As a valued customer and member of Avis Preferred®, we want to share exciting news about enhancements to your service. Beginning June 7, 2012 we’re launching Avis Preferred Select & Go––a new service that puts you in control. Select & Go will be available at 50 airport locations in the United States and Canada by the end of 2012.

NEW Avis Preferred Select & Go
Select & Go gives you the freedom to select the vehicle that’s right for you and your trip. We will continue to pre-assign your vehicle based on your preferences, and now you’ll have three options when you reserve an intermediate or larger vehicle:

1. Keep: Check your email* or the Preferred board for your pre-assigned vehicle. If you’re happy with it, drive to the Exit Booth as usual.

2. Exchange: If your vehicle isn’t exactly what you want, select a different one from our Select & Go Exchange area at no extra charge.

3. Upgrade: Choose from our Select & Go Upgrade area—including Cool Cars, specialty vehicles, SUVs and more—for an additional daily charge.**

New Faster Service
Because your time is valuable, your Rental Agreement will no longer be in your vehicle. Simply drive your selected vehicle to the Exit Booth where an Avis representative will get you on your way quickly and easily––no additional paperwork required!

We thank you for making Avis your choice for your car rental needs and we look forward to you driving with us again soon.

I’m a fan of National since they allow me to select a car.  I wonder how this will play out with Avis, but I think it is a step in the right direction.

Since it’s winter and I live in the south of course that means all my business travel is to Canada.  I have a client fairly close to Buffalo so it makes more sense to fly into Buffalo instead of Toronto due to traffic patterns and the ridiculous airfares into Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

Last week I got to the National desk in Buffalo and I was offered an Impala or a Malibu.  I really like Malibus so I chose that car, but immediately noticed the dash had a single unit speedometer.  Now since many of you out there don’t believe me that such cars exist I took a picture.  I once debated with CBP about why I had rented a minivan to cross into Canada when it was just me (Canada didn’t care, but the US was very concerned when I was reentering).  I stated I rented it because it was the only car they had with miles and kilometers on the speedometer.  They told me all cars have that.

So, how did I remedy this situation?  I have always assumed there was some way to toggle this to Km/h, but instead of fiddling with it after crossing the border I just set my GPS into metric mode.  I looked at the car speedometer in the US and the GPS speedometer (since my Garmin shows my current speed) in Canada.