Originally Posted by IAHtraveler

According to ezmonee's post a long time ago, there are like 3 tiers to the Avis program (maybe a 4th). I don't remember all the details, but here's the gist of it:

Risk: Avis owns the car outright and tries to squeeze every nickel out of it possible.
Tier: Avis has a buyback program with the auto manufacturer for set time/mileage intervals where they can turn it back in for specified dollar amounts.
Flat: Avis owns the car for a pre-determined mileage/time frame. At that time, it's bought back by the auto manufacturer.