this seems to be pushing us to the limit, but it is good news for the rest of the companies. as a smoker, i will avoid these socialists at all costs. if the rest of the industry follows like sheep, i will simply drive to any destination where i will be spending more than a day. they can take their politically correct selves to the poor house (congress) and plead their case there. this used to be a free country, but is looking more like 1930's germany every day.

Posted By mike on September 17, 2009, 4:15 PM

But what you are forgetting (or choosing to ignore) is that the smoke lingers in the car long after you're done smoking. So, the next person who enters the car is exposed to the cigarette smoke. Aside from being unpleasant, for someone with allergies, asthma, or other respiratory conditions, it can be quite harmful. A smoker is able to smoke outside the car during stretch breaks. Everyone, however, needs to breathe pretty much all the time. I can't tell you how many times we've had difficulty finding a rental car we could actually sit in for more than 30 seconds due to residual smoke. You can still smoke, but in a way that will allow us to still breathe.

Posted By Renee on September 17, 2009, 9:08 PM

This is GREAT news! I hope all the companies do it SOON. It's awful to rent a car for a 5-hour work trip & have to breathe the awful smell of lingering smoke the entire time, plus have it soak into your hair & clothing. Just as bad are the sickeningly perfumed cleaners the companies use to try to clean up & mask the smoke smell. Should help keep costs down as well. (it's amusing the way "socialism" is suddenly the new favorite curse; it's lost all meaning)

Posted By Sherry on September 18, 2009, 12:32 AM

My recent experience with AVIS (& previous experience with Budget) suggests this is just another way for them to extort more money from their customers. I’m not a smoker and, to be perfectly honest, don’t like the smell of smoke, but if you read their proposal, it looks like their employees can access the new $250 charge if they “suspect” that someone has smoked in the car. I’m uncomfortable with that - smoke smell lingers long after the smoker has departed, so who’s to say that it isn’t from previous smoking when it was “allowed”? Both of these companies have added additional fees onto rentals when I dropped the car off - fees that were NOT told to me at the time of the rental. And I’m not talking about one-way dropoff charges, necessary taxes or even gasoline costs, because I expect to pay those. No, they charge for things like “concession recovery,” “energy recovery” and “customer facility” fees that they cannot even explain!

Posted By Kathy on September 18, 2009, 12:52 PM