June 28, 2026. This week prices seem to have stabilized at their elevated summertime peak season plateau. They are expected to stay at this level for at least a few weeks. With the month of June nearly over, we can make our year-over-year comparison vs June of last year. Averaged over the entire month of June 2026, Maui car rental prices at the Kahului Airport (OGG) are roughly double what they were one year ago, for the entire range of vehicles available. .

Fig. 1. Prices for Maui car rental at Kahului Airport (OGG) from April 2025 until now.

HOW MUCH IS THE CHEAPEST MAUI RENTAL CAR ON JUNE 29, 2026?

Every week, we list the lowest available prices for a one-week car rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), for a selection of vehicle categories, with the company offering the best price. This is our overview of Maui car rental prices for the week beginning Monday, June 29, 2026.

Category Price Company

Economy $588 Dollar

Midsize $740 Dollar

Jeep $875 Thrifty

Convertbl $724 Budget

SUV $1,154 Budget

7 St SUV $1,700 Budget

Minivans SOLD OUT

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 Dollar, at $588/week. Mid-size cars are starting at $740/week, also at Dollar. Jeeps are starting at $875/week, from Thrifty. The lowest price for a convertible is $724/week, at Budget. The cheapest standard SUV's are $1,154/week, at Budget. Large (7-seat) SUV's start at $1,145/week, also from Budget. And minivans are completely sold out island-wide with none available from any company serving the airport or any off-airport locations listed in the Online Travel Agent (OTA) systems. .

Fig. 2. Maui car rental prices at Kahului Airport (OGG) this week and last week, with the percentage change..

HOW MUCH DID MAUI RENTAL CAR PRICES CHANGE FROM LAST WEEK?

For each vehicle category, this is how the lowest price for a one week rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG) starting on Monday June 29, 2026 has changed from the week before:

Category This week Last Change
Economy $588 $427 +38%

Midsize $740 $700 +6%

Jeep $875 $1,269 -31%

Convertbl $724 $724 0%

SUV $1,154 $1,230 -6%

7 st SUV $1,700 $1,844 -8%

Minivan - -

This week's prices for rental cars from Kahului Airport (OGG) were mixed compared to last week. As we indicated that we expected last week, prices seem to be leveling off near their summertime peak levels. For mid-size cars, convertibles, and SUV's, the price movements were relatively small, nearly unchanged. from the previous week. But economy/compact cars saw a relatively large increase, up 38% from the week before - this brings them back to about were they were before last week's 20% drop. The other outlier move was a 31% drop for Jeeps. This contrarian move could be due to a temporary discount or special offer at Budget. Minivans remained sold out, for the second week in a row. Note that minivans are available, at elevated prices, with just a few days' advance notice. They are just not available for the next-day price-check that we do in our price survey.

Prices for this week and last week, with the percentage change week-to-week, are illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 3. Price comparison for Maui Car Rental as of July 2026 shows prices significantly higher year-over-year.

HOW DO MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICES COMPARE TO ONE YEAR AGO?

With the month of June nearing its end, we are in a position to compare the average price for the entire month versus the average price last year, in every vehicle category:

Vehicle 2025 2026 Change

Economy $247 $450 +82%

Midsize $285 $635 +123%

Jeep $486 $1,019 +110%

Convertbl $507 $649 +28%

SUV $386 $881 +128%

7 st SUV $718 $1,527 +113%

Minivan - - -

These numbers are charted in Figure 3.

For most vehicles, the average price of a one-week rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG) during the month of June 2026 was in the range of double what it was in June 2025.

Economy/compact cars increased 82% year-over-year. For midsize cars, the increase was 123%. Jeeps increased 110%. Standard SUV's increase 123%. Seven seat SUV's increase 113%. For minivans, it was not possible to make a meaningful comparison, because they have been completely sold out for the last three weeks. The only outlier to the overall increase was for convertibles, that increased "only" (yah right) 28% year-over-year in the month of June. So what about convertibles is keeping their prices somewhat tethered compared to the other vehicles? As we've noted before about convertibles, honestly, we don't know what is going on with these vehicles and what regularly drives their prices in the opposite direction - up or down - from other vehicles.

This month's massive year-over-year increases in rental car costs in Maui continues the trend we have documented since the beginning of 2026. In every month, prices were substantially higher than the year before.

WHY ARE MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICES SO HIGH AND WHY IS NOBODY SAYING - OR DOING - ANYTHING ABOUT IT?

Last week we presented an in-depth discussion of the specific factors that have led to the dramatic price increase in Maui rental car costs in 2026.

But the 2026 increase is not an isolated event. It comes on top of a succession of price shocks that started as far back as 2019. After each of these shocks, prices have "stuck" at a higher level - from which they rose again with the next shock. Let's review the series of events that brought us from a pricey but reasonable price environment to where we are now, that we summarize as total absolute rental car price insanity.

2019: Maui Kahului Airport completes construction of a Consolidated Rent A Car (ConRAC) facility that brings all rental car companies serving the airport under one roof. We believe that this facility imposes constraints on rental car operations, that leads to higher operating costs, and higher prices.
2021: A rush of travelers escaping from their months-long Covid isolation finds that Maui rental car companies have shipped large portions of their fleets back to the mainland US, rather than leave them rot in the subtropical sun and moisture of Maui. This is the first of the series of shocks that sets new price records.
2024. Faced with a huge decline in travel following the disastrous Lahaina wildfires of 2023, Maui rentacar companies once again reduced their fleets. But with travel resuming in 2024, logistical delays - backups at seaports, shortage of cargo space - meant that replacement fleet vehicles did not arrive to Maui in time for the winter season. New price records are set.
2025-2026. Back-to-back vehicle safety recalls idled thousands of popular fleet vehicles and drove up prices overall throughout out the last 12-month period. First Chrysler minivans in July 2025, then Jeeps in November 2025, then Ford SUV's in March 2026, followed by Chevy sedans in May. The rental companies sure know how to pick their vehicles..
2026. The rise of the machines. Pricing is turned over to AI, "who" apparently decides that discounting is pure human foolishness, and customers should be squeezed for every last penny they got. This is exacerbated by the failure and withdrawal from the market of an important low-price competitor, that removes the gravitational downward attraction force on prices. (Side note: How does a company fail when prices are going up and it has everything going for it? There is, without a doubt, a story there).

We have documented every one of these driving force factors in our blog, at different times. This is the first time that we bring them all together. Seeing them laid out together, the magnitude and scale of the parabolic price rise becomes more readily comprehensible.

As always in every economic bubble, the question is whether this is merely an inflationary event, that will come to its natural collapse, or a real structural transformation. Will the stickiness mechanisms that keep prices up persist, or will the bubble reach some point where it has no alternative but to pop.

Probably it would take some outside catalyst to burst the bubble. Would it have to be an event of the same scale of the 2009 worldwide financial crisis, or the 2020 world-wide pandemic? In the months immediately following those events, prices of Maui rental cars collapsed to levels that were entirely affordable. Prices also re-equilibrated to lower levels after the 2021 bubble, as rental car companies replenished their Maui inventories. But prices do not stay at those lower levels for long. After each of these deflationary events, prices resumed their seemingly inexorable rise, leading them higher and higher.

It is mind-boggling to consider where prices could go if the present trend of 2026 continues. At Christmas of 2024, prices hit then unheard of levels more than $500 per day. At Christmas 2025, it was twice that. What should we expect for Christmas 2026? Could we see prices of $2,000, $3,000 per day? It no longer takes any temerity to post an outrageous price across the entire worldwide Online Travel Agent (OTA) network. A machine does it, nobody is directly to blame, and everybody in the industry nods in assent, rubbing their hands together at the thought of their year-end bonus.

It seems that the sky is the limit.

We repeat exactly the same advice we gave last week: Your best defense remains to lock in a flexible, cancelable reservation as early as possible to secure your baseline safety net, and keep a sharp eye on our weekly tracker to exploit any opening in the form of a temporary discount - or even a brief glitch in the matrix. We've seen these happen. When they do, we book first (on behalf of the lucky customer), answer questions later.

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.

Beginning in July 2024, we've tracked the prices on 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. Our weekly price-tracking for the lowest price economy car category goes back to July 2023 - more than one year. These are the data for the charts we post every week.

Figure 4. Week-by-week variation of Maui car rental prices averaged over five years, from 2013 to 2018.

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 6, 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. Visit our website at www.mauicarrental.biz, or call us at 808-280-1196.

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Price Data Sources: rentalcars.com, rentals.mauicarrental.biz