I doubled down on Avis about 15 years ago after they screwed me with a gottca charge on a car rental in New York. I was angry as a consumer, but as a shareholder you have to admire the “skim, scam and fraud” in the Avis business model.
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That’s short-term. The scamming of customers is not a good long-term strategy, unless you have an unchallengeable monopoly.
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I wish that were true, but my stock portfolio over the past 30 years says otherwise.
The only “bridge too far” for me is investing in a health insurer.
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To me investing in Avis implies belief that oil prices will be high only briefly and we will not fall into recession. Recession means less business travel and probably less vacation travel.
I just sold the last of my Royal Carribean for this reason. Bookings seem stable but earnings will be down due to rising oil prices.
These are traders stocks. People who can make money trading for a brief period on price that changes by tenths are far different from investors who hope for 10% or more over the next year.
Yes, if that’s your investing thesis.
My 30-year long investment thesis that is that a crony capitalist economy thrives on “skim, scam, and fraud” and a lack of antitrust enforcement. It’s the reaiization of Reagan’s “Morning in America”.
Avis’s long-terrn chart supports this thesis. I doubled down on the stock about 15 years ago.
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FWIW, I don’t remember the last time I used Avis. Nor Hertz. I almost always get either Alamo, Budget, or Enterprise. They are generally cheaper for the same vehicles.
Occasionally we do an independent small company. At least when traveling in the US. Overseas, I don’t rent cars. I use transit and/or walk.
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I haven’t rented a car in 15 years. It’s just too much work to go through the rental contract to make sure you’re not being screwed.
It’s public transit, or I’ll walk.
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