For one, the Avis Bus Manager at LAX was recently replaced. Expect it to get better there. The new manager has been on duty for three weeks, hes a great guy, and has extensive experience in bussing at major airports.
Second, Expect all cars to not be as "tidy" in general appearance as before as All major manufacturers have begun limiting the number of rental cars to the market. This happened at the beginning of the summer so Avis, along with every other manufacturer, must keep their cars longer in the fleet as the replacement frequency is less. On that note, the cars must be "turned" more often to keep the cars on the road. This means that a car that was rented today and returned today usually would get rented tomorrow, but now its needed today to go out again. That kind of situation sometimes leads to waits for cars and the cars getting beat up more often. I promise you Avis is working on it and they will be compensating soon. How you ask?
Expect to see more "Rental car sales" lots as the rental car companies compensate by purchasing cars outright instead of utilizing the "rental car programs" that allow them to turn back leased cars. Budget(as part of avis rent a car's parent, Cendant) used to do this, but they closed it all down to stick to its core business. Expect (no inside info here, just a gut feeling) a revisiting of this policy to ramp up the quality to where they want it.
As for the cleanliness of cars, Its been a long summer, the agents are getting tired. I hired several new agents at my location and that allowed several of my old timers to take a vacation. They came back and immediately I saw a increase in quality.
As far as the agents bieng "grumpy" about making changes for cars that dont meet your personal standards, from an insiders perspective, some of you guys demand too much.
Just kidding. Every summer (busy season) the complaints rise about the quality of the agents, and attitudes. This year is no different. Dont feel jilted, bring it to the attention of a manager. And if you want a different car, you can ask. Never hurts to ask, but dont expect a brand new car. Some complain every time because they want a new car every time they rent. Unfortunately websites like this teaching the inside tricks on how to better your position often is the root of the problem. A guy renting a car for the firsttime in 6 years thinks hes a rental car superhero after reading posts likemine and comes in like a CEO demanding this demanding that. This type of behavior is becoming more and more common. thus I have been advocating the "softer" road most of the time and trust me,that road works damn near every time.
For me, if you yell, expect to go elsewhere for a rental car. I simply wont deal with it anymore. If you come up and ask for my help, explain your situation, dont try and do the "ill just have to take my companies business elsewhere next time "(its bull, we dont believe that crap anymore. Its a hollow threat.) you can get farther.