I rent 8 to 10 times per year out of RDU as a local, about half for business road trips and about half for personal weekenders. What I observe is that there has been a 180-degree change in the pattern of Aisle availability by day of the week. Before gas prices went up, mid-week the pickins would be slim, and on weekends the Aisle would be packed as if they were using it as storage space.

Now, at peak business-traveler times it is rare to see a fuel-efficient vehicle in the aisle and instead you see Blazers, Impalas, and the occasional mini-Jeep. On the weekends, the SUVs and minivans appear to all be at the beach.

However, for some reason this location is loaded with mid-size SUVs, so odds are pretty good that you can get something on the order of a Chevy TrailBlazer, Chevy Equinox or GMC equivalent.

Of note: I've had consistent luck asking nicely when what I wanted was not on the Aisle. The Executive Selection is adjacent to the Aisle, and so far they always have let me browse the whole area. On my most recent rental, I wanted to "test-drive" the mini Jeep and someone beat me to the only one on the Aisle. No problem, they said, take that one, pointing to one in Executive Selection. I think the thing is that if a vehicle is "qualified" to be in the Aisle, they have no way of knowing at the checkout booth whether the staff parked it in Aisle or Exec Selection.