The destruction of the few U Save airport locations was assured when U Save at the Orlando Airport w

Was the auction sale of a bankrupt Advantage Rent A Car on Monday the end of a tumultuous period in the company s history, or just another abrupt change of ownership on its timeline into car rental oblivion? At this point, we don t know.
Private dollar car rental coupons equity dollar car rental coupons firms often operate with hubris commensurate to the size of their portfolio. The portfolio of Advantage s previous puppet master, Macquarie Capital, is the size of a breakaway republic. Macquarie knew nothing about car rental a poisonous mix yet it even went so far as to replace the management the Federal Trade Commission approved. We hope Catalyst is smarter than that. And we hope Macquarie is free of this deal.
Those challenges are many. The new team will have to move headquarters and cities dollar car rental coupons while disentangling Advantage from FSNA s operations, insurance, IT, marketing, legal and accounting support in quick order. They will have to cover immediate financial obligations regarding rents, concession fees, travel agency fees, depreciation and payroll.
We hope Advantage will have money to buy fleet thousands of cars, very soon. Advantage is sorely under-fleeted right now. Most of the cars that Advantage does have in fleet are Hertz s and Hertz wants its cars back.
We hope that Catalyst is putting its money where its mouth is, where Macquarie dollar car rental coupons never did. Judging from the terms of the bankruptcy sale, this appears to be the case. But understand that the initial $46 million Catalyst pledged in debt financing dollar car rental coupons will mostly be used to pay creditors. Advantage will need a lot more money for fleet.
We hope Advantage can find job openings for the people in the Advantage locations that will be closed. Expect closures. Advantage grew quickly to 72 locations because Hertz had to divest some Dollar and Thrifty airport dollar car rental coupons stores to satisfy the FTC s antitrust requirements in the Dollar Thrifty deal. Advantage picked up those extra stores. In retrospect, Macquarie s decision to replace management and try to expand at the same time was foolish.
Though we ll never see any outward signs, the FTC has to be smarting that Advantage declared dollar car rental coupons bankruptcy dollar car rental coupons mere months dollar car rental coupons after the FTC finally blessed the deal, even as there were signs Advantage wouldn t make its lease payments dollar car rental coupons to Hertz, even as Sandy Miller jumped in front of this derailing train to say, Stop!
After that epic fail, we hope the FTC will remain silent on this one. A smaller Advantage is not what the FTC wants, for competition s sake. But what can it do? Regulators are not in a position to force Advantage s new owners to keep open stores it couldn t support in the first place. (Advantage is a leisure brand. There is not a lot of leisure business in Cleveland.)
Moreover, we hope FSNA stockholders aren t getting screwed in this deal. Remember, FSNA owned Advantage through the issuance of shares to Macquarie Capital. Now that Advantage is no longer part of FSNA, what happens to the stock?
Finally, we hope Advantage will continue under stable ownership for a long time. However, understanding that the nature of private equity is to sell or exit its investments in portfolio companies for a return, you do have to wonder where Advantage will wind up next.
As a U-Save franchisee since 2006, I m left with the lingering taste of Advantage s failure under the FSNA nameplate. dollar car rental coupons As one of the few airport operators for U-Save, we were initially hopeful that bringing Advantage under the FSNA roof might enable the U-Save dollar car rental coupons name to benefit from the obvious name recognition that this acquisition dollar car rental coupons created. That said, my initial response dollar car rental coupons to the purchase was I sure hope they don t screw this up .
Tragically, after promises made and broken dollar car rental coupons to us throughout the last few months, dollar car rental coupons a tumultuous summer of being continuously eviscerated by Advantage s $5.00 per day rates and the eventual communication shut down from all of our FSNA contacts and most of our U-Save management, my fears have come to pass. First Sandy Miller leaves dollar car rental coupons (FSNA s words ... not mine), then Alan Wagner is subsequently fired. The culmination of the final, torrid act was the loss of, what I consider to be, the greatest portion of the brain-trust at U-Save; Bob Barton. Personally, I ve always regarded Bob as the silent leader of our boots on the ground band of U-Save compatriots. The volumes of priceless information that left the hands of the owner-operators at U-Save when Bob was fired will certainly set the franchise back considerably.
Honestly, I m over this entire situation. We fought through the lowest revenue summer we ve ever experienced (in over 20 years), to come out the other side licking the wounds inflicted primarily by the company that was supposed to be golden god of FSNA and, to some extent, the booster seat for all of the U-Save dollar car rental coupons franchises. I m not exactly sure who was steering the ship over the past few months, dollar car rental coupons but while Advantage ate up millions of dollars of FSNA investors money, they also succeeded in driving market revenue down across the board in our little berg. Personally, I hope they pick up sticks and move on to destroy the rental car economy in someone else s city until they ultimately fall apart from lack of leadership and capital equally.
dollar car rental coupons Good synopsis of issues and challenges by Chris Brown. Notwithstanding the Macquarie fiasco, I strongly believe the industry needs the Advantage brand. This is a quarter billion dollar company with tens/hundreds of thousands of real customers in the growth segment of a $24 billion industry. We need a strong independent that can figure out how to make money. Much beleaguered over the pre-Hertz years and then as Hertz s consolation prize when it appeared dollar car rental coupons the DTG deal would go South (pardon the pun), Advantage needs a strong, committed financial partner plus leadership that understands this diamond in the ruff brand - and how to optimize its value. I believe the leadership is in place - all they need is a good fleet plan, continue sound operating dollar car rental coupons fundamentals, and a focus on the markets WHERE ADVANTAGE CUSTOMERS ACTUALLY VISIT. I wish Catalyst dollar car rental coupons and Advantage management good luck and success.
The destruction of the few U Save airport locations was assured when U Save at the Orlando Airport was shuttered and Advantage occupied dollar car rental coupons the former dollar car rental coupons U Save location. I will probably be able to use my FSNA stock for wallpaper as it s value is almost non existent. The FTC is AWOL on this disaster.
Not something new. What happened to the company is common to all companies who had bad cases of mismanagement. It can really break a company and once done can sometimes dollar car rental coupons not be undone anymore. Good thing that the company has been saved by new ownership.
This is just another chapter in the Sandy Miller saga. He is a crook, he stole million from Budget stock holders and ruins many peoples retirements. Anyone who didn t see this coming dollar car rental coupons was blind. Dont go near any Sandy Miller deal.
Good synopsis of issues and challenges by Chris Brown. dollar car rental coupons Notwithstanding dollar car rental coupons the Macquarie dollar car rental coupons fiasco, I strongly believe the industry needs the Advantage brand. This is a quarter billion dollar dollar car rental coupons company with tens/hundreds of thousands of real customers in the growth dollar car rental coupons segment of a $24 billion industry. We need a strong independent that can figure out how to make money. Much beleaguered over the pre-Hertz years and then as Hertz s consolation prize when it appeared the DTG deal would go South (pardon the pun), Advantage needs a strong, committed dollar car rental coupons financial
I am merely a customer so clearly rate low on Advantage s list of important people. Perhaps the industry needs Advantage, but I don t. We rented from what is misleadingly described on Advantage s receipts as the San Francisco International Airport dollar car rental coupons location. dollar car rental coupons The truth is that the agency is far from the airport...that we froze in the dark just before Thanksgiving while waiting forever for the shuttle....and my memory is that we were charged for possible damages (and the money later supposedly was returned), which I do not believe is the industry standard. I enjoyed reading why the industry needs Advantage, but I ll never rent from the company again.
Catalyst Capital Group, all I have to say, as the Chief Science Officer for the Clean Air Fuel Efficiency Group of Products, is 80 MPG rental vehicles, changing oil once a year, cuting emissions up to 85% and extending the life of rentals by a factor of four or when you go to sell the asset off, to the consumer public, who wants to purchase an old rental which gets 80 MPG? Everyone!
My own personal Prius, gets currently 83 MPG and this year I am likely going to reach 100 MPG, without Plug In conversion, without any Deep Dark Magic , surprising enough through our US and International Patents for the application of Hydrocarbon Fuel Catalyst Processor, which are Pre Combustion and Recycling PCV Blow By Out Gases to reform them into combustion enhancing fuel.
Our other technology came from deep in Private Aviation, it is a one time application, which eliminates friction, reduces heat and stops the lost of Kinetic Energy and it all ends up in lower maintenance costs, extended dollar car rental coupons asset life, lower fuel costs for your customers and you, Catalyst Capital Group, have the Greenest Marketing Tool in the Global World, fuel cost savings for those who rent your 80 MPG Toyota Prius over the others Chevrolet Impala getting dollar car rental coupons 25 MPG. Do you know how much a Field Service Engineering Corporation would save if they had 100 engineers traveling once a week, 500 miles, over the full year?
How did FSNA make out in this debacle? The stock does not trade and it appears shareholders got screwed. Barton got himself a nice job with hertz. Tom McDonnell doesn t communicate with the shareholders who supported him. This is very wrong.
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