, rental companies are changing their policies to keep their cars longer before they cycle them out of the system. Vehicles are being moved away from locations that used to cater to business travel—which is returning, but still not as high as before the pandemic—and into southern vacation hot spots. Also, instead of a 25,000- or 50,000-mile cutoff, some are letting the cars they have reach 90,000 miles on the odometer. Some are also buying used cars at auction to make up for the new vehicles they can’t buy. The Post reports that U.S. car rental companies only purchased around 800,000 new cars in 2020, compared to more than double that amount in 2019. Which all comes together to suggest that rental-car prices will continue to be higher than expected for a while. We may not know exactly for how long, but Yahoo News, citing the online rental company Kayak, said searches for rental cars for the upcoming holiday season are up 230 percent compared to 2019.
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Audi is honoring 150 years since manufacturing began in Neckarsulm, which has gone from building knitting machines to hosting the assembly of the Audi A4, among other models.For the anniversary, Audi had its trainees turn a 1971 NSU Prinz 4 into an electric sports car, widening the square body and adding modern touches like LED lighting.In place of the two-cylinder engine, the apprentices fitted a 240-hp electric motor from an Audi e-tron, hooked up to the battery from a plug-in-hybrid Q7 SUV.If you have fond memories of nerdy school science projects like we do, then just wait until you see the awesome project recently given to 12 Audi apprentices. A set of trainees were tasked with creating an electric restomod to honor the 150th anniversary of Audi’s factory site in Neckarsulm, Germany, which originally produced knitting machines in 1873. The eye-catching result, the Audi EP4 concept, was revealed this past weekend.AudiThe project began in January with a 1971 NSU Prinz 4 that had been sitting, neglected, for decades. NSU was a German automaker subsumed by Volkswagen in 1969 before being merged with Auto Union to create the Audi brand we know today. The Prinz was assembled in Neckarsulm from 1961 until 1973, making it the perfect canvas for the celebratory reinterpretation. While the boxy shape and strong beltline of the original Prinz remains, the details have been thoroughly reworked. The circular headlights were swapped for oval LED units, while the front bumper gained a splitter and a large intake feeding air through a vent in the hood. Signal Yellow accents pop against the Suzuka Grey paint, and the rear wing sprouting from the back edge of the roof is mounted not to the body but to the roll cage itself, with the wing supports passing through the rear window.AudiAlong with fixing rust spots in the body and solidifying the 50-year-old chassis, the trainees also tore out the original 30-hp two-cylinder gasoline engine from the rear compartment and replaced it with a 240-hp electric motor from a 2020 Audi e-tron. While the weight of the motor rests in the rear of the car, the battery balances it out by residing under the hood where the fuel tank originally lived. The apprentices took the 17.9-kWh battery from a plug-in-hybrid Audi Q7 SUV. All of this extra power required some structural modifications. The floor plan, including the brakes and axles, were borrowed from an Audi A1, and the wider fenders were 3D-printed to house the old-school white wheels and sticky performance rubber. The trunk can also be set to a half-open position to allow cool air to enter while also serving to show off the electric powertrain. The EP4 concept has no bearing on any future Audis, but the neat project car shows the promise of the next generation of Audi designers and engineers.More Electric RestomodsThis content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Associate News EditorCaleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. More

Mercedes-Benz AG – Global Communications Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans

Mercedes-Benz has released photos of an All-Terrain version of its C-class wagon. The car is scheduled to officially debut at the international auto show (IAA) in Munich this September.Mercedes says the C-class All-Terrain, modeled after the successful E-class All-Terrain, will strike a balance between the carlike handling of a wagon and the tall stance of an SUV. This All-Terrain will not be available in the U.S. market.Mercedes has released photos of its new off-road-friendly C-class All Terrain. The new wagon is based on the already successful E-class All-Terrain, which is essentially a regular E-wagon with a slight lift, plastic cladding, and some other cosmetic changes. Unlike the E-class version, the C-based All-Terrain won’t come to the U.S.—wagons traditionally haven’t been hot sellers here. But when it goes on sale in Europe this fall, it’ll offer customers there a slightly more rugged take on a compact wagon.

The new All-Terrain is scheduled to make its official debut at Munich’s International Motor Show (IAA) in September, but Mercedes has released some pictures of the car in its element. One shot shows the C-class with its two front wheels in the air as it crests a hill in what appears to be a quarry. That’s probably about as much as customers can expect from the All Terrain, which Mercedes specifies in a press release will easily dispatch only “light terrain.”The C-class All-Terrain will have 1.6 inches more ground clearance compared to the C-class wagon, and it’ll be 0.2 inch longer and 0.8 inch wider than the regular wagon (the extra width is thanks to the new plastic wheel arch covers). With the rear seats up, the All-Terrain will have a not entirely impressive 17 cubic feet of cargo space. With the rear seats folded, there will be space for 53 cubic feet of stuff. The All-Terrain will be available with a choice of two turbocharged four-cylinder engines, one powered by gas, the other by diesel. Both engines will use a 48-volt starter-generator system to improve fuel economy.
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Karma Automotive, originally known as Fisker Automotive, has had a complicated history but is now adding an electric truck to its planned lineup. The truck will be part of the company’s upcoming all-wheel-drive platform that it intends to produce in its Southern California facility. A high-end SUV is also on the road map. You can’t […] More

Italian automaker Maserati adds an Edizione Ribelle limited-edition package across all three cars in its lineup for 2020. To maintain exclusivity, 100 Levante SUVs, 100 Ghibli sedans, and just 25 Quattroporte luxury cars will be built with the all-black package. Elsewhere, the GranSport trim on all three models benefits from more standard equipment for 2020, […] More