Rental cars get higher marks in new customer survey; Enterprise on top

Customers are giving the rental car industry its best ratings since the pre-recession boom years, according to the 2010 North America Rental Car Satisfaction Study, released Tuesday by J.D. Power and Associates.

The annual survey is based on more than 11,500 evaluations by both business and leisure travelers over roughly the last year. They rated their rentals, all of them at airports, on costs and fees; pick-up, return and reservation processes; and shuttle bus/van service.

After taking a dive in 2008 and 2009, overall customer satisfaction returned to its 2007 level: 750 points on a 1,000-point scale.

In an e-mail, Stuart Greif, vice president of the travel practice at the Westlake Village-based market research company, said that satisfaction with cost and fees is slightly higher now than in 2007. Since overall satisfaction is the same as in 2007, that means other satisfaction levels are not quite back to 2007 levels. “However, the trend is in a positive direction,” he added.

More good news for renters: Rates should stay about the same next year because of heavy competition and a huge inventory of rental cars, according to a recent forecast.

One thing hasn’t changed: For the seventh year in a row, Enterprise Rent-A-Car took the top spot for customer satisfaction in the study. No. 2 was National and No. 3 was Hertz. Thrifty ranked last among the 10 companies rated.