Alamo Rent a Car is a car rental agency in the United States. Based in Clayton, Missouri, it has branches across North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania.
Alamo was founded in Florida in 1974. In 1996, Alamo was acquired by Republic Industries (later renamed AutoNation). AutoNation spun off its car rental properties as ANC Rental in 2000. ANC filed for bankruptcy a year later; its properties were sold to Vanguard Automotive Group (controlled by Cerberus Capital Management) in 2003. In 2007, Vanguard was acquired by Enterprise Holdings, operator of the largest rental car company in North America, Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Complaints and criticism
LAX Rental Car Center & Airport Shuttle Service 06-03-10 - Aerochannel covers recent deliiberations regarding the building of a central rental car center at Los Angeles International Airport, and video of the new hotel shuttle service at LAX.
Alamo Rent a Car has been criticized for not providing adequate access to/from terminal buildings to rental car lot for wheelchair users; according to the United States Department of Justice, Alamo was the subject of many such complaints; Alamo reached a settlement with the government regarding the complaints filed by the Department of Justice. There was a report in the Washington Post about problems with customers returning cars after hours; in one instance, a customer returned an undamaged car after hours, but Alamo claimed that it had been rear-ended and demanded an additional $785; Alamo dropped the claim after the renter threatened to take them to court. A report in the Denver Post described a snowbound passenger who was charged $950 per day by Alamo around Christmas time in an instance of apparent price gouging. There was a report in the New York Times that supposedly "midsize" Alamo rental cars were "uncomfortably small." A report in USA Today suggested that increases in rental car rates, which averaged 4% in 2013, were leading many rental car users to switch to taking taxis instead. Two automobile safety advocacy groups petitioned the Federal Trade Commission in 2010 to bar Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Alamo, from renting out recalled vehicles that had not been fixed. Alamo was criticized in the New York Times for failing to provide information about insurance rates for its rental cars on its website.
North American vehicle types
Alamo reclassification of car sizes has caused considerable customer confusion. Cars such as the Chevrolet Cruze are classified as compact at other firms, but as mid-size at Alamo.
- economy: Chevrolet Spark or similar
- compact: Nissan Versa or similar
- mid-sized: Toyota Corolla or similar
- standard car: Chrysler 200 or similar
- full-sized: Chevrolet Malibu or similar
- mid-size SUV:Ford Escape or similar
- standard SUV: Jeep Grand Cherokee or similar
- premium: Nissan Maxima or similar
- full-size crossover: Dodge Journey or similar
- full-size SUV: Chevrolet Tahoe or similar
- minivan: Dodge Grand Caravan or similar
Cars are different outside of the United States and Canada.
References
Further reading
- Confessions of an Alamo Car Rental Agent. The Consumerist.
External links
- Official website
- List of SIPP codes used by Alamo to categorize their rental cars
