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Only A Few Days Left To Light Up In Your Rental Car

Anytime we have rented a car in recent memory, we were reminded early and often not to smoke in the car—even if it was just a PT Cruiser. We’re pretty sure that we had to sign something, and there was always that no smoking sticker right by the lighter where we plugged in our iPod. Apparently, smoking in your rental car is a vacation luxury that we missed out on, and now our time is severely limited.

On October 1, Budget and Avis will become the first two rental car companies to ban smoking in their rental fleet in North America. If you’re caught puffing away, you’ll get nailed with a cleaning fee of up to $250. Too bad they won’t ban fast food in their cars, as we are sick of soda stains in the seats and fries in every nook and cranny of the center console.

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Tags: Rental Cars / Cars / Avis / Hertz / → All Tags

Bye Bye, PT Cruiser: Imports Take The Rental Car Crown

Anytime we have to rent a car, we’re pretty certain that our keys will be used to unlock and operate a domestic vehicle, but for the first time ever, car rental companies are actually filling their fleets with more import autos. That means you’ve got a better chance of scoring something from outside the nifty fifty—for better or for worse.

According to numbers released by the trade rag Automotive Fleet, only 48.8 percent of new cars heading to the rental lot came from General Motors, Chrysler, or Ford. We didn’t take too many math classes in college, but we know that means more than 50 percent of rental cars now come from overseas. Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, and Nissan are just some of the new kids on the block—guess that means no more Pontiac G6s for us.

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Tags: Avis / Car Rentals / WiFi / → All Tags

WiFi Wednesday: Rubber to the Road Edition

Maybe Avis does try harder--even if their blog is weak. The car rental giant has just announced that its on-board WiFi service has started rolling out of San Francisco International Airport, with locations around the country set to follow suit. (We actually got pretty fired up about this back in January, if you'll recall.

The WiFi enabled cars sound pretty awesome, at least to bloggers like us:

Avis Connect enables travelers to enjoy broadband wireless Internet connectivity at all times and places during their travel, from airports to meetings to hotels, and everything in between.

Obviously, Avis doesn't want you online while you're driving. (Or maybe they do, and this is a big insurance scam?!) Either way, it's clearly aimed at biz travelers, spending on their corporate card: you'll pay $11 a day to log on. Just think, if you're staying at the wrong hotel and renting from Avis, you could end up paying $25 a day for 'net access!

[Photo: palmasco]

Related Stories:
· Avis Blog Doesn't Try Hard Enough [Jaunted]
· Avis Bringing High Speed to the Highway [Jaunted]
· Jaunted's car rentals coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Avis / Car Rentals / Blogs / → All Tags

Avis Blog Doesn't Try Hard Enough

If everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't we? That's the attitude from the British branch of Avis car rentals who claim they've started up the first ever car rental company blog with We Try Harder. Since the start of the year, Avis employees have been blogging about how wonderful Avis is, how responsive they are to customers and, well, how wonderful Avis is.

Having said that, it does actually give a few good tips like how and where you can hire snowchains in the Alps, or info on renting sat nav equipment with your rental car. But since the blog authors introduce themselves with tales of football, mountain biking or playing golf, we think there could be a bit more of a personal touch, and a few more interesting posts. Avis, you have to Try Even Harder.

[Photo: X-travalueMeal#2]

Related Stories:
· Avis Bringing High-Speed to the Highway [Jaunted]
· We Try Harder Blog [Official Site]

Tags: Car Rentals / Driving / WiFi / Avis / Extortion / → All Tags

Avis Bringing High-Speed to the Highway

Jaunted may be banned from Hertz, but we're free to drive with Avis, and could soon be blogging straight from the road, not that we'd recommend it. Avis will soon offer integrated WiFi access in its vehicles. Just what we all need, another added fee on our rentals.

The service, provided by Autonet Mobile, offers up a gadget you plug into the car's power supply--it then turns the car into a WiFi hotspot. Not only does this open up the possibility for all sorts of fun accidents, but it could provide serious business travelers with some peace of mind. If all else fails and those who need it can't find a hotel with WiFi, they can always sit in their car...in a scary parking lot...typing away...waiting to get carjacked.

The hookup will cost $10.95 extra per day. Interested customers will also have to sign over their soul to Avis and agree to not sue them into oblivion for related accidents.

[Photo: Mike Knell]

Related Stories:
· Wi-Fi Is Hitting the Road in Cars From Avis, but Technical and Legal Bumps Lie Ahead [NYT]
· Autonet Mobile To Launch WiFi Hotspot For The Car [SlipperyBrick]