Maui Car Rental Average Prices For The Month Of August 2026 vs. August 2025
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
August 30, 2026. August always brings with it a moderation in rental car prices in Maui due to seasonally lower visitor levels compared to the earlier summer high season of July. This August is no different, with prices in many vehicle categories hitting what we can safely take to be rock bottom prices for the year. With the calendar month ending, we make our regular comparison of the average price for the month versus one year ago. Average prices in August reveal a divergence between the broad market - up year over year - and the specialized people-mover categories of minivans and large SUV's, that are down compared to one year earlier. Keep reading for a detailed exploration of these trends.
HOW MUCH IS THE CHEAPEST MAUI RENTAL CAR ON AUGUST 31, 2026?
Every week, we list the lowest available prices for a one-week car rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), for a range of different vehicle categories, with the company offering the best price. This is our overview of Maui car rental prices for the week beginning Monday, August 31, 2026.
Category Price Company
Economy $232 SixT
Midsize $304 Thrifty
Jeep $409 Alamo
Convertible $473 Budget
SUV $258 SixT
7 St SUV $301 SiXT
Minivan $359 Dollar
The prices quoted here include all applicable taxes and fees. Prices for these vehicle types charted week-to-week for the last 14 months are illustrated in Figure 1.
These are the lowest prices in every car category: The lowest price for a compact car from Kahului Airport (OGG) this week is with SixT, at $232/week. Mid-size cars are starting at $304/week, at Budget. Jeeps are starting at just $409/week, from Alamo. Convertibles start at $473/week, from Budget. The cheapest standard SUV's are just $258/week, at SiXt. Large 7-seat SUV's are only $301/week, at SiXT. Minivans, are a very affordable $359/week, at Dollar.
HOW MUCH DID MAUI RENTAL CAR PRICES CHANGE FROM LAST WEEK?
This is how the lowest price for a one week rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG) starting on August 31, 2026 has changed from the week before, for every vehicle category:
Category This week Last Change Economy $232 $268 -13%
Midsize $304 $343 -11%
Jeep $409 $409 No Change
Convertible $473 $447 +6%
SUV $258 $330 -22%
7 st SUV $301 $364 -17%
Minivan $359 $364 -1%
Prices are down in nearly every category, with only covertibles registering an increase.
The lowest price for a compact cars is down 13% from last week. Midsize cars are down 11%. Jeeps are unchanged at what we called last week a rock bottom price of $409/week. Standard SUVs were down 22%, to a bargain basement level of $258/week. Similarly for large SUV's, down by 17% to just $301/week. Minivans also seem to be at a rock-bottom price, down just 1% from last week, at $359/week. Convertibles are the exception, up a moderate 6%, following on to the same percentage increase last week. Why convertibles are rising while everything else is dropping is a question that we are not able to answer.
Prices for this week and last week, with the percentage change week-to-week, are illustrated in Figure 2.
HOW DID AVERAGE PRICES FROM THIS AUGUST COMPARE TO ONE YEAR AGO?
At the end of the calendar month, we take the price in each category averaged over the entire month and compare it to the corresponding average of the year before. This is the comparison for August 2026 vs 2025.
Category 2025 2026 Change Economy $228 $258 +13%
Midsize $288 $312 +8%
Jeep $397 $413 +4%
Convertbl $451 $551 +22%
SUV $296 $385 +30%
7 st SUV $524 $446 -15%
Minivan $1,028 $554 -46%
For most vehicle categories, average prices for the month of August 2026 were up compared to the year before. For economy cars, the increase was 13%. Midsize cars were up 8%. The lowest price for a Jeep increased 4%. Convertibles were up 22%. And standard SUV;s increased 30%. But for large SUV's, prices were down 15%, and minivans this August cost only about half what they did one year ago, down 46%.
WHY ARE SOME PRICES DOWN WHILE MOST OTHERS ARE UP?
Let's make sense of these seemingly divergent trends. Minivans and large SUV's were the categories hardest hit by the effects of the Chrysler minivan safety recall of July 2025. Hundreds (possibly up to 2,000) minivans were idled and could not be rented until they were repaired. Scarcity drove prices up drastically for the category. Prices for large SUV's seating 7 also rose, as travelers needing a multi-passenger vehicle sought them out as a substitute for minivans. So prices in these categories were abnormally high one year ago. One year later, they are making a welcome return to the norm. This is why they are down compared to last year, while everything else is up.
DID MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICES INCREASE IN 2026?
Looking more broadly across the other categories, they are uniformly up from one year ago - but not so much as they were when we compared average prices year-over-year for the month of July or earlier in the year. In past months we have reported monthly average prices that were 50%, 70%, and even double of what they were a year earlier. This seeming moderation of the price increase in August is due to the non-linear nature of price volatility in this geographically constrained market. Prices seem to increase gradually with demand until they reach a tipping point where they explode exponentially - we have seen this happen repeatedly earlier in the year. The seasonally heavier demand of the month of July - that corresponds to the busiest portion of the summer travel season - and earlier high season months acts as an accelerant to the structural price increase that most categories are experiencing this year. In August, we expect prices go to their rock bottom for the entire year - it is the price level that reveals the fundamental structural increase across all categories compared to one year ago.
WHY ARE MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICES HIGHER IN 2026?
We have returned to this question many times in past issues of this blog. Among the reasons we have considered are:
Broad fleet reductions following the Lahaina wildfire disaster of August 2023.
Operational constraints at the Maui airport car rental facility (CONRac),
Reduced competition from the shrunken pool of off-airport providers
Aggressive machine learning pricing strategies that limit discounting All of these have been explored in detail in this blog. Another "hidden" reason that is worth considering is the financial environment of 2025 and 2026, with its higher commercial interest rates, that lead to an increase in the financing costs of rental fleets that are either leased or financed with corporate credit. These higher financing costs go hand-in-hand with the well-publicized increases in the cost of new vehicles. Taken together, increased prices and increased financing costs are a double whammy that may leave rental companies no option but to increase prices in order to match their capital and financing costs. The broad economic environment continues to feature a combination of inflation and increased material costs, higher interest rates, and import tariffs driving up the cost of acquiring and financing rental fleets, and this economic environment is also driving up the basic operating costs or a rental fleet. The cost of electricity to power rental facilities has increased significantly. So has the cost of engine oil, the price of tires, and a myriad of other auto parts. All of these factors reinforce one another. Their effect is additive and cumulative - it is this price increase "synergy" with the whole increase greater than sum of the individual increases - is precisely what explains the dramatic and shocking level of what we will now call the "great 2026 price increase of Maui car rental prices." Only time will tell if this is a step function that has reached a stable level, ro a continuing price spiral.
HOW DO WE GET OUR MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICE DATA?
Prices for Maui car rentals vary from week to week, and the company offering the lowest price also changes from week to week. Furthermore, one company may be offering the lowest price in one vehicle category, for example mid-size cars, while a different company has a better price on another category, for example mini-vans.
We have recently completed three full years of weekly monitoring of the lowest available price for a one-week rental at Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), compiling prices for vehicles available at the Consolidated Rent A Car facility (ConRAC) as well as rentals from off-airport locations served by free shuttle. This survey covers 10 different companies, Ace (closed as of March 2026), Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Fox, Hertz, National, Nu, Payless, Sixt, and Thrifty.
This price survey covering three years from July 2023 to this July is illustrated in Figure 3. This chart marks an important milestone in our multi-year price-tracking effort. We will return to it in future editions of this blog to discuss salient features like the significant rise in the price floor in 2026 compared to 2025 (clearly visible on the chart), and the repeating seasonal variation of prices (also clearly visible).
Beginning in July 2024, we expanded our data collection from just the lowest price available to the lowest prices in seven vehicle categories - compact, mid-size, Jeep, convertible, SUV, 7-seat SUV, and minivan - from 10 different companies at Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG): Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National, Payless, SiXT, and Thrifty. Each week, for every vehicle type, we noted which company offered the lowest price. Later this month we will have completed two full years of this data set - which will again give us plenty of salient findings to dive into, deeply.
Previously we conducted a five-year price-tracking study for the lowest price economy car category beginning in February 2013 and continuing to February 2018. A sample of these results is in Figure 4, that shows the five-year average of the price over a one-year duration. For details of this massive price-tracking undertaking, and the most important findings on how and when to rent a car, see our blog post of July 14, 2024 titled "When is the best time to rent a car in Maui?"
HOW TO CHECK RATES AND AVAILABILITY FOR MAUI CAR RENTAL
Either click through to to our Maui rental cars rate and availability section, or check our booking site at rentals.mauicarrental.biz. This site gives you access to all vehicles from eight different companies - Ace, Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Payless, and Thrifty - at all their Maui locations, that include the Airport rentacar center, Kahului town locations nearby the airport, and resort locations in Kihei/Wailea, and Ka'anapali. With so many options to choose from, you are assured to find the rental car that matches your preferences and your budget for your Maui trip - and there is never a cancellation penalty if you have to change plans.
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Frank Saab is a thought leader in the rental car industry, quoted by influential publications like SFgate.com. He is the editor of this blog published by Frank's Friendly Cars Maui Car Rental LLC, an independent car rental company operating in Maui, Hawaii, since 2006. Frank's offers low prices on affordable older cars and discount prices on new cars, with a "Lowest Price Guarantee" that assures you of getting the best deal on your rental. The company is a member of the Hawaii Visitors and Conventions Bureau (HVCB) and the American Car Rental Association (ACRA). Visit our website at www.mauicarrental.biz, or call us at 808-280-1196.
Price Data Sources: rentalcars.com, rentals.mauicarrental.biz
