The Dominoes ...

[PAXboy]

Seeing Hertz go down, it will also be the case that many of the small and independent car hire companies will fail too. They might be the Second Tier who work from off-airport locations. This will consolidate the market, as with the airlines.

Sorting out piles of magazines to be recycled, there was an edition of the Miles & More catalogue. I flipped through it and wondered how many of their suppliers are going to go. Buying a new suitcase at over 300 £/€/$ is not going to be on my list. The luggage industry have been pushing up prices over the last years with their inclusion of batteries, Bluetooth and other tracking methods. Not to mention their multifarious ways of converting suitcases in 'transformer' like ways.

Then I saw small cases / pouches for computer cables and adaptors - which looked like the amentiy bags from C-class. Which I have been using for cables and adaptors for years!

So many small and unexpected companies and services will be lost.

[Pistonprop]

I thought Hertz had only filed for Chapter 11 protection. As such they have not "gone down" and continue to trade.

[PAXboy]

Indeed, Ch 11. A merger or take over would then be on the cards, I'd say. That is because no one thinks the travel world is going to return to '2019' levels for a year or more. The changes in the travel world are all open at the moment.

[Alsacienne]

I thought it was just Hertz in the US that had applied for Chapter 11 but that other agencies on other continents were 'safe' ... at least for the moment. If there was a race to the bottom for certain off-airport car rental companies to close, I'd plump for certain others ... have had nothing but exceptional service from Hertz at STN and LGW - both North and South terminals.

[Pistonprop]

Chapter 11 is an opportunity to restructure your debts. It does not necessarily lead to mergers or take-overs. Companies have successfully emerged from Chapter 11 and become profitable businesses again.

[PAXboy]

True and I hope so but the smaller, local companies will really be in trouble. Not to mention all the staff of these various companies.

[Mr Mac]

Alsacienne
I think you are correct that it is only US based operation seeking chapter 11. Also I would agree with your comments re Hertz generally, although not the cheapest they have always proved to be the best in my experience of them, and much better than the likes of Alamo in the US. They sent me on my way in an illegal car (bald tyres) which I found out when I had a puncture. Their response when I called them pointing out that I could have an accident was to say that is why we have insurance !
Cheers
Mr Mac

[Asturias56]

I've always preferred Avis but on a recent trip to S Italy Europcar came up trumps when I had a (low-speed) blowout - instant replacement of the car without any questions. Took 10 minutes

[PAXboy]

The further knock on is the companies that supply car fleets to Hertz. I gather that GM and Fiat supply over 100,000 cars year (irrespective of country, I think) and then those emerge on to the second hand market. It is a long sequence. Found the quote from Bloomberg:

General Motors has been the single biggest supplier for the Hertz fleet of 567,000 vehicles in the United States, with GM models making up 21 percent of its fleet, spanning several brands. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has been its second biggest supplier, contributing to 18 percent of its domestic fleet. Ford has been in the third spot, contributing to 12 percent of its fleet, while Kia models have accounted for 10 percent of the fleet. Toyota, Nissan, and Hyundai vehicles accounted for 9 percent, 7 percent, and 5 percent of the Hertz fleet, respectively.

Of course, the rental giant's fleet is in constant rotation and does not purchase 567,000 cars for its U.S. operations every year, but rather keeps vehicles in its U.S. operations for 18 months. Hertz's international fleet of 204,000 vehicles is usually kept for 12 months, Bloomberg notes. Overall, fleet sales tend to account for approximately 20 percent of the Detroit Three automakers' sales.

For its two most significant fleet suppliers, GM and FCA, this adds up to approximately 100,000 vehicles sold to Hertz by each automaker over a time period lasting about a year and a half. In recent weeks General Motors has even taken back cars that were headed to Hertz locations.