Avis Car Rental, LLC is a Global

car rental A car rental, hire car or car hire agency is a company that rents automobiles for short periods of time to the public, generally ranging from a few hours to a few weeks. It is often organized with numerous local branches (which allow a user t ...

company headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey. Along with Budget Rent a Car, Budget Truck Rental and

Zipcar Zipcar is an American car sharing, car-sharing company and a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. Zipcar provides vehicle reservations to its members, billable by the minute, hour or day; members may have to pay a monthly or annual membership fee i ...

, Avis is a unit of Avis Budget Group. Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in North America, South America, Europe, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In 2011, Avis acquired Avis Europe plc, which had been a separate corporation licensing the Avis brand. Since the late 1970s, Avis has featured mainly

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

(GM) vehicles such as

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

, but today also rents other popular brands such as Ford and

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

. Avis was the first car rental business to be located at an airport, and today is a provider to the commercial segment serving business travelers at major airports internationally, and to leisure travelers at off-airport locations. Many of the off-airport locations are franchised operations rather than company-owned and operated, as is the case with most airport locations. In January 2013, the company agreed to acquire Zipcar for $491 million.

History

The company was founded in 1946 with three cars at

Willow Run Airport Willow Run Airport is an airport in Van Buren Township, Michigan, Van Buren Charter Township and Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, Ypsilanti Charter Township, near Ypsilanti, Michigan, Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States, that serves freight, cor ...

,''Business Superbrands'', Editor: Marcel Knobil, Author James Curtis (2000), Superbrands Ltd. , p. 18.

Ypsilanti, Michigan Ypsilanti ( ), commonly shortened to Ypsi ( ), is a college town and city located on the Huron River in Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's popu ...

, by Warren Avis (August 4, 1915 – April 24, 2007).Car-Rental Pioneer Avis Dies at 92
''Morning Edition'', April 25, 2007 It established branch operations across the United States over the next few years, becoming the second largest car rental company in the country by 1953. By its tenth anniversary in 1956 it had opened its first international offices in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. The Avis

corporate A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of s ...

motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

of "We Try Harder" was adopted in 1962, during CEO Robert Townsend's tenure, who transformed the company. The campaign aimed to put a positive spin on Avis' status as the second largest car rental company in the United States, at the expense of its larger competitor,

Hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or Cycle per second, cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in ter ...

. The slogan was used for 50 years before a re-branding in 2012, when Avis unveiled a new slogan—"It's Your Space." In 1972, Avis introduced Wizard, the first computer-based information and reservations system to be used in the United States car rental business; to this day, almost all frequent Avis customers are identified by their unique "Wizard number". In 1981, the company instituted its system of

vehicle tracking A vehicle tracking system combines the use of automatic vehicle location in individual vehicles with software that collects these fleet data for a comprehensive picture of vehicle locations. Modern vehicle tracking systems commonly use GPS or ...

, that was named Advanced Vehicle Identification System (AVIS). Avis has been owned by a number of other companies over the years, along with several periods of being a public company. These include: * 1956: The Amoskeag Company * 1962: Investment group Lazard Freres * 1965:

ITT Corporation ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

* 1977: Norton Simon * 1983: Esmark * 1984:

Beatrice Foods Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food conglomerate founded in 1894. One of the best-known food processing companies in the U.S., Beatrice owned many well-known brands such as Tropicana, Krispy Kreme, Jolly Rancher, Orville Reden ...

* 1986: Investment firm Wesray Capital Corporation * 1987: Majority ownership under an Employee Share Ownership Plan * 1989:

(acquired 29% stake) * 1996: HFS Corporation * 2001:

Cendant Cendant Corporation was an American provider of business and consumer services, primarily within the real estate and travel industries. In 2005 and 2006, it broke up and spun off or sold its constituent businesses. Although it was based in New Yo ...

* 2006: Avis Budget Group

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* * * * * * * {{Authority control 1946 establishments in Michigan American companies established in 1946 Avis Budget Group Car rental companies of the United States Companies based in Nassau County, New York Franchises Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey Retail companies established in 1946 Transport companies established in 1946

History

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Further reading

External links