Rent-A-Wreck Not Performing Up To Its Name Car Rental Company Constantly Forced To Combat Bad Reputation

With a name like Rent-A-Wreck, finding customers isn’t the problem.

“We get people calling us all the time asking, ‘Do you really rent wrecks?”’ said Rich Holmes, who owns a Media, Pa., franchise. “The whole idea is to get the telephone to ring, and Rent-A-Wreck does that.”

The problem is reassuring potential customers that the name is tongue-in-cheek.

“At Rent-A-Wreck, no matter how much the operator explains to you that the vehicles are good, they’re reliable, there’s always a fear that there’s a problem,” said Chip Rueter, the company’s chief training officer.

Despite the occasional jalopy, most cars from Rent-A-Wreck are about five years old, company officials say.

Rent-A-Wreck was founded 26 years ago as Bundy Very Used Cars by Los Angeles mechanic Dave Schwartz, who began by renting low-profile cars for actors traveling incognito.

The name change came after a police report listed a stolen rental that was recovered as a “wreck.”

Schwartz later found the car in the same condition in which it had left. The name stuck, and it spread internationally after the company used it to sign up its first franchisees in 1978.

The name has high recognition, but the associations aren’t always good.

In the Mel Brooks film “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” a dilapidated horse bears a “Rent-A-Wreck” stamp on its behind.

A 1988 survey done for the company found 82 percent of respondents knew the name, but 27 percent thought the company had low-quality cars.

And a survey of 7,500 business travelers, released in April by Zagat travel guide publishers Tim and Nina Zagat, ranked Rent-A-Wreck last among 11 rental companies.

“You can get in as many accidents as you want. They’ll never notice,” one Zagat survey respondent said.

Rent-A-Wreck does less business travel renting than other car rental companies, in part because it does not pay travel agents’ commissions.

The company’s customers are more likely to find a franchise at a rural airfield than an airport. While Hertz and Avis target business travelers and tourists, Rent-A-Wreck goes after a different clientele: renters under 25 and those without credit cards, who are shunned by mainstream companies; used car buyers who want a long test drive; serious bargain hunters; and locals renting for out-oftown visitors.

Private detectives like Rent-A-Wreck because they can pick up unassuming sedans that aren’t obvious rentals, and police drug squads like the ability to change cars daily, Holmes said.

The company had the same allure for one of Holmes’ customers, later convicted for using a Rent-A-Wreck sedan to rob a nearby bank.