Discounting on Wheels

A traveler arriving by plane at any of six major U.S. cities from St. Louis to Houston need only dial a phone number and within minutes a sweet young thing in a tam-o'-shanter and tartan skirt will pick him up in a station wagon, drive him down the road a stretch, and hand him a key. The key is for one of Thrifty Rent-A-Car System's 1962 or 1963 model autos, and the net rental is about 20% below the rates charged by Hertz, Avis or National, the Big Three of the billion-dollar-a-year U.S. auto rental business.

Though his company is only six months old, Thrifty's President Wilbur Fisk Stemmons, 50, a onetime used-car salesman, already has a fleet of 140 new autos, and sales running at the rate of $500,000 a year. Many other cut-rate car rental companies are also springing up across the U.S. Though some quickly fold for lack of capital and know-how, many are doing remarkably well. Chicago's Budget Rent-A-Car, bossed by Jules W. Lederer, 45, husband of Lovelorn Columnist Ann Landers, has opened franchised branches in 50 cities, plans to open 150 more next year. New York's Kinney Corp., which operates parking lots, now also has a fleet of 3,000 rental autos, will expand into Florida this winter. Other discounters are going strong in Los Angeles and Miami.

The discounters' fees average $6 a day and 6-c--a mile for a standard-sized Chevrolet, compared with the Big Three's $9 a day and 9-c- a mile. One reason for the discounter's low rates is that, unlike the Big Three, most do not supply free gas and oil. Another is that the discounters do not maintain the airport-terminal booths that cost the Big Three 10% to 12% of their gross in fees to local airport commissions. Few discounters permit customers to check out a car at one place and return it at another. But the cut-rate rental cars are generally as clean and well-serviced as the Big Three's.

The Big Three profess to be unworried, point out that their own revenues have increased an average 15% this year. They figure that the businessmen travelers who make up the bulk of their clientele are unlikely to try the little-known discounters just to save a few dollars. Says one Hertz executive: "Businessmen on expense accounts just don't care about a bargain." But if the company controllers who check expense accounts begin to care more about a bargain, the discounters could get quite a lift.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.