Avis, Budget will offer Garmin units in rentals

location based services

The parent of two of the nation's largest car rental companies said Monday that it would begin offering customers a portable navigation system made by Garmin Ltd. in August.
Avis Budget Car Rental LLC, which operates the Avis and Budget car and truck rental brands, said it would offer the Garmin units for $9.95 a day or $49.95 a week at 125 locations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.


Olathe-based Garmin (Nasdaq: GRMN) announced a deal in January with St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the nation's largest rental car company, to offer navigation units at 100 airport locations for $7.95 a day.
In October, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. began offering Garmin navigation units at 149 Dollar Rent A Car locations for $9.95 a day.
Garmin has not released financial terms for its deals with the car rental companies. Garmin spokeswoman Jessica Myers said Monday that the deals have the effect of luring potential new customers by allowing people to try car navigation who otherwise might not have.
The Hertz Corp., the No. 2 car rental company, equips its fleet with navigation units from Garmin rival Magellan, a unit of French company Thales Navigation Inc.
Garmin is the leading maker of portable navigation units for automobiles in the United States. In June, Garmin sold 58 percent of all portable navigation units domestically, ahead of TomTom NV (24 percent) and Magellan (7 percent), according to researcher NPD.
The unit used by Avis and Budget will be called Where2, which is based on Garmin's $800 StreetPilot c550. The Where2 unit includes real-time traffic and construction information, hands-free calling for phones with Bluetooth and contact information for the rental car companies and 250 airlines.