Who gets found first in car hire.

One measure of how Australians find car hire, across Google, AI answers, social platforms and brand demand. 247 brands discovered and 100 recorded, ranked on a single presence score. August 2026 edition.

Find your brand on this board

Leading this boardAugust 2026

#1Budget50.9

#2SIXT40.9

#3Hertz39.7

See all 100 recorded →

Measured across

Google AI Overviews ChatGPT Gemini Claude Perplexity Copilot TikTok Instagram YouTube Reddit

The board in brief

The lead 50.9 Budget

10.0 points clear of SIXT, who sits at 40.9.

The chase 40.9–33.0 3 brands chasing

SIXT 40.9
Hertz 39.7
Avis 33.0

The deciding channel 15% Social discoverability

Budget 78.6
Simba Car Hire 39.6

At 15% of the score, the lead over the next brand here moves the ranking further than any other channel's does.

Who owns each channel

Search 45% of the score SIXT 38.1 · #2 overall

AI 30% of the score Budget 59.0

Social 15% of the score Budget 78.6

Demand 10% of the score Hertz 65.7 · #3 overall

The board · August 2026

1 Move — Budget budget.com.au Search 33.6 AI 59.0 Social 78.6 Demand 62.5 50.9

2 Move — SIXT sixt.com.au Search 38.1 AI 39.7 Social 38.2 Demand 60.8 40.9

3 Move — Hertz hertz.com.au Search 31.2 AI 49.6 Social 28.3 Demand 65.7 39.7

4 Move — Avis avis.com.au Search 14.7 AI 53.9 Social 32.1 Demand 54.0 33.0

5 Move — KAYAK kayak.com.au Search 26.8 AI 34.7 Social 8.2 Demand 37.1 27.4

6 Move — Skyscanner skyscanner.com.au Search 34.1 AI 25.2 Social 0.0 Demand 37.6 26.7

7 Move — VroomVroomVroom vroomvroomvroom.com.au Search 13.7 AI 51.5 Social 13.1 Demand 28.2 26.4

8 Move — Rentalcars.com rentalcars.com Search 23.3 AI 33.0 Social 17.3 Demand 21.2 25.1

9 Move — Turo turo.com Search 10.0 AI 31.0 Social 39.1 Demand 41.1 23.8

10 Move — Thrifty thrifty.com.au Search 6.7 AI 26.3 Social 38.6 Demand 55.4 22.2

11 Move — DriveNow drivenow.com.au Search 9.7 AI 45.6 Social 12.2 Demand 10.3 20.9

12 Move — CarHire.com.au carhire.com.au Search 17.0 AI 40.6 Social 0.0 Demand 0.0 19.8

13 Move — Europcar europcar.com.au Search 12.9 AI 26.1 Social 25.4 Demand 20.3 19.5

14 Move — Bargain Car Rentals bargaincarrentals.com.au Search 9.9 AI 43.3 Social 7.4 Demand 0.0 18.5

15 Move — Redspot Car Rentals redspot.com.au Search 13.1 AI 36.7 Social 2.6 Demand 0.0 17.3

16 Move — Budget Trucks budgettrucks.com.au Search 17.0 AI 29.2 Social 0.0 Demand 0.0 16.4

17 Move — East Coast Car Rentals eastcoastcarrentals.com.au Search 3.2 AI 40.6 Social 13.2 Demand 0.0 15.6

18 Move — Enterprise enterpriserentacar.com.au Search 10.0 AI 7.5 Social 25.8 Demand 44.2 15.1

19 Move — Apex Car Rentals apexrentals.com.au Search 6.9 AI 25.2 Social 28.3 Demand 0.0 14.9

20 Move — Simba Car Hire simbacarhire.com.au Search 3.2 AI 24.3 Social 39.6 Demand 0.0 14.7

Head to head

Compare two brands.

Your brandTheir brand

BudgetRank #150.9

AISocialDemand

SIXTRank #240.9

Search discoverability33.638.1AI visibility59.039.7Social discoverability78.638.2Brand demand62.560.8

A channel showing n/m could not be measured for that brand this edition, so neither side wins it. It is not a zero.

Method

Four channels, one number.

Each channel is scored out of 100 against the set below, on its own terms, then combined on fixed weights. Nothing in this edition passes 76 and nothing realistically will: a brand would have to lead every channel at once.

45% 30% 15% 10%

45% Organic search

Google AI Overviews

20 category keywords per board, position weighted

30% AI answers

ChatGPT Gemini Claude Perplexity Copilot AI Mode

25 questions put to 7 engines, scored on who gets named

15% Social search

TikTok Instagram YouTube Reddit

Searches run inside each platform, not on the open web

10% Brand demand

Monthly Australian search volume for the brand name and its close variants

Worked example Budget, ranked first on car hire

50.9 of 100

Budget scores 50.9

Four channels, each scored out of 100 on its own terms, then weighted and added. The dotted arc is the headroom nobody in the index has taken.

Search discoverability +15.1 33.6 scored × 45% AI visibility +17.7 59.0 scored × 30% Social discoverability +11.8 78.6 scored × 15% Brand demand +6.3 62.5 scored × 10%

Add the four contributions together and you have the presence score. A brand strong on one channel only cannot climb far, which is the point. Where a channel could not be measured its weight is shared across the rest rather than counted as zero, so the percentages here always total 100. Contributions are rounded to one decimal place.

Read the full method

Not where you expected

Not on this board, or lower than you expected?

Every brand in car hire is scored on the same four channels, whether it engages with us or not. If you are not here, or not where you thought, a strategist can tell you which channel is costing you the most and whether it is worth closing.

Talk to a strategist

A read of your four channels and what is actually movable. Scores are never influenced by working with us: the method is fixed and public.

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A note when the numbers change.

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What lands in the email

Who leads the board, and what changed at the top
Who climbed and who fell
Any brand entering the top 20
What shifted across the four channels