People who like to take advantage of cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages should make a point of checking out Hertz the next time they need to rent a car given its new top ranking by a Zagat consumer survey.
Hertz came in number one in three categories: reliability, service, and vehicles. Zagat is a food and travel guidebook publisher which has been surveying rental car companies since 1997.
National Car Rental, which is owned by Enterprise Holdings, came in second, followed by Avis and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
The rankings of 10 car rental companies were based on surveys taken earlier this year of almost 800 people who rented over 9,800 cars last year. Renters surveyed averaged 11 rentals for the year, including seven for business reasons.
Hertz rated as the most popular rental company and came in first in 10 of the 13 supplemental categories. Renters viewed Hertz as best for business travel, leisure travel, counter staff, kiosk experience, loyalty program, green options, airport rentals, car return experience, shuttle service and website.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car was rated first in neighborhood rentals, best deals and promotions, and car pick-up experience.
National came in first in value rating, followed by Enterprise, Hertz and Avis. National rated second in best kiosk experience and tied for second with Avis for the best business brand.
J.D. Power and Associates released a consumer survey of auto rental companies last November. Based on over 12,500 respondents, ACE Rent A Car, which was not rated in the Zagat survey, came in first in airport customer satisfaction, followed by Enterprise, National and Hertz. www.cheapfares.com