Avis Car Rental in Streamwood, Illinois

Jason and the Avis facility in Streamwood are a class act. They are very understanding and delivered my car in no time at all with it clean and ready to go. I would send any one there knowing they would get a fair price, with friendly and knowledgeable service.

I rented a car from this location from 3/23/16 to 4/2/16, to drive to Colorado for a snowboarding trip. I picked up my rental on a Wednesday evening, with plans to leave straight from work on the 24th. Some of my review refers to this location in particular, while some of it refers to Avis as a whole. It will be long. I apologize. The first car I received was a Ford Focus. Immediately after driving out of the lot, the car felt like it was sputtering and almost dying at every stoplight. I've worked on my own cars for a long time - it seemed like a MAF sensor problem, and after driving it to work on the 24th, I felt rather uncomfortable trying to get the car to Colorado and back. I called Jason, the owner, and asked if I could switch the vehicle out. He was accommodating, and allowed me to return the vehicle in exchange for another Focus, which "Just got back from New York." The new Focus ran well, and I made it to Council Bluffs, Iowa my first night. On my second day of driving, I stopped for gas in Sidney Nebraska, which, if you are not familiar, is the only sizeable town for a rough 200 mile stretch of I-80. As I was about to get back in the car, I noticed a bulge in the sidewall of the front left tire. Not wanting the tire to blow out in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, or Wyoming, or even worse, in the mountains, I called Jason to see what could be done. In addition to telling me my trip "Just wasn't meant to be" he also offered the advice that "a bulging tire is just going to pull slightly in that direction." On my own initiative, I called the nearest Avis/Budget locations, both of which were just north of Denver, and 2.5 hours away from my location. With a bulge in the tire, I was uncomfortable trying to get down to Denver, as a tire blowout at 75 miles an hour is generally undesirable. One of the other Avis/Budget employees I spoke to suggested that I call the roadside assistance program. At this point, I could already see the potential dollar signs dancing in my eyes, but now at risk of delaying a trip through a mountain pass in the middle of the night, I decided to call. So much for that. The roadside people were helpful, though the earliest a car could get to my location was 5-6 hours. I should make note here that Sidney has two, TWO tire shops. Tire shops that likely could have had me on my way in an hour, given that it was the middle of the day on a Friday. Avis's solution was to tow my current car to Cheyenne, Wyoming, 100 miles away, and tow me a new car from Cheyenne, Wyoming. As I was currently sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot, I decided to drop the $50 to get a room at the Motel 6 nearby and take a nap while this was all taken care of. I was on my way again several hours later, and made it to Steamboat Springs and back to Chicago without incident, though I checked the tires every time I got in or out of the car. The icing on this cake came two days ago in the form of a letter from Avis roadside assistance that my account will be charged to the tune of $300 for tire replacement. Some will say "It's in the contract you signed." To that, I will say this: The car I rented from Jason drove from New York to Chicago. And that's not counting the 14,000 some miles driven before I got into the car the first time. The damage to this tire could have occurred in November 2015 for all anyone knows. This wasn't a tire puncture - this was a tire defect that I noticed before anything worse could happen to the tire, or the car, or ME. This dude essentially TOLD ME to drive on a tire with a bulging sidewall. Are you serious? There's no itemized receipt for the $300 charge pending on my card. I have no idea what was purchased? Were the tires re-balanced? Did they buy two new tires or four? Who knows? I sure don't. Time to ruin someone's day at the corporate customer assistance department, I guess! Pros: Mostly friendly service, my third car was great Cons: Negligent owner, downright criminal requisition of my money, improbably inefficient methods for roadside car assistance.