a car type subsidiary founded 1963 headquarters orlando fl usa area served worldwide parent catalyst capital group inc website www.advantage.com advantage rent a car is a car rental company headquartered in orlando florida . the brand was acquired in early 2014 by catalyst capital group inc. advantage operates from 40 locations servicing airports and five additional satellite locations in hotels in hawaii and las vegas and has a fleet of approximately 23 000 cars ranging from economy cars to suvs . advantage primarily services the leisure segment of the rental car market and predominantly operates in key domestic leisure destinations including california florida texas colorado hawaii and arizona as of july 2013 . 1 on august 26 2012 hertz announced that it agreed to sell the us advantage business to franchise services of north america and macquarie capital as a divestiture to receive regulatory approval of hertz s acquisition of dollar thrifty announced at the same time and to convert foreign advantage locations to the thrifty brand . 2 on december 12 2012 advantage rent a car was acquired by a subsidiary of macquarie capital which will be merged with franchise services of north america inc. tsxv fsn immediately after a shareholders vote scheduled for 1q13 . the merger received final tsx regulatory and shareholder approval on may 3 2013 . 3 contents 1 history 1.1 bankruptcy and acquisition by hertz 1.2 sale 2 references 3 external links history edit in 1963 a small business owned by kenneth and helen walker called 3.99 car rentals opened its doors to serve the large military population in san antonio texas . founded with a fleet of five cars and initially serving the government traveler it expanded very quickly over the next 20 years into feeder and leisure markets including local retail and airport markets located throughout the western united states . during the 1960s and 70s the company grew through the acquisition of several different franchises . the operation was later consolidated in 1984 under the name advantage rent a car . as the 1990s progressed expansion of the advantage brand continued throughout the u.s. into the sunbelt states and major leisure airport markets . in 2001 advantage attained worldwide presence by launching an affiliate partnership program that grew to an international network serving more than 33 countries . in 2006 following the death of kenneth walker the walker heirs sold the business to venture holding inc. 4 bankruptcy and acquisition by hertz edit in december 2008 advantage filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed about 40 % of its u.s. retail locations citing a simultaneous drop in leisure travel with greatly increased costs and frozen credit markets presumably an effect of the 2008 09 global economic crisis . 440 workers or almost half its workforce were laid off at the time . 5 advantage was at that point privately held by disgraced minnesota auto dealership mogul denny hecker who is currently serving a 10 year prison sentence . citation needed on march 31 2009 the assets of advantage were purchased by the hertz corporation for 33 million which outbid enterprise rent a car in minnesota bankruptcy court . the purchase included the advantage logo and website . hertz stated its intentions after enterprise had announced it would acquire the assets . the advantage website was modified to match or closely mirror some design and operational aspects of the hertz website . by fall 2009 hertz had rebranded its simply wheelz economy sub brand with the acquired advantage trademark properties and had largely withdrawn the service . hertz described its plans to use advantage for ... further expansion into the price oriented travel demographic ... providing hertz a second brand to sell to corporate accounts and to market with key travel partners and ... extending the useful life of vehicles in hertz s rental fleet for advantage s fleet needs . 6 7 on november 5 2013 advantage rent a car announced to file bankruptcy . as of october 25 2013 simply wheelz sold 5 295 vehicles through auctions with an average loss of about 1 633 per vehicle which resulted in a total loss of about 8.6 million . 8 sale edit on august 26 2012 hertz announced 2 that it agreed to sell the us advantage business to franchise services of north america and macquarie capital as a divestiture to receive regulatory approval of hertz s acquisition of dollar thrifty announced at the same time and to convert foreign advantage branded locations to a new firefly car rental brand . on december 12 2012 advantage rent a car was acquired by a subsidiary of macquarie capital which will be merged with franchise services of north america inc. tsxv fsn immediately after a shareholders vote scheduled for 1q13 . the merger received final tsx regulatory and shareholder approval on may 3 2013 . 2 references edit franchise services of north america inc. announces appointment of william plamondon as president of advantage rent a car pdf . franchise services of north america inc. may 3 2013 . retrieved 29 april 2014 . a b dollar thrifty merger . retrieved 29 april 2014 . franchise services of north america inc pdf . franchise services of north america inc. may 3 2013 . retrieved 29 april 2014 . advantage rac founder kenneth walker dies at 81 . auto rental news . retrieved 29 april 2014 . advantage rent a car files for bankruptcy . usa today . 12 8 2008 . retrieved 29 april 2014 . check date values in date help hertz completes acquisition of advantage rent a car . reuters . apr 9 2009 . retrieved 29 april 2014 . volkmann kelsey . enterprise rent a car outbid for advantage assets . american city business journals . retrieved 29 april 2014 . car rental company advantage to be placed under chapter 11 . reuters . nov 5 2013 . retrieved 29 april 2014 . external links edit advantage rent a car home page v t e vehicle rental brands car rental ace rent a car advantage rent a car alamo rent a car auto europe avis rent a car budget rent a car carzonrent citer dollar rent a car enterprise rent a car europcar firefly hertz kemwel localiza national car rental payless car rental redspot car rentals rent a wreck sixt thrifty car rental taxiforsure meru cabs carsharing autolib autoshare buffalo carshare cambio carsharing car next door car2go city car club city carshare cityhop communauto vrtucar community carshare drivenow enjoy enterprise carshare evo car share flexicar flinkster getaround go op gocar goget greenwheels hertz 24 7 justshareit mobility carsharing modo momo car sharing mylescar reachnow rideshare delaware stadtmobil turo uhaul car share yourdrive zipcar zoom recreational vehicles bunk campers canadream cruise america wicked campers truck rental budget truck rental enterprise rent a truck hertz moving truck rental northgate penske truck rental ryder u haul united rentals defunct flexcar i go phillycarshare streetcar tilden rent a car whizzgo retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title advantage rent a car & oldid 732703206 categories car rental companiescompanies based in orlando floridahidden categories cs1 errors datesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from november 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 2 august 2016 at 17 50 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view