Avis Rent a Car

Avis is an American car rental company headquartered in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, United States. Avis, Budget Rent a Car and Budget Truck Rental are all units of Avis Budget Group.

Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in North America, South America, India, Australia and, New Zealand. Recently Avis has acquired Avis Europe plc which once was a separate corporation licensing the Avis brand. Avis is the third largest car rental agency in the world trailing behind Hertz Corporation.

Since the late 1970s, Avis has featured mainly General Motors (GM) vehicles such as Chevrolet and Cadillac, but today also rents popular non-GM brands including Ford and Toyota.

Avis is a leading rental car provider to the commercial segment serving business travelers at major airports around the world, and to leisure travellers at off-airport locations. Many of the off-airport locations are franchised operations rather than company-owned and -operated, as is the case with most airport locations. Avis was the first car rental business to be located at an airport.

In January 2013, the company agreed to acquire Zipcar for $491 million.

History

The company was founded in 1948 with three cars at Willow Run Airport, Ypsilanti, Michigan, by Warren Avis (August 4, 1915 â€" April 24, 2007). It established branch operations across the United States over the next few years, becoming the second largest car rental company in the country by 1953. By its tenth anniversary in 1956 it had opened its first international offices in Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Their corporate motto is "We Try Harder" It was adopted in 1962 (during the tenure of Robert Townsend as its CEO) to make a more positive reference of Avis' status as the second largest car rental company in the United States, at the expense of its larger competitor The Hertz Corporation. The slogan was used for 50 years before a re-branding in 2012, in which Avis received a new slogan, "It's Your Space." In 1972, Avis introduced Wizard, the first computer-based information and reservations system to be used in the United States car rental business; to this day, almost all frequent Avis customers are identified by their unique "Wizard number". In 1981, the company instituted its system of vehicle tracking, that was not coincidentally named Advanced Vehicle Identification System (AVIS).

Avis has been owned by a number of other companies over the years, along with several periods of being a public company. These include:

1956 - The Amoskeag Company
1962 - Investment group Lazard Freres
1965 - ITT Corporation
1977 - Norton Simon
1983 - Esmark
1984 - Beatrice Foods
1986 - Investment firm Wesray Capital Corporation
1987 - Majority ownership under an Employee Share Ownership Plan
1989 - General Motors (acquires 29% stake)
1996 - HFS Corporation
2001 - Cendant
2006 - Avis Budget Group

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Fleet

While Avis generally rents vehicles manufactured by General Motors, their fleet is diverse. This is their current fleet guide as of November, 2014:

Subcompact: Hyundai Accent Sedan Compact: Ford Focus Intermediate: Chevrolet Cruze Standard: Nissan Altima Coupe Full-Size: Chevrolet Impala or Chevrolet Impala Limited Specialty: Ford Mustang Coupe Specialty: Toyota Prius Specialty: Chevrolet Camaro SS Coupe Specialty: Mercedes-Benz E Class E350 Specialty: Ford F-150 Specialty: Mercedes-Benz GL GL450 Premium: Chrysler 300 Luxury: Lincoln MKS Convertible: Ford Mustang Convertible Standard Elite SUV: Chevrolet Traverse Minivan: Dodge Grand Caravan Intermediate SUV: Ford Escape Full-Size SUV: Chevrolet Tahoe Standard SUV: Ford Edge Premium SUV: Chevrolet Suburban 1500 Passenger Van: Ford E-Series Econoline E350 Super Duty

Avis also rents cars in their Signature Series, with such cars as:

-BMW 5 Series Sedan 528i -BMW X3 -BMW X5 -Chevrolet Corvette Coupe -BMW 7 Series 740i -BMW 3 Series Sedan 328i -Cadillac XTS -Jeep Wrangler -Lincoln Navigator -BMW Z4