Last weekend, the crew at Avis took on it’s second gruelling test of endurance within a month, this time competing in the Ride24 challenge. The challenge takes place in the form of a Le Mans style race with teams of 4 taking it in turns to cycle round the Dunsfold Park Track in Surrey (aka the Top Gear test track) over a period of 24 hours. Effectively, whoever completes the most laps over that period wins. Of course people like me don’t just enter things like this for the fun of it and it was all for a good cause, raising money for Action Medical Research.
We weren’t exactly the most prepared outfit competing, most evident when team member Gavin Ross declared that he was not going to the practice run last Tuesday night because “he hadn’t done any practice so far so why start now?”. But we managed to overcome our lack of preparation by putting in some respectable scores. Of the 3 teams we entered Avis Team 3 (the team I was in) finished 19th despite Steve Liberda and Duncan Hall riding the slower hybrids and myself and my colleague, Simon Wickson, sharing a bike. Avis Nightriders (who should have been Avis Team 1 but refused to stick to the naming convention) finished 15th while Avis Team 2 finished in 2nd place, which was an unbelievable achievement.
I have to say that Action Medical Research did a great job of hosting the event. But we’ve still got a little way to go to reach our fundraising target so if you are interested in sponsoring us, please click here.
Below is a full list of the team who competed on the day:
Avis Nightriders
Gavin Ross, Jack Macaree, Chris Keogh, Tim Maw
Avis Team 2
Jim Cox, Simon Carter, Gavin Spires, Thomas Sugden
Avis Team 3
Steve Liberda, Duncan Hall, Simon Wickson, Rob White
Loading ...
Just returned last night from my holiday. This about what happened with the car.
We landed on time and collected our luggage. I had booked the car with my wife, but she has to drive as my condition might not be acceptable. She went to collect the car from tithe airport office by bus, I soon realised that I had to be there too as we had entered my card details when booking. This was my first misunderstanding; it seems the wording on the site is inaccurate. They actually required my wife’s credit card as she was the driver.
Next the Sat Nav which was to be included at £0 was going to be charged. After some arguing it transpired that the system was indicating a charge but the net result was zero.
Almost 2 hours after collecting our luggage we were ready to go. However with a long drive my wife didn’t want to start checking the car over, of course we should have as the two front tyres were worn such that the wear indicators were flush. I changed the worst tyre for the spare and we risked the other rather than have to spend considerable time on the phone trying to arrange for new tyres.
The car has damage to the font door and the rear bumper as well as damage to the seats and fittings inside.
The fuel gauge was shown as at the full mark, but although I filled it at the garage nearest the drop off point, less than one mile, it was not showing full when we returned it.
I shall ask my wife to check her statement very carefully as there is no reason for me to have confidence that further charges will not be made to her card.
Otherwise the car was great it moved forwards and backwards exactly as a car should, it even stopped when the brake was applied.
I expect no financial compensation from Avis, everything went well. Just remember to check basics however long you are kept waiting as you may not be so lucky and there maybe jail considerations if an accident occurs!
Hi Geoff, I really appreciate you taking the time to write such comprehensive feedback. Would you be able to email me at comments@avis.co.uk to let me know what rental office you rented from and, ideally, advise me of your rental agreement number? Some bits, such as website wording, we can take a look at while others, such as your issue over the tyres, we’ll need to review with the rental office.
Rob