To close out this discussion... I monitored rental cars in Orange County California at John Wayne Airport on Hotwire for about a week and a half. Prices seemed to fluctuate about a $1 per day up and down with no real recognizable trend in when they went up or down. I needed a car for 7 days. I ended up getting a mid-size car for $25.95 per day total. The lowest I had seen (and missed BTW) was $24.95 for that same mid-size car. Some of the full-size pricing fluctated about $2-4 per day depending on when I looked. I just went out there to see what the pricing is today (3 days to rental) and the mid-size is still $25.95 per day. But a standard SUV has dropped about $7-8 per day...not that I needed or wanted a gas hog... So my not so technical experiment in my small little world yielded that pricing seemed to be somewhat flat for the car I was looking at. The reason I started this thread was because I didn't know if in an 'off-peak' vacation time if prices would drop right at the end with surpluses of cars available...they still might and I'll continue to check this week just out of curiosity...but the next time I rent may have some professional sports team playing in the area and no cars available... I'm happy with an ~$52% savings from Avis that I recieved thru Hotwire...anything more would be gambling and greed IMO and I'm simply too conservative to risk things I guess. Hope this can help someone else in the future. Thanks again.
