Swapping Avis car at different location?
 

I know you can swap cars during a rental, I have done it a few times. But say I'm on a road trip, far away from the original airport I where picked it up. Can I pop in the nearest Avis and swap because, say, the seats are uncomfortable? (and still return to the original location)

Will Avis hit me with any additional fees for something like this? I'm thinking airport locations might be a better choice. Has anyone done something similar?

Call the Avis hotline and they'll find a location where you can make the swap. This happened to me after I received a Ford Mustang with a speed limit and volume limit set on the car. I rented at SAN and since it is a corporate location, they had to find another corporate location for me to make an exchange. I was assured that there would not be a fee, and this would simply be like dropping off and picking up any other rental.

One thing though is that my issue was partly their fault as they rented a car they shouldn't have. If you're uncomfortable, they may not be as inclined to switch you out. It's worth a call, but YMMV.

rumpus, were you successful at swapping your car based on uncomfortable seats?

My present rental also has uncomfortable seats and was thinking of doing the same.

Yup, you can as long as it's a car from a corporate location and you go to a corporate location. They typically give you the same car or same class so they aren't shorted a class. Even as a CHM, I've had difficulties upgrading upon swapping at a different location.

If you've got a car from a franchise location, you can have a mechanical issue ("tire losing pressure" etc) and they will swap it for you and make you fill out an incident report for the vehicle.

I stopped at a rental site and said "I didn't like the brakes".

I had a different car in 4 minutes.

Thx IAHTraveler! Did you call the CHM desk in advance to make arrangements for swapping, or did you just show up at the other location and request a new vehicle?

I've done both with a mixed bag of results; no definitive correlation to calling or not calling gives better results.

I decided to just stick with the car for the time being. Thanks for advice though.

You better check with the location before you go there. I had a check engine light before for a car I picked up at PHL and I was forced to downgrade at EWR.

At that point, I'd say nevermind to the swap and keep the car. If the engine blows (not likely due to all the options can be from that light), they can come for the car at that point.

Agreed. I traded in my Impala last week with a funky smell. They tried to say they only had SUV's which I didn't want, or a Jeep. I told the lady that if I can't stay in a sedan, I'll just keep it. Then I noticed a 300 outside, and asked about that. To which she replied "Oh you'll take a big car?" Uhhh, yeah, I'd love that. 5 minutes later I was driving away in a fully loaded Lincoln MKS.

Obviously way late to this, but I did attempt to swap at a different location after posting here. They would have done it, but it was a smaller airport and they had only one car they were willing to give, so I just kept what I had. As stated though, I have swapped many times at the same location for pretty much any reason you can think of.

Thanks for the followup, rumpus!

Bumping the thread as I have a related question: On Wed I'll be 9 days into a 22 day one-way rental. We have a minivan now but after Wed it'll be silly to have such a large vehicle.

We are now in the destination area, can I just stop in and ask for a downgrade to a sedan? My 'complaint' is the MPG and/or handling on mountain roads. I'd be at the Avis main airport location so barring any surprise event in the area, they should have a decent supply of vehicles.

Can I swap a vehicle even if there's nothing wrong with it? I'm going to do a 3 1/2 hr drive and realized that mustang I asked for may not have been the best choice for long distance trips.