1 In 5 people rent a car they can’t afford to buy.

It came as no shock to us when a new study revealed that 1 in 5 people rent cars that they would otherwise never be able to afford. The independent survey was performed by Canstar Blue across 576 recent car rental customers across several companies and was announced in early April.

The Australian survey showed Gen Y respondents are as much as 3 times as likely 26% as Baby Boomers (9%) to hire a car that they would not be able to afford. The findings showed males are 19% more likely to rent their dream car than females at 15%.

Manager of Canstar Blue Rebecca Logan said:

“These results show that a sizeable group of car hire customers are happy to invest a bit extra for the luxurious experience of driving and being seen in a car beyond their means in everyday life. This isn’t surprising, given many travellers adopt a more lax mindset when enjoying themselves away from home,”

Other interesting car rental consumer insights

The survey also revealed some additional car rental industry insights such as:

“Gen Y respondents revealed a savvy edge, with 47% of respondents photographing their car initially compared with 34% of Generation X and 29% of Baby Boomers.”

Following on from this is doesn’t surprise us that “The results showed a significant proportion of respondents took the time to protect themselves against a future dispute, with 35% taking a photograph of their car before driving away.”

“20% of generation Y respondents were likely to damage or crash their rental car.” “Females proved to be more cautious drivers of hire cars than males, with only 9% having an accident compared with 17% of male respondents.”

The study also revealed that a large portion of the people in survey made a conscious effort (66%) to buy additional car hire insurance or excess protection – either directly through the car rental company or via third party travel insurance providers.

Source = Canstar Blue