Many cars only have the fobs now, with an emergency metal key in the body of the fob as a backup. My kid bought a lower end Honda recently, and that's all it has.

I wouldn't be surprised if no metal keys for cars in the next 5 years.

I'm not surprised about it either - well Avis and all car rental companies will have to find another solution.

A bit over the top, no ;)

I've often seen the Avis employees just put the key fob on the dash. Maybe try that rather than putting it in the cup holder. I also just drop it in the cup holder, but I may try the dash next time.

From what I've seen, it's a good mix of the following by employees with fobs:
1. On dash
2. In cupholder
3. Dangling from the visor (Avis plastic tag holding it up, keys/fobs dangling to hit you in the head when you get in)

Ok, so I actually had one of these annoying cars (from Hertz, not Avis, but the issue's the same) at SEA recently. It was a Mazda 3, which had a horrid UI with bad documentation; I never did figure out how to get it out of Celsuis for the temperature display, and it took me quite a while to find the Trip Odometer button (it was not where the manual said it would be, the check-out clerk who asked if I had questions about the car couldn't find it either, and it was invisible in the dark -- I only found the next morning in the light).

Anyway, my car had two identical fobs on a ring* (I don't know if they're always that way), and when I came to the car, they were draped over the bottom of the steering wheel, so that's where I left them when I brought the car in. (Though in my case, I had plenty of time, so I just waited patiently for them to check the car in front of me and hand me my receipt.)

* Obviously, two identical fobs on a ring balance well if you drape them over the steering wheel. If you had only one fob on a ring with a lightweight rental tag attached, that might not work.

MY PERSONAL KEYS on same ring as Avis Key Discovered Lost
 

I dropped off my AVIS Car yesterday on 9-24-2019 at the BOS Logan Airport Rental Facility. Upon arriving back home on the West Coast, 6 hours later, I discovered that when the AVIS attendant handed me my keys, he must nave dropped the most important set on the floor of the car I was returning because they were no longer on my key ring when I got home. I have called and placed a lost & Found key report on their website, but what are my chances they will look and get them back to me? I live alone, and those were my only set of car keys I own. AVIS LOST & FOUND seems useless. But I would love to hear a success story!

He must have dropped? Why would the Avis person have your keys in the first place?

Only set of car keys is a Locksmiths favorite phrase to hear.

I always leave on dash.

Yes. And if forced to do an unattended return (which I try never to do after Avis in PHX once lost my returned car for two days) I will take a picture of the keys-on-dash and have the shot also show as much of the returns area as possible. (Sometimes I'll also do this if I get a sense that the personnel are hurried or if there are a zillion cars being returned).