CAR vs HTZ: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. CAR and HTZ share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined CAR and HTZ exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Avis Budget Group runs one of the three big global vehicle-rental platforms, operating the Avis, Budget, Budget Truck, Payless and Zipcar brands across airport, off-airport, urban and international markets. Revenue comes from renting a large owned-and-leased vehicle fleet, and the economics hinge on utilization, per-day pricing and the residual value of cars when they are sold out of the fleet. The company competes with privately held Enterprise Holdings, Hertz, Europe's Sixt, and peer-to-peer platforms like Turo and Getaround.

Full CAR guide

Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) is one of the largest vehicle-rental companies in the world, operating the Hertz, Dollar, and Thrifty brands across airport and off-airport locations in the United States and internationally. The business buys or leases a large fleet of cars, rents them to leisure and business travelers, and later sells the vehicles into the used-car market, so its profitability depends heavily on rental pricing (revenue per unit), fleet utilization, daily per-vehicle operating costs, and how much value each car loses to depreciation before it is sold. Because vehicles are financed largely through asset-backed securitizations secured by the fleet, Hertz carries a very large debt balance relative to its equity.

Full HTZ guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• CAR drivers: Fleet utilization and pricing recovery; Vehicle residual values and fleet mix.
• HTZ drivers: Fleet and pricing reset; Cost actions and operating discipline.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The equity is small relative to enormous fleet and corporate debt, so modest swings in used-car residual values, interest rates or demand can move the stock sharply, and the shares carry a beta well above the market. For HTZ, hertz carries a very large debt load, with total debt around $18 billion and a reported equity deficit, leaving little cushion if results disappoint.

Pick CAR if you believe its drivers more; HTZ if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the CAR and HTZ guides.

CAR. CAR does not screen on a simple price-to-earnings basis because trailing earnings per share are negative, so investors lean on enterprise-value-to-EBITDA and the path back toward the company's roughly $1 billion adjusted EBITDA goal. With about 35 million shares outstanding and negative book equity, the stock behaves like a leveraged call on the rental cycle. Figures are approximate and drawn from the company's 2025 full-year and first-quarter 2026 disclosures.

HTZ. Hertz is a highly leveraged turnaround, not a steady-earnings business, so traditional multiples like P/E are not meaningful while the company posts losses. The very large debt relative to a small equity market value means the stock behaves like a leveraged option on operational improvement: small changes in fleet economics, used-car values, or refinancing terms move the equity sharply. The figures are approximate and tied to the asOf date.

Headline figures (approximate, JULY 2026): CAR shows revenue (fy2025) ~$11.7B, revenue (q1 2026) ~$2.53B, up ~4% YoY, net loss (fy2025) ~$995M, adjusted ebitda (fy2025) ~$748M; HTZ shows revenue (ttm) ~$9 billion, q1 2026 revenue ~$2.0 billion, up ~11% year over year, q1 2026 net loss ~$333 million (loss narrowed from ~$443 million), total debt ~$18.2 billion (much of it vehicle asset-backed).

CAR and HTZ are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined CAR and HTZ exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.