Firstly, I just want to say thank you for all the great feedback that was provided about the Select Series on the blog. We have spent the last few months deliberating based on your feedback, last year’s performance and what the manufacturers have available to us to help decide how the Select Series will look for the rest of the year. I am now pleased to say that we are in position to announce this.
This year the choice of Select Series will be simplified. Also, as before, availability of Select Series cars will be limited to 8 locations although the cars we have available at each of these locations will also differ. This is to ensure we allocate our cars to the locations where they are most popular. Below I have listed the cars available and where they will be available at:
Peugeot 207CC (manual)
Available at all Select Series locations including the airports Gatwick, Heathrow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Stansted as well as our Mayfair location in central London.
Volkswagen Golf (manual)
Available at all Select Series locations including the airports Gatwick, Heathrow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Stansted as well as our Mayfair location in central London.
Audi A4 saloon (manual)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow, Edinburgh and Manchester airports.
Audi A4 saloon (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports plus our Mayfair location in central London.
Audi A4 estate (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Edinburgh airports.
Mercedes C Class estate (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Edinburgh airports.
Audi A6 Saloon (automatic)
Available at the following locations: Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports plus our Mayfair location in central London.
If past history is anything to go by there will undoubtedly be lots of questions and feedback to this modified Select Series so please fire away. I know one of these questions will be about when our customers can expect to see the new Audi A4 on Select Series. The first of these will be available with the automatic transmission and this will start to be phased into our fleet from July. I should also note that the new Audi A4 will no longer automatically include GPS although it will continued to be included in the price with the A6.
Most of the changes to Select Series will come into effect from this Friday (May 2nd) and is bookable on the www.avis.co.uk website as normal.
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Hi,
I just wanted to congratulate you on a great blog.
It’s one of our top 5 UK hire blogs:
http://hireguru.co.uk/blog/2008/04/top-5-uk-hire-blogs/
Keep up the good work.
All the best,
Matt
HireGuru.co.uk
Hi,
I got a little excited when I saw the title of this thread, but if I have to be very honest I was a little disappointed…
I’m trying, but I can’t really see what is different or changed here?
What were you guys working on for months exactly?
Maybe I am missing something, and I’m sorry to be critical (you know I am a big fan of Avis, and what you guys are doing) but if you would have said Select series is continuing without any significant changes (which is fine, as it works so well!) that would make a lot more sense…
I guess I was hoping to see some more new cars added to make it more interesting.
The C class estate is a great car, but only if you need an estate…
A small SUV, perhaps a more upmarket convertible would have been nice…
I was also pretty shocked to see a huge increase in the prices of the Select series.
Looking at any dates in the next 6 months or so, a week’s rental of an Auto A4 is working out at £560! The A6 is close to £800
That’s more then double the price of a C class!!!!
Don’t know about others here, but I think the C class is a very nice car, and considering there isn’t anything else in it’s class (other then a few BMW’s) it is basically guaranteed if you book it, and would anyone really pay double to get the Audi?
I am aware that the prices with the select series can vary a lot depending on demand etc since they are in limited numbers, but come on guys I have never seen them as expensive as this.
Anyway I hope the prices changed to something more reasonable as I really am looking forward to trying out the new Audi.
As to the A4 questions (well you did say…) are the manual A4’s still 1.9’s or are they now 2.0?
The new A4, what spec will it come with? What about the cruise control many of us asked about…?
Not a select series, but how come the 307cc doesn’t appear in the list of cars until April next year???
I was looking forward to renting one again during the summer…
Anyway, let me add to the previous poster, that I too thing the Blog is great, been away and not too much time to post lately, so will try to rectify that!
I’m sure there’s plenty of evidence to suggest the changes are right, but personally it’s a disappointment. The choice of a Peugeot 207 or VW Golf at Stansted is somewhat underwhelming.
Still, I arrive in Las Vegas next week with the biggest car you do booked – any chance of making sure it’s a Cadillac DTS?
Hi Phil
But what changes exactly?
Other then the C class estate, everything else was already offered in the select series.
Robert
Hi there,
)
I am a Work Colleague of Robert’s from the post above. (In fact he is sitting in the room next door to me
He introduced me to this forum and to Avis in general a while back, although I haven’t really had a chance to post anything up until now.
I used to rent with [a competitor] but moved to Avis last year and generally happy with you guys.
In fact most of our company deal with Avis worldwide now, and you can thank Robert for that!
I rent about 20-30 times a year, since I gave up my car living in central London, and find it easier using public transport, and renting a car as and when I need one, plus on holidays abroad of course.
I have always liked the select series, but I must agree with what has been said above, the changes are very underwhelming.
For some cars I would pay extra to know what I was getting, but to pay extra to get a very stander Golf over a Focus? no way.
I was expecting some new cars to be introduced and it’s a shame they haven’t been.
Like already mentioned another maybe more up market convertible would be nice.
The select series consists of mainly Audi’s, so why not offer the new A3 convertible?
I have hired the 307cc (and a couple of time got the Megane CC) in the past, and size wise they were perfect, but the 207 is way too small for me, and to be honest without soundly like a male chauvinist it is a bit of a girly car.
I am also like Robert little shocked by the price hike for the select series, what is going on?
I thought it is meant to offer a reasonable alternative to having to hire from your prestige selection?
You have added an estate C class (not crazy about the looks at all) and despite it being a Manuel rather then Auto (doesn’t really bother me) you seem to think it is worth paying 3 times as much for it then for a normal automatic C class.
I don’t mean to tell you guys how to do your jobs, but as someone who’s job is to determine pricing in the retail and leisure market I think you got it slight wrong here, though I guess time will tell…
Keep up the good work, and do something about the select prices!
Cheers
Julian
Well it’s about time Julian posted something here considering the amount of time he spends here, and other blogs (not sure when he does any work…)
There is no information re the Estate C class, what model is it? Diesel? Petrol?
Spec?
Regards,
Robert
Hi Robert,
Unless I’m reading things wrong, I don’t see any choice at Stansted beyond the 207CC or Golf. There’s no mention of Stansted under the Audi A4, A6 or Mercedes C.
That’s quite a big change!
Hi Phil,
Yes I just tried pricing up hire from STN, and no Audi’s at all, any date I try.
Robert
Hi Julian, Robert, Phil, sorry for the late reply. I know Xavier wants to reply to this but as he is away (on hols) I thought I’d step in with an interim comment until he gets back.
Firstly, I apologise if the title of the blog post manifested expectation that the Select Series was going to experience some significant and exciting changes. In reality we have simply revised the availability of each make/model by station, removed the VW Passat estate and replaced it with the Mercedes C Class estate. We’d love to have added some new exciting cars but the reality is that we have to manage the composition of Select Series with what is available from our manufacturers. That’s not to say we still won’t have anything new and exciting on the Select Series and we hope to have “promotional” cars to allow customers to guarantee any new make/models that our manufacturers launch. And I know we are always speaking to manufacturers to see what else we can get.
With regards to spec, I’ve requested this from our Fleet team and will give you as much information on the Audi A4 as soon as I get it. Robert, Julian – you should now be able to book the 307CC although it is at selected locations. Let me know where and when you are looking to book and I’ll advise if there are any available.
Finally, price – something all of you have commented on. I understand your concerns and I promise to discuss it with our pricing team. If we are priced to high we won’t have any customers and that is not good!
Anyway let me know if I have missed anything and I will get more information as soon as I get it.
Rob
Hello,
Thanks Rob for managing expectations during my holidays!
I know that there is a lot of interest for the cars in Select Series and this product in general, which is why we have listened and put a lot of work and analyses in refining the product ahead of this summer.
I’d also like to reassure you in the fact that your comments on the blog as well as on the survey (for those who have received it) have been taken into account. We have also engaged with the manufacturers as promised.
I can’t give names but we met new manufacturers on the back of your comments hoping to get them on fleet, and have spent a good amount of time reading the comments on this blog with existing partners!
The reality is that we have to balance demand and supply on a product were we want to offer cars that you value at a good price (we’re reviewing our prices after your comments) and the ability to get a guarantee on make on model.
Sometimes, for production on the manufacturer side(e.g. a change in model year) or economic reason (the economic drivers of a specific model make it too expensive for our customers), Avis and the manufacturers will struggle to get the critical volumes for Select Series. It’s never long term though!
Our customers told us a few things:
)
1. They like the models we have in Select Series and felt that Mercedes were missing
2. At some point last year, we weren’t always able to deliver on our guarantee promise on specific models of A4 because of too much demand and not enough supply after Audi stopped the production (for good reasons
3. They’d like to see some seriously fun cars from time to time in the fleet.
Therefore:
1.a we’ve added the mercedes, since you asked for it
1.b the others cars received very good feedback so they have their place in Select Series
2.a we restricted avaibility in some stations to get critical mass in all the others and service as many customers as possible
2.b we will review this situation as discussions with our partners / manufacturers continue.
3. We working on some good surprises regarding seriously fun cars and other things with manufacturers. Hush hush!
Please keep sending us feedback on Select Series (we never take them personnaly) as we share the same passion
We will 150% take them into account and so will the manufacturers. I promise!
I hope you appreciate that we’re probably the only car hire company with a fleet and marketing teams actively asking customers for their feedback on the cars they’d like to drive!
Let me know if you have any other questions!?
According to the above, the C class estate is Automatic.
According to avis.co.uk it is a Manuel.
So who is correct?
Robert
Hi Robert, can you let me know what dates/times/location you got this quote for the C Class estate? It should be displayed as an automatic and I just got the quote LHR and it seems to be displaying correctly. I am wondering whether there is a discrepancy somewhere?
Rob
Hi Rob,
You’re right.
But when the C Estate was first listed it had an M sign next to it rather then an A (hence Julian’s comment above)
That has now changed.
Talking of Estate cars, I assume the A4 Estate will be replaced by the new one? And if so, when will this happen?
New A4 Avant looks great actually (much nicer looking then the C class estate if you ask me) and apparently its so huge and practical, it kind of makes the A6 estate pointless…
See here:
http://www.audi.co.uk/audi/uk/en2/new_cars/a4/new_a4_avant.html
Regards,
Robert
Hi Robert, cheers for the link! The Avant looks great and I am excited about the A4 coming on fleet (not that they’ll let me drive it!)
More specifically, the A4 Avant will be coming on fleet in September.
That is odd about the C class estate. I’ll take a look into it. I’m sure you’ll let us know if you spot the discrepancy again!
Rob
Hi – I was wondering about the A4 Avant. It appears to dissapear from your booking system in January at LHR (right when I’m looking to book one!), leaving a fairly sparse choice of estates. Is it being discontinued from the select fleet?
Thanks,
Phil.
You are right Phil.
Looking at various dates between Jan and April I cannot find a single period where an A4 Avant, or a Merc 180SW for that matter are available.
They seem to be available up until January, and then again from April.
I thought maybe the “old” avants are going back to the manufacturer (or being sold) and there is a gap of a few months until the new model (which is already on the road and looks great by the way) arrives on the fleet, but that doesn’t explain the Merc SW.
The other possible explanation is that with a limited number of vehicles in the Select serious they are simply pre booked already, but I have tried about 20 different dates (yes, 20!) in Jan-Feb-Mar and could not find them at all…
But I’m sure Rob can answer this for us…
Hi Phil, Robert, great spot!! This was actually an error. We do have A4 Avants available at Heathrow for this period and it has now been corrected. You’ve probably saved us a lot of lost bookings! Some times I don’t what we’d do without you guys!
Rob
We aim to please…