A J.D. Power and Associates customer satisfaction study released this week reports that Avis and National have the highest ranking among business rentals and Enterprise ranks highest among leisure rentals.

The study, "J.D. Power and Associates 2001 Domestic Airport Rental Car Customer Satisfaction Study," was expanded this year to distinguish between business and leisure customers.

"Competition in the rental car field has produced five straight years of increasing customer satisfaction," said Michael Taylor, director of travel services at J.D. Power and Associates. "The 2001 results reflect even fiercer competition to attract and retain renters. Ranking among the companies is tightly grouped, especially on the business side. Avis and National managed to edge out Alamo, Hertz and Budget due to a slight advantage in the critical passenger pickup process."

Avis also performed strongly in the reservation process, while Hertz and Alamo performed particularly well in the return process, according to business renters.

The study, now in its sixth year, is based on more than 2,900 evaluations from a random national sample of rental car customers who picked up or returned their rental cars to locations at or near airports. Eight major rental car companies were included in the study: Alamo, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, National and Thrifty.