December 21, 2025 - Maui rental cars are completely sold out from Kahului Airport (OGG) and the off-airport locations that serve the airport. This applies for one-week rentals beginning December 22. There is partial availability for December 22 and 23. After that, the sell-out is complete from Dec 23 to Dec. 28, with absolutely no cars available between these dates. Availability resumes on December 29.

Before availability ran out, the cost of renting an "economy" car for the week topped $6,000/week. This was higher than the peak price from Christmas last year that was just under$2,000/week for the so-called "economy car."

Three factors making this Christmas even worse than last year are: first, the recall on Jeep Wrangler hybrids, that has put hundreds of these vehicles out of service; second, the lingering effect of this summer's recall on minivans, that is still keeping a significant portion of the minivan rental fleet out of service pending repair; and third, finally, continuing delays in arrival of new convertibles With the Jeeps, minivans, and convertibles being two of the most sought-after car types for Maui travelers, the limitations on their availability puts a squeeze on everything else, and jacks up prices across the board.

Even the off-airport rental locations at the Maui resorts (Kihei/Wailea and Lahaina/Ka'anapali), that we do not normally cover in our survey, are completely sold out for the peak dates of December 24 to 28. Visitors might as well abandon all hope for these dates.

IS THERE ANY HOPE OF CANCELLATIONS?

Many ask: "Is there any hope of cancellations making cars available?" If experience is any guide, what is likely to happen is the exact opposite of cancellations. We expect that many confirmed reservations will be bumped because of over-booking. That's right, you show up at the airport after a long light, to find out that the car that was supposed to be there waiting for you is not there. This was a frequent complaint at last year 's Christmas peak, and is highly likely to repeat this year. No, "they" (the car rental companies) are not cancelling your reservation in order to rent your car out at a higher rate - they are over-booked, pure and simple, with not enough cars to cover all the reservations that their systems have booked. Once again, their computer models for fleet utilization will have led them astray. When will they ever learn?

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR CAR RENTAL RESERVATION IS CANCELLED WITHOUT NOTICE?

So what happens if you are bumped? When it comes to cancellation due to over-booking, you are most at risk with a pre-paid reservation from a online travel agent (OTA) like Expedia, Kayak, Priceline and others, because these reservations cannot be modified to give you a car at the next availability - they can only be cancelled entirely and re-booked, not modified, and the rates for re-booking are extremely unfavorable compared to the rate that was originally booked. On top of that, the process for getting refunded from the OTA is a nightmare - because the car rental company cannot refund you, and getting money back from OTA's is like trying to get blood from a stone. We're very sorry for you if you find yourself in this situation.

Continue reading for this week's summaries.

Fig. 1. Lowest advertised Maui car rental prices for select vehicles charted for 14 months

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO RENT A CAR IN MAUI ON DECEMBER 22, 2025?

Every week, we list the lowest advertised prices for a one-week car rental from Maui's Kahului Airport (OGG), for a selection of vehicle categories, with the change from the previous week, and the company offering the best price.

For this week starting December 22, 2025, the price peaked at about $6,000/week for an economy car, and there were no other cars available, so we just give you the chart showing the price movements over the last 14 months.

HOW DID PRICES CHANGE FROM LAST WEEK?

Normally here we compare prices for this week and last week, with the percentage change week-to-week.

Again, with no cars available at any price, we cannot make this comparison.

HOW DO THIS WEEK'S PRICES COMPARE TO THE 52-WEEK MEDIAN PRICE?

The median price for a vehicle, calculated over a 52-week period, reflects an expected price for renting the vehicle. Current prices higher than the median (i.e. at a premium) reflect high season/high demand conditions. Prices lower than the medium (i.e. at a discount) reflect slow periods/excess supply.

Same as above, with no vehicles available at any price, we cannot make these comparisons.

HOW DO PRICES COMPARE TO ONE YEAR AGO?

Comparing this week's prices to prices at the corresponding week one year ago is another useful and informative way of gauging the condition of the market. This week we can make the comparison only for economy cars, $6,000/week this year versus $2,000/week last year, or a 200% increase

WHAT FACTORS ARE DRIVING THE PRICES MAUI RENTAL CARS At CHRISTMAS 2025?

These are the factors driving this year's Maui car rental fiasco:

1 Minivans and SUV's Are Affected By Last Summer's Safety Recall

his summer, availability for these vehicles was impacted by a minivan safety recall from Chrysler Corporation, that idled large numbers of rental fleet minivans. Recovery from this shock has been slow, with required repairs not completed on a large number of vehicles, putting them out of service.

2 New Convertibles Have Been Slow To Go Into Service

When it comes to convertibles, we have observed over the last few months several unusual availability and pricing dynamics. First, hundreds of newly arrived convertibles sat idle awaiting processing (licensing and fleet integration) in the rental base-yards. As the older models they replaced were taken out of service and taken off-island, rental prices for convertibles rose to unusual levels for the low season of late summer and early fall. Advance reservation systems seemed to expect that the new vehicles would be put back into service by Thanksgiving, however many of these vehicles are still awaiting processing and sitting idle the rental base-yards even as demand peaks for Christmas.

3 Another Recall - This One On Jeeps

You've read it right - another recall. In late November popular Jeep models were struck with a safety recall. As a result, hundreds of these popular vehicles are sitting idle in the airport rental company base-yards.

Fig. 2. Maui car rental prices from the last 13 months plus price forecast for the next five weeks.

MAUI CAR RENTAL PRICE FORECAST FOR JANUARY 2026

As of today, December 21 2025, the lowest advertised prices for a one week rental made in advance, both from the airport rentals and off-airport, are as follows for the future dates shown:

DATE OFF-OGG OGG

12/22/25 $6,022 -

12/29/25 $900 $1,006

01/05/26 $416 $492

01/12/26 $476 $589

01/19/26 $472 $523

01/26/26 $414 $486

These advance reservation prices, marked as "Forecast," are illustrated in the area highlighted in Figure 2, which also shows the lowest price evolution over the last 13 months.

If we believe the advance reservation systems, prices should settle back down to a less unreasonable level in early January. As you can see from the chart, Advance booking prices for this January are at this time significantly lower than the last-minute prices from last January. However we expect prices to rise as this year's train wreck continues to unfold. The availability crunch will likely cause prices to jack up as their dates approach..

We advise travelers to book now for January, even if the rates seem high, because they are extremely likely to go higher.

Figure 3. Price trends for a one-week car rental in Maui from December 2024 to December 2025 show variations based on booking timings: one day, one week, and five weeks in advance.

IS IT CHEAPER TO BOOK IN ADVANCE VS LAST MINUTE?

In mid-December of 2024, we began to track the movement of advance booking prices as the reservation date approaches. Every week, we check the price one week out, two weeks out, three weeks out, up to five weeks out, and save the numbers for comparison.

From mid-February of this year until early October, the prices available one day in advance and one week in advance have been consistently lower than the price five weeks in advance (see figure 3).

However the tide turned in late September, and from then on it became beneficial to book in advance versus book at the last minute.

This week, anyone who waited until the last minute to book is being PUNISHED. The last-minute rate for an economy car, $6,000, is more than 3x what it was five weeks ago.

This surge happened almost entirely in the last few days, as the rate one week in advance was tracking very closely with the rate five weeks in advance until just a few days ago. In other words, until just a few days ago, there was no benefit from booking five weeks in advance versus later, however things change dramatically in just a few days with the last minute rate soaring sky-high.

DOES IT COST LESS TO RENT OFF-AIRPORT?

Every week, we compare the cost of renting a car off-airport for a one-week rental with the cost of an airport rental, with the percentage difference. This week, there is nothing to compare.

IS MAUI THE MOST EXPENSIVE HAWAIIAN ISLAND FOR CAR RENTAL?

Figure 4. Cost of one week car rental at major Hawaii airports, week by week, from February 25 to the present.

Here's a quick survey of the cheapest one-week rental cost from each of the five major Hawaii airports, for a rental beginning on Monday, December 22, 2025. For each airport, we report the lowest price this week and last week, and the difference percentage between the two. This is illustrated in Fig. 4.

12/22 12/15 CHANGE AIRPORT

$637 $286 123% Honolulu

$6,145 $397 1448% Maui

$812 $224 263% Kauai

$3,616 $637 468% Kona

- $246 - Hilo

This week prices at all Hawaii airports rose significantly, with Maui seeing the most staggering rise, nearly 1500% week-over-week, from about $400/week to more than $6,000/week in just one week. Hilo ran out of availability entirely.

As can be seen from the chart, in Figure 4, that compares prices week-to-week at all major Hawaii airports, from February, when we started tracking, until the present date, Maui has been consistently one of the cheapest if not the cheapest entirely when it comes to renting a car. However this week it is definitely the most expensive, eclipsing all the others in a gob-smacking display of volatility.

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 5. 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 5, 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 Cars & Rates 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 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 used local 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.

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