Avis Bills Customer $6,288 After Claiming 95,000 Miles Driven in One Week

A rental car customer is disputing a $6,288 charge from Avis after the company claimed he drove 95,000 miles in seven days on what was supposed to be an unlimited-mileage rental that initially cost under $200.

According to the billing dispute, the customer booked a week-long full-size rental at Dubuque Regional Airport in Iowa for $199.64 with unlimited mileage included. However, his final invoice stated a white Toyota Camry Hybrid showed an odometer reading of 26 miles at pickup and 95,199 miles at return—a difference the system calculated as 29,637 miles driven, though basic arithmetic suggests otherwise.

The mathematics of the alleged journey are physically impossible. Covering 95,173 miles during the 162-hour rental period would require maintaining an average speed of 587.5 miles per hour continuously, without stops for refueling or rest. Even the 29,637 miles Avis's system recorded as "total driven" would demand an average speed exceeding 182 miles per hour throughout the entire week.

Despite the rental agreement clearly stating "Mileage: Unlimited" on both the reservation and final invoice, Avis billed 19,638 miles at 25 cents per mile, generating a base mileage charge of $4,909.50. Additional fees and taxes pushed the total overcharge to more than $6,000. The billing appears to stem from a system malfunction that may treat 9,999 miles as a placeholder for unlimited allowances, with another component treating that figure as an actual cap.

The incident echoes a previous case involving Hertz, where a customer who legitimately drove 25,000 miles during a month-long unlimited-mileage rental faced similar demands for additional payment. In that situation, Hertz corporate intervened and confirmed the customer would not be charged, stating the unlimited terms would be honored.

Rental company terms typically specify that mileage charges apply only "if applicable, at the rate stated in the Agreement." When contracts explicitly include unlimited mileage—a common feature for weekly and long-distance rentals—no excess mileage charges should apply regardless of actual distance driven. The customer reportedly used a corporate discount code without providing eligibility verification, which could theoretically allow Avis to reprice the rental at standard rates, though not to impose mileage charges on an unlimited-mile contract.