New to AVIS - GPS Question and Pontiac VIBE question - please help.
Mar 17, 2005, 10:24 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: The OC
Programs: AA EXP, HH Gold, Hyatt Gold, MR Plat, SPG Plat, PC Plat
Posts: 421
New to AVIS - GPS Question and Pontiac VIBE question - please help.
Hi,
I've been primarily a Hertz guy for a long time, but just reserved 5 or 6 Avis cars in the coming couple of weeks to check out the service and see if it was worth switching. If you could please let me know what your thoughts are on service differences that would be great, but I had a couple of specific questions...
I'm going to places that are cold and possibly snowy, so I'm renting SUV's... nearly all of them are Pontiac Vibes... is my assumption that they are the AWD versions a good one? When they say SUV, do they also mean 4/AWD?
Second, one thing that I noticed and thought cool about Avis is that the GPS system available is not a car mounted system, rather it is a handheld unit so not car model dependent (unlike H). What have people's experience been with these handheld units?
Thanks for your help!
I've been primarily a Hertz guy for a long time, but just reserved 5 or 6 Avis cars in the coming couple of weeks to check out the service and see if it was worth switching. If you could please let me know what your thoughts are on service differences that would be great, but I had a couple of specific questions...
I'm going to places that are cold and possibly snowy, so I'm renting SUV's... nearly all of them are Pontiac Vibes... is my assumption that they are the AWD versions a good one? When they say SUV, do they also mean 4/AWD?
Second, one thing that I noticed and thought cool about Avis is that the GPS system available is not a car mounted system, rather it is a handheld unit so not car model dependent (unlike H). What have people's experience been with these handheld units?
Thanks for your help!
Mar 17, 2005, 3:50 pm
#2
Join Date: Nov 2002
Programs: UA Plat; AS MVP Gold; BA Silver; LATAM Black; Hilton Diamond; Marriott Plat; GHA Plat
Posts: 289
The AVIS GPS system is utter junk.
It does not have the logic needed to work out routes on its own. It is a Nextel phone, which you attach to the windscreen. You have to call AVIS, wait on hold forever, and then tell a person your destination. They will program a route, send it to the phone, and the phone will then read out the directions. It's so bad and such a waste of time I couldn't believe it.
Mar 21, 2005, 1:10 pm
#3
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Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: ORD/MDW
Programs: BA/AA/AS/B6/WN/ UA/HH/MR and more like 'em but most felicitously & importantly MUCCI
Posts: 19,719
Agree that the Avis nav solution is worthless -- I got it once and it toyed with me cruelly until I shut it off.
The Vibe mini-SUV option is OK (although I had one out of ORD in below-zero weather this January and the rear hatch froze up on me, couldn't close it, grrrr). You get 4WD. There are other proper SUVs available though if you need more room. The Vibe accomplishes the common Detroit design trick of being big on the outside, small on the inside.
The Vibe mini-SUV option is OK (although I had one out of ORD in below-zero weather this January and the rear hatch froze up on me, couldn't close it, grrrr). You get 4WD. There are other proper SUVs available though if you need more room. The Vibe accomplishes the common Detroit design trick of being big on the outside, small on the inside.