Alamo Rent A Car opens four locations in Florida, pioneering the concept of Unlimited Free Mileage. Immediately carving its niche in the leisure car rental industry, Alamo focuses its mission on providing a fun, low-cost, high-value rental experience to family and leisure travelers. The brand quickly becomes one of the country’s largest vacation rental providers and the largest provider to international travelers visiting North America.
Avis Car Rental and its subsidiaries operate one of the world's best-known car rental brands with approximately 5,500 locations in more than 165 countries. Avis has a long history of innovation in the car rental industry and is one of the world's top brands for customer loyalty. Avis is owned by Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CAR), which operates and licenses the brand throughout the world.
Founded in 1946 by Warren Avis (who sold his interest in 1954), Avis was the first company to rent cars from airport locations. The company grew rapidly during the 1950's through franchised and corporate-owned expansion.
Hertz operates the Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty and Firefly car rental brands in more than 10,300 corporate and licensee locations throughout approximately 150 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand. Hertz is the largest worldwide airport general use car rental company with more than 1,600 airport locations in the U.S. and more than 1,300 airport locations internationally. Product and service initiatives such as Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, NeverLost®, Carfirmations, Mobile Wi-Fi and unique vehicles offered through the Adrenaline, Dream, Green and Prestige Collections set Hertz apart from the competition.
National Car Rental is a rental car company based in Clayton, Missouri. National was founded by 24 independent rental car agents on August 27, 1947. It has grown from 60 locations in the United States in 1947 to over 2000 locations internationally as of 2005.
Today, National Car Rental has a network of more than 2,000 locations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Australia.
Budget Rent a Car System, Inc. is an American 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 who built the company, and made it an international company. In 1960, the headquarters moved to Chicago, Illinois.The company was eventually acquired by Transamerica Corporation, and then sold in 1986 in a leveraged buyout by Gibbons, Green and van Amerongen Ltd. Team Rental Group purchased the public company in 1997 and took the name Budget Group. In 2002, it sold the company's assets to Cendant Corporation, which also owned Avis and in September 2006, Cendant Corporation separated into four independent companies.
Of the approximately 800 Budget Rental Car locations in the U.S., 600 are company-operated locations and 200 are licensee locations. Internationally, there are 150 company-operated locations and 1,800 licensees
More than 570 worldwide locations, including approximately 260 locations in the United States and Canada.
Dollar Rent A Car was founded in 1965 in Los Angeles, where its executive offices remained until August 1994 when it relocated its world car rental headquarters to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In August 1990, Dollar was acquired by Chrysler, which made it part of its Pentastar Transportation Group, Inc., along with Thrifty Car Rental. In November 1997, Chrysler sold Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (DTG), successor by merger to Pentastar, in a public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. In November 2012, Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) acquired Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. Hertz Holdings, through its subsidiary The Hertz Corporation (“Hertz”) operates its car rental business through the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty brands from approximately 10,460 corporate, licensee and franchisee locations in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand. Hertz is the largest worldwide airport general use car rental brand, operating from approximately 8,960 corporate and licensee locations in approximately 150 countries.
Thrifty operates in 77 countries and territories with over 1,000 locations throughout North, Central, and South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Thrifty was founded in 1958. In 1987, the company completed an initial public offering of common stock and was acquired two years later, in 1989, along with Dollar Rent A Car, by Chrysler Corporation. In late 1997, Chrysler divested Thrifty and Dollar in an initial public offering as part of the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. In November 2012, Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) acquired Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. Hertz Holdings, through its subsidiary The Hertz Corporation (“Hertz”) operates its car rental business through the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty brands from approximately 10,460 corporate, licensee and franchisee locations in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and New Zealand. Hertz is the largest worldwide airport general use car rental brand, operating from approximately 8,960 corporate and licensee locations in approximately 150 countries.
