Car Hire Tips UK

Sixt is one of Europe’s largest car rental companies, having more that 3,500 rental locations covering 80 countries. The company was founded in 1912 as “Sixt Autofahrten und Selbstfahrer” by Martin Sixt with an initial fleet of only 7 cars, four Mercedes and three Luxus-Deutz-Landaulets.

Sixt was one of the first rent-a-car companies in Germany, specialising in day-trips and custom tours. The first clients were almost exclusively members of the British nobility and dollar-rich Americans.

Sixt suffered a setback during 1914 due to World War 1, as vehicles and drivers were placed under the High Command of the Army and confiscated. It bounced back after the war though and in 1919 the expansion of the company continued. Notably, Martin Sixt bought the Munich location, Seitzstrasse no. 11, which even today is one of the most-visited Sixt city locations.

In 1927, founder Martin Sixt handed over the company to his nephew Hans Sixt. 2 years later Sixt made the decision to make its fleet exclusively Mercedes cars because of problems getting spare parts for foreign cars.

Disaster loomed again for the company with the onset of World War II. As with the First World War, in 1939 The German Wehrmacht confiscates all of Sixt’s rental vehicles due to the war. Only a seven-seat Mercedes 230 Landaulet that was hidden in a barn made it through the war for the company. A chapter in the company’s history ended when founder Martin Sixt died in May 1945.

After the war, Sixt re-launched with the single Mercedes 230 Landaulet as a chauffeured limousine. Part of the re-launch included setting up an Export-Taxi fleet for members of the US Army. In 1948, as a first in Europe, Hans Sixt employs radio taxis in Munich. The current form of the company, as “Auto Sixt” Rent a Car, was established in 1951.

Sixt, like many other car rental firms expanded rapidly, fuelled by growth in airline travel. As part of this trend, in 1966, the first airport offices in Frankfurt am Main and Munich were opened.

“Auto Sixt”, in 1967, became the first German company to launch a leasing program for vehicles. In 1970, vans are added to the Sixt fleet. By 1977, Sixt had operations in all major airports in Germany and a license agreement with Budget Rent a Car.

As of 1980, the company changed its name from “Auto Sixt” to “Sixt Autovermietung GmbH”. As part of financing reform of the company, Sixt goes public in a stock-market launch of “Sixt Aktiengesellschaft” in 1986, during a time when the rental car business in financial troubles worldwide, partly due to strong price competition.

In 1993, the company announced a new structure of the Sixt Group with Sixt AG as a holding company. This new structure separated out the rent-a-car business as “Sixt GmbH & Co Autovermietung KG”. Sixt became the leading German rent-a-car company in 1994.

Since then, the company has been expanding, both in domestic European market, as well as in the rapidly growing Asian market, with some 646 rental cars in the inventory reported for 2006.

Alamo Rent A Car is a car rental agency based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but has branches across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, parts of Africa, Europe, and Australia as well as some locations on various Caribbean islands.

The chain was started in 1974 with several locations in the state of Florida. It was liked by many because of its unlimited mileage program, meaning that people could travel any distance with the car they rented for no extra charge. In the United States, Alamo rents mostly General Motors automobiles.

Alamo was owned by Vanguard Automotive Group, which also owns National Car Rental.

As of August 1, 2007 it was bought by Enterprise Car Rental. Enterprise is now the owner of Vanguard Car rental which owns Alamo and National Car Rental.

The UK operations of Vanguard Car Rentals were sold to Europcar in the same year.

Alamo Rent A Car has been criticized for not providing adequate access to/from terminal buildings to rental car lot for wheelchair-bound customers. According to the United States Department of Justice, Alamo was the subject of many such complaints. These complaints eventually culminated in an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. Alamo reached an out of court settlement in the matter.

Dollar Rent A Car was founded in 1965 by Henry Caruso in Los Angeles, California. In 1990 it was acquired by Chrysler. It was originally called Dollar Rent A Car because it had a standardized daily rate of one dollar for sedans.

By 1968, rates were raised to keep competitive prices while maintaining monopolistic competition with other rental car companies.

Dollar has more than 647 worldwide locations in 53 countries, with a significant presence in Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, including more than 358 in the United States and Canada.

Dollar-Thrifty Automotive Group NYSE: DTG is a holding company for Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car, formed in 1990 by Chrysler and spun off in 1997. The company at one time also owned Snappy Rent A Car (which was sold in 1994), Eurodollar and General Rent A Car (which was closed in 1993). It is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The company primarily rents Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles within the United States, though some locations feature other popular brands, such as Mazda, Nissan, or Toyota.

DTAG is a Fortune 1000 company and have over 1,475 locations worldwide including more than 835 locations in the United States.[1] In 2006, the company outsourced its IT operations to EDS.

The Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company is a privately held St. Louis, Missouri-based rental car company serving customers in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the U.K.. They are also the owners of the Vanguard Automotive Group, operator of National Car and Truck Rental and Alamo Rent A Car in North America.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the largest rental car company in North America, and has more than 6,900 offices. Enterprise is currently number 16 on the Forbes “500 Largest Private Companies in America” list.

The company is named after the Yorktown class aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, on which founder Jack Taylor served in World War II.

According to Auto Rental News, their 2006 (fiscal year ending July 31) U.S. revenue was US$9.04 billion with a fleet of approximately 720,000 vehicles. The Detroit News reports that Enterprise currently purchases 7% of all new automobiles sold in the United States. As of 2005, they had 5,399 “local market” locations (91% of all transactions), and 419 airport locations (9% of all transactions).

Enterprise’s primary focus is the local rental car market, specializing in car rentals to consumers who need a replacement car as the result of an accident, mechanical repair or theft, or who require a vehicle for a special occasion such as a short business or leisure trip. In the late 1990s, Enterprise Rent-A-Car also began expanding its operations to include the airport market, and now serves airports in the United States, Canada, the UK and Ireland.

The main television advertising campaign for Enterprise Rent-A-Car shows a car wrapped in brown paper, and features the slogan “Pick Enterprise, We’ll pick you up!” Enterprise has become famous for their offer to pick up customers and bring them to the rental office.

Enterprise will rent to all qualifying individuals over 18 years of age (21 in UK), typically without an additional fee for replacement rentals.

Thrifty Rent A Car is a rental car company based in the United States. Founded in 1958, it became a public company in 1987 and in 1989 it was acquired by Chrysler, where in 1990 it was combined with Dollar Rent A Car. Dollar Thrify Automotive Group was spun off in 1997.

The company currently has more than 1,100 locations worldwide, largely operated by local franchises, though some are owned by the company directly. The company primarily rents Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles, though some locations feature other popular brands, such as Mazda, Nissan, or Toyota.

Thrifty is one of the worlds largest vehicle rental companies.

Dollar-Thrifty Automotive Group NYSE: DTG is a holding company for Thrifty Car Rental and Dollar Rent A Car, formed in 1990 by Chrysler and spun off in 1997. The company at one time also owned Snappy Rent A Car (which was sold in 1994), Eurodollar and General Rent A Car (which was closed in 1993). It is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The company primarily rents Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles within the United States, though some locations feature other popular brands, such as Mazda, Nissan, or Toyota.

DTAG is a Fortune 1000 company and have over 1,475 locations worldwide including more than 835 locations in the United States.[1] In 2006, the company outsourced its IT operations to EDS.

National Car Rental is a rental car company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company was formed in 1947 when a group of 24 independent car rental operators with 800 vehicles and 60 locations joined together to form National Car Rental.

In 1959, the group incorporated as a for-profit corporation. Over the years, National developed its products and in 1954, they became the first car rental brand to offer one-way rentals for those wishing to rent cars in one town and leave them in another.

In 1966, National equipped its regional reservation offices with the “Telemax” computer system, officially becoming the first car rental company to bring computers into daily reservation operations. After airline industry deregulation in 1976, National opened its doors to the new wave of leisure travellers when it became the first to offer flat rates to car renters.

Since 1987, National has marketed the Emerald Club to its renters, which was the first frequent-renter program in the car rental industry.

National Car Rental is now one of the world’s largest rental car companies and serves customers through a network of more than 2,000 locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Australia.

The Hertz Corporation (aka Hertz Rent A Car or simply Hertz) is the world’s largest car rental company, with 1,900 rental locations in the United States and 5,100 worldwide.

Hertz also maintains a heavy equipment rental division known as the Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation, aka HERC. It is headquartered in Park Ridge, New Jersey. HERC has nearly 300 branches throughout the United States and Canada.

The company was begun by Walter L. Jacobs in 1918, who started a car rental operation in Chicago with a dozen Model Ts. In 1923, Jacobs sold it to John D. Hertz, president of Yellow Cab and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company, who renamed it the “Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System”.

The company has passed through a number of hands, including General Motors, RCA, and United Airlines. As a public company, Hertz was traded on the NYSE under the symbol HRZ until the purchase of outstanding stock by Ford Motor Company.

From 1994 to 2005 it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. On June 13, 2005, Ford issued a notice that Hertz would be spun off in an initial public offering. On September 13, 2005 it was announced it was to be sold to a private equity group (composed of Clayton Dubilier & Rice, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity) for $15 billion in cash and debt acquisition. The sale was completed on December 22, 2005.

Because of its past affiliation with Ford, the rental fleets of most Hertz locations consist of Ford and Ford brands such as Mazda, Mercury and Lincoln. It is not uncommon, however, to find Hertz rental cars from non-Ford companies such as Toyota, Hyundai, Kia and General Motors.

Europcar is a Paris based car rental company owned by the French investment company Eurazeo, after its sale by the Volkswagen group in June 2006. The company was founded in Paris in 1949.

Europcar today operates a fleet of over 200,000 vehicles at 2,825 locations in 143 different countries covering Europe, North America, The Middle East, Africa, Latin America, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and Asia Pacific.

While Europcar is an international car rental company, the brand is best recognized in the larger European economies, particularly, Germany, France and the UK. Their core markets are in leisure and corporate rentals.

As part of a cost-cutting strategy, Volkswagen chose to divest from its Europcar holdings. On June 1, 2006, the sale of Europcar to French investment company Eurazeo was completed.

In 2007 Europcar purchased Vanguard EMEA for €670 million. Vanguard EMEA is the operator of National car rental and Alamo Rent A Car in Europe. As part of this purchase a partnership was made for any business that Europcar would send to North America it would be directed to National Car Rental, instead of their previous North American Partner Thrifty Car Rental.

Budget Rent A Car System, Inc. is a car rental company that was founded in 1958 in Los Angeles, California by Morris Mirkin.

With its original fleet of 10 cars the company lived up to the ‘Budget’ name by undercutting the daily and per mile rental rates of the established airport based car rental companies. Mirkin was joined in 1959 by Julius Lederer (husband of Ann Landers). In 1960 the headquarters was moved to Chicago, Illinois and the rental fleet expanded with franchised and wholly owned rental outlets.

The company was eventually acquired by Transamerica Corporation, and then sold in 1986 in a leveraged buyout by Gibbons, Green and van Amerongen Ltd., along with management and selected investors. It was taken public in 1987.

The public company was purchased by Team Rental Group in 1997, which took the name Budget Group. In 2002 the company’s assets were sold to Cendant Corporation, which also owned Avis.

In September 2006 Cendant Corporation separated into four independent companies by spinning off its real estate division, now called Realogy, Inc., and its hospitality services division, now Wyndham Worldwide, and by selling its travel distribution services division, called Travelport, Inc., to an affiliate of The Blackstone Group.

In 2006, following the Travelport sale, Cendant, now composed solely of its vehicle rental services businesses, renamed itself Avis Budget Group.

Avis car rental is an American owned company and has two major brands that it promotes its car rental products using, those being Avis (obviously!) and Budget Rent a Car. Avis is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey USA. In addition to the main brands, Budget Truck Rental are also part of the Avis Budget Group.

Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, India, Australia and New Zealand. In other parts of the world, the Avis brand is operated by Avis Europe plc, a separate company which licenses the Avis brand from Avis Budget Group. All together, Avis currently has over 4000 branch offices worldwide. Avis is one of the largest car rental agencies in the world.

Avis is a leading rental car provider to the commercial segment serving business travelers at major airports around the world, and to leisure travelers at off-airport locations.

The company was founded in 1946 with 3 cars at Willow Run Airport[1], Detroit by Warren Avis (b.1915, d. April 24, 2007). It established branch operations across the U.S. over the next few years, becoming the second largest car rental company in the country by 1953 and by its tenth anniversary in 1956 had opened its first international offices in Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Their corporate motto is “We Try Harder.” It was adopted in 1962 [1] to make a more positive reference of Avis’ status as the second largest car rental company in the U.S., at the expense of its larger competitor The Hertz Corporation. In 1981, the company instituted its system of vehicle tracking, that was coincidentally named Advanced Vehicle Identification System, or “AVI.S”.

Avis has been owned by a number of other companies over the years, along with several periods of being a public company.