Work currently takes me to Wausau WI weekly, and my company requires we use Avis to rent our cars. My weekly compact car there has always been clean (no leftover GPS circles on the windshield goes a long way), and I've even gotten the occasional upgrade, not that I care, a compact is plenty big enough for my use.
But this week I had to take the lesser of two evils and choose between a Sentra (no thanks), and a Corolla (ugh). Took the keys to the Corolla and off I went. At least it looked in good shape and was clean inside. As usual I reset the fuel economy computer and the trip odometer. As I reset it, I cycled back to the mileage on the car.
46000+. I couldn't believe it. Key tag says its an '09.
But sure enough it proved true. As I got on the interstate, I could hear the wind noise coming through the top of the door frame, a windshield wiper that misses one inch of the windshield (in the middle of course), and a steady thrumming from the tires on the concrete highway. So much so that when I stopped for lunch, I looked at the tires to see if there was an exposed cord. What I found were cheap noname replacement tires, and evidence from where the car had been repaired in an accident (hence the wind noise).
But as I said, the car was clean, it drove straight, and did what I needed. The location is a licensee. Makes me wonder what Avis' standards are? Is a car with over 46000 miles and a October 2008 build date really what Avis deems acceptable? I know the rental car companies are keeping cars longer, but I can't remember ever having a rental with 30k+ miles, let alone 46k, even in Mexico!
Anyone else runnig into this with Avis, or is it a local issue? Thanks!