Car hire costs are finally coming down in Ireland and Europe after years of ‘crazy prices’ post-pandemic, according to transport commentator Conor Faughnan.
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Mr Faughnan said supply chain shortages after the COVID pandemic have finally been resolved with prices and availability now ‘more or less’ where they were in 2019.
It comes after a study by iCarhireinsurance.com in the UK found that prices are down by 27% on last year and more than 40% on 2022.
Meanwhile, research by UK consumer organisation 'Which?' earlier this year found prices were up to 47% cheaper than last year in some destinations.
'Crazy prices'
Mr Faughnan said the issues the car hire industry has been facing appear to have been resolved.
“It’s a better news story this year,” he said.
“The last couple of years, this time of year, we've been talking about really expensive car hire - particularly for inbound tourists to Ireland, with some Americans being quoted crazy prices - and bad all over Europe.
“It appears to be fixed.
“The issue was there was a shortage of stock coming out of COVID - you may remember there was a shortage of microchips and the whole supply chain was shut down or slowed down.
"They seem to be over that hump and right across Europe, prices are back and availability is back more or less to what it was pre-pandemic.”
Ireland
Mr Faughnan said the car hire industry should be much cheaper than 2022, “when it went crazy altogether and there were nutty prices”.
He said Ireland's prices are now similar to those in other European countries.
“Ireland is no longer an outlier as expensive,” he said.
“A year ago, or two years ago, our price rises were the worst in Europe and inbound tourists felt really gouged in Ireland.”
“But actually, there was a study done in the UK … checking lots of different cities around Europe and Dublin came out significantly cheaper than Rome, Milan, Paris and a lot of the sort of common areas.”
The RIAC Chief said motorists should still plan ahead when considering renting a car – warning that there are lots of hidden charges to be aware of.
You can listen back to the full interview here:
