Car rental customers are facing up to the prospect of increased charges in the months ahead thanks to the ongoing dramas that have beset the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota.

The short term effect of the massive recall of thousands of Toyota vehicles, which left many car hire operators frantically withdrawing suspected faulty models from their fleets, has started to impact on the wallet of both rental customers and companies as tightening supplies have coupled with ongoing tightening purse strings to push prices up.

A survey on car hire bookings across four of the main airport rental operations in the US by Expedia has revealed that in the days following the Toyota recall prices rose by an average of 6.7 percent in comparison to the previous week. The figures applied to car rentals at N Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport ew York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, , and Miami International Airport. At JFK, where the pinch was felt most severely, prices rose by 8.4 percent.

Different car hire organisations have different degrees of Toyota numbers in their fleets meaning all are affected in different ways. While groups such as Avis Budget, Dollar Thrifty and Enterprise all run minimal Toyota stocks of around 5 percent, fellow operator Hertz has a fleet comprised of some 20 percent of the Japanese vehicles. However, all of the leading car hire firms have openly downplayed the impact of the Toyota groundings and continue to maintain that they are well placed to handle any potential customer confidence crisis.