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Zipcar and Avis are Shacking Up but Not Shaking Down

At this point you probably have heard about Zipcar. They’re the car sharing business where you can get a car where and when you need it, charged by the hour, and they take care of all the tricky stuff like insurance, parking, and maintenance. In recent years Zipcar has enjoyed plenty of positive attention from travelers and those just looking to skip town for the weekend, and apparently the big rental car giants were listening.

Once such rental car company is Avis, as they just threw done almost $500 million to gobble up Zipcar along with its cars, ideas, and image. The changes and integration will probably be slow to start, so no need to be nervous that your beloved Zipcar will be changing for the worse.

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Rental Cars / Cars / DFW / Bill Diffenderffer / Silvercar / Skybus / → All Tags

What Defunct Airline SkyBus Has in Common with a Rental Car Start-up

A couple months ago we mentioned this little start-up called Silvercar. In case you forgot they’re basically the latest entry into the crowded rental car market. However, they’re hoping to be successful by offering up only one kind of car—silver Audi A4s. It also doesn’t hurt that they’ve got former Skybus head honcho Bill Diffenderffer on the books as well.

Right before Christmas they flipped the switch on their website, and now Silvercar is open for your booking pleasure. Everything is a little limited to start—as in very limited—because it’s only in Dallas-Ft. Worth thus far. They’ve got to start somewhere, and the rental cars start flowing out of the airport as soon as January 14.

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Hertz / Rental Cars / Cars / Tech Travel / Travel Tech / Italy Travel / WiFi / → All Tags

Rental Cars as WiFi Hotspots. It's Happening in Italy.

Italy has a lot of good stuff we don’t have here at home, but the thing we’re missing most here—besides an abundance of gelato—is WiFi in our rental cars.

All the car connection magic comes from the folks over at Hertz and their rental car empire. It’s called Hertz Mobile WiFi, and it’s a little pocket-sized thing that’s offered up to rental car customers in collaboration with Wind Mobile. Basically it sounds like a mobile hotspot that goes right in your car and gives you all-the-time access to the internet no matter how many wrong turns you take or exits you miss.

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TV Travel / Top Gear / Road Trips / Jeremy Clarkson / Celeb Travel / Cars / → All Tags

Spotted! The 'Top Gear' Gang is Road Tripping from Vegas to Mexico

The Top Gear guys are back in the U.S. for another epic road trip that has already taken them from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

Yesterday Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond were spotted driving three supercars—an Aston Martin Vanquish, an SRT Viper, and a Lexus LFA—through Baker, California. Today they are in L.A. where they were looking for two girls to "get into the back of the Aston Martin."

According to Clarkson, who is still adjusting to the time change, their final destination will be Mexico, which they plan to hit sometime next week.

[Photo: jalopnik.com]

Charity Travel / Hertz / Rental Cars / Cars / Veteran's Day Travel / → All Tags

'Hertz For Heroes' is Giving Back Rental Car Cash to Those Who Deserve It Most

According to the television commercials that we’ve seen lately it’s already time to start our holiday shopping. However, before anyone wraps presents or even carves a turkey, there’s another holiday on the schedule—Veteran’s Day. Thankfully rental car giant Hertz is planning to continue their Hertz for Heroes program, as the company does their best to lend a hand to the brave men and women who protect our right to complain about airplanes and other travel calamites.

If you need to make a rental car reservation definitely consider Hertz, and set a reminder to do so in the next ten days or so. Hertz is chipping in a $1-per-rental-car reservation on November 11 and November 12, as the rental car company pledges to donate up to $50,000 to the Disabled American Veterans group. That’s a pretty decent chunk of change if you ask us, and it’s coming right from Hertz.

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FlightCar / Rental Cars / Cars / Road Trips / Car Shares / Car Sharing / Driving / → All Tags

FlightCar: A Brilliant Alternative to Long-Term Airport Parking

There are all kinds of rental car and car sharing schemes, but the latest idea to hit the marketplace just may be the best one we’ve heard yet. It all takes place at the airport, where there is an abundance of two types of car-driving travelers: those who don’t currently need their cars (long-term parkers) and those who need to pick up a car. FlightCar hopes to link these two sets of people in driving happiness.

Basically what you’ll be able to do with FlightCar is rent out your car while you’re not using it. That keeps your car happy since it gets to drive around and keep busy—cars have feelings too—and it’ll keep you happy since you’ll be earning cash instead of shelling out bucks for the parking garage.

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Rental Cars / Cars / Bill Diffenderffer / Silvercar / → All Tags

It's an Audi or Nothing at Rental Car Start-up Silvercar

It’s been six months or so since we introduced you to the wonder of Silvercar and their dream of taking over the rental car market. Former head honcho over at Skybus—Bill Diffenderffer—is still involved now serving as executive chairman, as the company just raised another $11.5 million in funding as they hope to get things rolling before the end of the year.

Their plan is to take the aggravation out of the rental car process. This will be accomplished with a little help from the Zipcar model, as they’ll use a smartphone app and some fancy scanner-code-things to have you gain access to your rental car. Speaking of cars, all the cars will be silver and they’ll all be 2013 Audi A4s. That doesn’t leave much room for the potential for an upgrade, but of course we’re definitely not going to complain when our app gives us access to one of these suckers.

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Rental Cars / Cars / Dangerous Travel / Road Trip Travel / Avis / Dollar / Thrifty / Hertz / Budget / Alamo / National / Enterprise / → All Tags

Rental Car Companies Finally Forced to Do Right Thing about Recalled Cars

There’s been an on-and-off battle over recalled rental cars for quite some time, one which has been in and out of the new for at least the last few years. Basically, car rental companies haven’t been doing their best when it comes to pulling recalled cars off the lot or sending them in for the necessary repairs. Obviously this isn’t a good idea, and that’s especially the case when it results in injuries, accidents, or other bad stuff.

Obviously there’s certain rules and regulations that have to be followed, but the basic premise is that rental car companies need to yank recalled cars off their lots as soon as possible. The new legislation requires the companies to stop renting out vehicles no later than 24 hours after getting the official recall notice, but the time period stretches up to 48 hours if the recall affects more than 5,000 cars within their garage.

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New York City / New York Travel / Public Transportation / Taxis / Cabs / Cars / → All Tags

New Taxis for New York City to Make That Airport Ride Even Smoother

We knew that New York City had their eyes on a new design and model for their ubiquitous taxis, but now it looks like the plan is finally considered official.

Last week, the Taxi and Limousine commission approved the Nissan NV200 as the city’s new go to mode of transportation. It’s not going to be an instant upgrade for drivers and passengers, as the plan is to phase in around 13,000 of the new vehicles as older cabs are up for repair, replacement, and retirement.

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Los Angeles Travel / Road Trips / Cars / Politics Travel / → All Tags

Los Angeles Politicians Urge Calm as Carmageddon 2 Looms

A 10 mile stretch of Los Angeles's 405 freeway—"the 405" to Southern Californians who know how to refer to freeways properly, "405" to the rest of you people—is going to be closed September 29-30. As with the 2011 405 closure, this event is being met with the panic usually reserved for planetary collisions with particularly large comets.

Los Angeles hospitals are bracing for disaster and taking emergency measures because apparently just telling people to 'go around' or 'take side streets' isn't sufficient. The LA economy has been fully reconfigured to "encourage Angelenos to stay out of their cars and...close to home." The mayor even held a press conference to try to contain the rising panic, during which he assured residents that they would will still be able to have "fun" despite not being able to drive on that particular 10 mile stretch of asphalt.

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Rental Cars / Fall Travel / Hertz / Cars / Road Trips / → All Tags

The Return of the $5 One-Way Hertz Rental (and More Deals)

If you need a rental car anytime soon you might want to check out Hertz when doing your online shopping. The rental car behemoth is preparing all kinds of promotions for the fall, and it’s all part of their global sale.

You can save $40 per week in Florida, keep an extra $40 on your weekend rental, and even save up to $100 on one of their fancy car rental from the Prestige or Adrenaline collections. The scoop on some of these deals can be found right here, so just copy and paste the appropriate code thing and enter those credit card digits.

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Movie Travel / Cars / Auctions / James Bond / Celeb Travel / Literary Travel / Road Trips / → All Tags

Christie's Will Celebrate 50 Years of James Bond by Selling You His Cars

A pre-production replica BMW Z8 Roadster made for 'The World Is Not Enough'

Update: the catalog for both online and live auctions is up! Check it out right here.

Right after you finish that mid-day vodka martini (shaken, not stirred), take some time to daydream over this fact: Christie's will be auctioning off a slew of James Bond goodies as part of the celebration of 50 Years of James Bond. The auction takes place online from September 28-October 8, and live in London on October 5 (the anniversary of the first screening of Dr. No).

There's trinkets from past Bond movies, such as the bullet belt worn by Scaramanga in The Man With the Golden Gun and a model of the shuttle from Moonraker, as well as the newest Bond memorabilia from the as-yet-unreleased Skyfall. We're eyeing that blue velvet Tom Ford dinner suit like whoah.

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