by Turo
posted on January 20, 2026
The long road from rental counters to modern marketplaces: Get a detailed look at the history of car rental—including how car rental has evolved from centralized fleets to modern peer-to-peer platforms.
Long before people could unlock a car with their phone, renting a vehicle usually meant walking up to a counter, signing a stack of paperwork, and driving off in whatever was available on the lot. For decades, that was simply how renting a car worked. But car rental needs kept shifting. People started looking for options that felt less rigid—cars that were closer to home, easier to book, and the specific type of car they wanted to drive.
New car rental models eventually emerged to address these needs, helped along by smartphones and the rise of app-based platforms. Instead of relying on centralized fleets and fixed operating hours, these newer approaches to renting a car gave people more flexible scheduling, neighborhood-level pickup access, and digital check-ins.
Peer-to-peer car rental later took shape and pushed the idea even further by letting individuals make their own vehicles available to guests, expanding the variety to include choices like EVs and specialty models.
Let’s take a closer look at how (and why) this evolution happened over the last several decades—including the role Turo has played in expanding it to cities nationwide.
How traditional car rental first took shape
The early industry and post-WWII growth
Commercial car rental started gaining traction in the early 20th century, but it wasn’t until after World War II that the industry really took off. With more highways, more domestic flights, and more business travel, rental companies rushed to build fleets and set up counters in airports and city centers. The idea was fairly simple: keep a large pool of vehicles at staffed locations and rent them out in daily or weekly blocks.
By the 1970s, major car rental brands had grown into nationwide networks. Their setups lined up with the travel patterns of the time: travelers were arriving at a destination by air and needed a car for local transportation, people were heading out on more business trips, and families were planning longer road trips and vacations.
How the standard car rental model works
The process hasn’t changed much over the decades. Rental companies own or lease their fleets, maintain centralized lots, and typically assign vehicles based on categories rather than individual models. Customers book a class, arrive at a counter, review a contract, and pick up a car that fits the category.
The rental contracts cover base rates, optional or required insurance, refueling policies, mileage rules, and various fees. While details can vary, the overall system looks the same, no matter which company you use.
Limitations of the traditional car rental model
Limited access beyond airports and major hubs
For many people, the biggest obstacle to traditional car rental is simply getting to the car in the first place. Most rental locations cluster around airports, central business districts, and perhaps a limited number of neighborhood branches. If you live far from one of these locations—or need a car outside their operating hours—you need to accommodate.
The time involved in pick-ups and returns
Even with online booking, renters often have to budget extra time for all the usual rental counter processes, like ID checks, insurance decisions, and contract reviews. Returning the car means a trip back to the lot, sometimes with little room for scheduling changes.
The gap between the advertised rate and the actual final cost
Base rates don’t always show the full picture. Add-ons for insurance, tolls, mileage, extra drivers, underage fees, or fuel can inflate the total cost significantly, and many companies pass along vehicle license fees (VLFs), which aren’t always obvious during booking. Travelers who budget around the advertised price sometimes end up with a much higher bill than they expected.
Choosing a class instead of a specific car
Renters select from vehicle categories and have limited choice over the exact model or features they get—whether it’s size, features, electric vs. gas, or cargo needs. Fleet management simply isn’t built for that level of personalization.
How car rental has evolved beyond traditional fleets
Modern car rental options like Turo are a more recent evolution of the industry and give people short- and long-term access to vehicles located throughout neighborhoods, campuses, airports, and travel destinations. Instead of visiting a counter, booking and verification happen through an app or website, and most check-ins are self-service.
How modern car rental models have expanded in recent years
Smartphones played a major role in the growth of modern car rental platforms, especially in the late 2000s, when the car sharing model became viable. Once mobile apps became part of everyday life, it became far easier to verify identities, manage bookings in real time, and unlock cars digitally.
As people grew more comfortable booking travel and services directly through apps—and more familiar with peer-to-peer marketplaces in general—the idea of renting vehicles through app-based, host-driven marketplaces became normalized.
What Makes Modern Car Rental Different From Traditional Models?
At its core, modern car rental makes vehicle access more straightforward and reduces certain barriers to access. This evolution of traditional car rental has been shaped by:
- App-based registration and booking
- Digital or self-service check-ins
- Flexible rental windows
- Vehicles available at airports as well as other locations
These changes mean people can easily book a car for shorter trips or take a longer ride without needing to visit a rental counter. This modernized rental model opens the door to even more flexible solutions, especially as peer-to-peer car rental becomes more common.
The development of peer-to-peer car rental marketplaces
Early peer-to-peer car sharing pilots in the first handful of major cities showed how much more varied and flexible the selection could be when individual owners contributed vehicles. Turo helped bring this approach into the mainstream by creating a national marketplace where local hosts could list their cars and guests could choose from an inventory far broader than any traditional rental fleet.
The numbers tell the story: Active owners (hosts) on Turo have increased by 180% in the last 5 years, and 1,157% in the last decade (2015-2025). This expansion coincides with the increasing number of active guests (renters) on Turo, which has increased by 484% in the last 5 years, and 4829% in the last decade.
How the peer-to-peer car rental model works
Peer-to-peer car rental (a specific type of car sharing) takes the familiar principles of car rental (i.e., access to a booked car for a set time) and reorganizes the supply side of the equation. Instead of central companies buying and managing large fleets, individual car owners make their personal vehicles available through a digital platform.
- Hosts list their vehicles, set their own availability, and use either in-person exchanges or remote access tools.
- Guests browse specific cars—make, model, features—and book directly through the platform.
- The platform then handles identity checks, payments, insurance frameworks, support, and safety requirements, so the process runs consistently for both hosts and renters.
What this means for renters:
Peer-to-peer renting introduced several changes that weren’t possible with traditional rental structures:
- Exact vehicle selection rather than categories.
- More variety, ranging from everyday cars to EVs, performance models, vans, or specialty vehicles. (The number of distinct makes on Turo increased by 179% over the last decade, with EV listings increasing by 11,030% in the last decade.)
- Neighborhood access, expanding availability beyond airport corridors and central business districts. (The number of cities where Turo is active has increased by 156% in the last 5 years, and 409% in the last decade.)
Looking ahead
Peer-to-peer car rental evolved from a simple observation: many of the limits built into traditional car rental weren’t aligning with how people want to book a rental car. Connecting drivers directly with individual owners and specific cars has opened up possibilities that centralized fleets can’t match.
Turo helped move this approach into the mainstream by making this kind of access widely available and optimized to the tech we all use on a daily basis. And as more people look for alternatives to the traditional car rental playbook, this focus on simplicity, transparency, and personal choice is becoming the new standard.
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