With my parents flying to Florida for a few days, I started calling around to see if I could get them something better than the 1-cylinder Sebring they enjoyed (in the sense of hated) on their last vacation. Hertz was out of Shelby Mustangs but … Avis has Corvettes? That's right, they've added America's first sports car to the fleet in the usual "hot rental car" locations: Los Angeles, Arizona, Las Vegas and south Florida. Can you imagine the abuse these 430-horsepower rental cars are going to take? Even at $165/day, they're not going to preclude hoons from renting them– although I really think all levels of insurance should be mandatory for Avis' sake. From a business standpoint, this still isn't a terrible idea. With increasing numbers of people getting out of their fun cars and getting into fuel-sipping snorefests, why not take a vacation from their eco-responsibility too? Besides, Corvette sales were down 25 percent last month. Fleet sales ought to help staunch the wound.
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Hey, it’s much cheaper than renting luxury cars or track time!!
But given that most corvettes I see are driven UNDER the speed limit by the geriatric crowd, maybe they won’t even take that much abuse.
tank full of premium fuel: 75 dollars
Rental of corvette: 165 dollars
Speeding ticket on the turnpike: 185 dollars
Doing donuts in parking lots all over florida and returning the car missing a 1/4″ of rubber and a clutch: priceless
What are the chances any of these will have a manual transmission? At 0%, I’d still take the under.
Much to do about nothing.
This isn’t fleet dumping. It’s a few cars to a few locations. There are a lot of high end cars on various rental lots around the country.
Rental companies are scrambling to raise profits, and this is just one more way of doing so.
I think it shows that car rental companies realized that people would pay more once they injected some fun into their line-up. I hope they get a good deal on tires. They’ll need to stock up.
At 165 a day, that’s a steal. Can’t imagine this availability extends beyond vacation hot spots like Florida though, which is too bad…
California circa 1990 : I rented a 300Z from Budget in Beverly Hills. I remember I could have rented a 355 Ferrari and various other neat cars.
I know what I’m renting next time I go to Vegas.
Lumbergh,
Go for the Aston Martin, its worth it, I know for a fact!
This is news? I can’t remember when I couldn’t rent a Corvette at a number of Palm Beach County rental outlets…
As others have said, this is nothing new. Vette (and other $50,000+ sports cars) rentals have been around for a long time, especially in warm, touristy areas. That said, $165 a day is a pretty cheap price
As said already, this is really nothing new, so the headline is misleading. At least it did not headline another GM Deathwatch though.
Normally, I delete posts which accuse this site of anti or pro-domestic (yes pro) bias. In this case, point taken.
I’ve changed the headline from:
The Chevrolet Corvette Begins Fleet Sales
to:
Avis Rents ‘Vettes
A few things to mention, as the author of this post.
1. Yes, Corvettes (and Ferraris and whatever else you like) have long been available through specialty rental companies and in places like Beverly Hills. What’s significant here is that it’s Avis, which has a very strong relationship with GM.
2. Also, it’s $165 a day. Check out some of the independent places’ prices and you’ll find that it’s a lot more expensive to rent a Corvette from them than $165 bucks. 300 a day seems to be the norm.
3. The theme here isn’t “bad on GM.” We’re talking extremely low volume. The theme is “I’m excited.” It’s a great price to rent this car. And as it says in the post, more and more people are giving up on fun daily drivers in the name of mileage. It’s great to give them the option (and I mean great in a business sense) of driving something outrageously powerful and fun on vacation.
I’m impressed to see the headline change! No bias implied on my part, just thought that “fleet sales” never means something good. I think the meat of the original post is as Justin points out, esp. #2 and #3. Have given up trying to rent the Hertz Mustang, it was never available. Maybe we have a better shot with the Vette now, and at a great price as mentioned.
Great..so places like Vegas and Beverly Hills get the Vettes and Ferraris…but here in Charleston, SC it won’t be likely that I’ll be able to pop down to the rental fleet and find anything remotely resembling this kind of fun. Heck, I was really only looking to find a local place that would rent a Wrangler for a weekend…
The point has already been made, but I’m going to go ahead and make it again. Yes you can rent any number of exotic cars in Vegas and other touristy spots, for a price. At $165/day, an Avis Corvette rental is significantly less than even a Porsche Boxster, ~$250, and considerably less than the more exotic cars from Ferrari and the like that can top $1,000 per day. Given the choice between a Hertz Mustang and an Avis Corvette, I’ll go Avis.
Much better headline…kudos. That’s why I love this site…