Car Stuff

Is Gray Unluckiest Car Color?

If you drive a gray car, some new research out of the United Kingdom suggests you might want to consider taking it in for a tune-up.

More than one in three of the U.K.'s 1.3 million gray-car drivers will call for roadside help, according to a report by online auto magazine iMotor. In the U.K., there are more blue cars on the road than any other color - 7 million are registered - yet they are 15 percent less likely than gray cars to break down.

According to the study, the lineup of unlucky car colors is as follows: gray, green, yellow, gold, white, black, purple, blue, silver and, finally, red.

The magazine does note that the news isn't all bad for gray-car owners in the U.K. The majority of calls for breakdowns dealt with dead batteries or tire punctures, rather than mechanical failure.

"The results are genuinely surprising," wrote Mat Watson, editor of iMotor. "One theory is that many hire and company car fleets choose grey vehicles as the colour looks newer for longer, with dents and scratches less noticeable. These vehicles are often exposed to very high mileage, so perhaps their chance of needing assistance is greater."

Car Rental Bliss Harder To Find, Study Says

Customer satisfaction with renting cars at airports has declined considerably for a second consecutive year, according to a new study.

Enterprise bucked the trend by ranking highest in the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Rental Car Satisfaction Study released Tuesday. It was the fifth consecutive year the company topped the list.

Now in its 13th year, the study measures overall customer satisfaction by examining six factors: costs and fees, pickup process, rental car, return process, reservation process and shuttle bus/van. On the study's 1,000-point scale, overall satisfaction fell from 750 points in 2007 to 734 in 2008.

"The current economic climate is having negative effects on all aspects of the travel industry - from airlines to hotels to rental car companies - as staffing and operational cutbacks have resulted in diminishing levels of customer satisfaction," said Jim Gaz, senior director of global hospitality, travel and entertainment at J.D. Power and Associates.

Enterprise, which received 773 points out of 1,000, was followed in the rankings by Hertz (750) and Alamo (747), respectively, with Alamo improving from its 733-point, seventh-place ranking in 2007. National was the only other car rental company to finish above the national average, coming in fourth with 742 points.

The bottom three companies in the study were Fox Rent A Car, Advantage Rent A Car and Payless, all falling below the 700-point mark in the study.

The study finds that while only one in 10 rental car customers say they had a significant problem during their rental car experience, having a problem has a strong negative effect on overall satisfaction. When customers say they experienced a problem, overall satisfaction declines by 128 index points, compared with customers who report no problems. And if the problem is not resolved, satisfaction decreases by an additional 52 points.

The study also found that nine out of 10 customers who say they are committed to a particular car rental company state that they definitely will recommend it to others.

"Some leisure and business travelers are avoiding air travel altogether, which has ramifications for airport-based rental car companies in terms of a shrinking customer base and decreasing revenues," Gaz said. "In times like these, it becomes particularly important to deliver superior customer service and retain current customers, since new ones may be scarce."

The study is based on more than 13,400 evaluations from business and leisure travelers who rented a vehicle at an airport location between September 2007 and October 2008.

MICHELLE

iMotor, J.D. Power and Associates