Tucson car rental business impacted by high gas prices

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As Abdulmaajid Abulkamal picks up the phone everyday, he knows it’s just one of the few calls he’ll be getting for the day from a customer hoping to rent a car.

Gas prices have been getting higher and higher in Tucson lately and because of that, he said sometimes they only get one or two calls a day.

He’s the manager of Tucson Auto Rental and Sales and said for months they’ve been making half the profit compared to what they used to make.

“We used to have almost 40 to 45 cars out on the road almost everyday and now we’re seeing about 18, 20,” Abulkamal said.

He said high gas prices is why not as many people are renting and said he doesn’t even have a single reservation for the summertime, which he said he usually gets around this time.

Compared to last year, he said this year has been slower for rentals even with the high gas prices last year.

“This car right now, it’s been sitting here for almost four months,” he said, pointing to a red car.

He said they usually only stay on the lot for about a week before they’re rented.

As for how they’re making money, he said most of their income comes from car rental extensions.

“You’ve been telling me that some of these cars have been on the lot for months, for weeks. How does that make you feel knowing that business is slow?” KGUN9 reporter Andrew Christiansen asked him.

“Well, it really really hurts. I hope it gets better,” he replied.

While he waits to see if gas prices go lower, he said they’ll still have the same business model they’ve had for more than 30 years.

“Well our main business is basically word of mouth,” he said.

Hoping gas prices go down, he said it’s word of mouth that will help them out like in years past.

“I hope that it gets at least a little better, if not the same that it used to be,” Abulkamal said.

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