Enterprise Rent-A-Car Drives Historic Industry Shift: Local Rental Car Market Flies By Airport; Auto Rental News Reports Significant Change in $18 Billion Industry

ST. LOUIS--Jan. 24, 2006--Enterprise Rent-A-Car, North America's largest rental car company, today confirmed a report in Auto Rental News announcing that for the first time in the history of the $18 billion U.S. rental-car industry, more revenue is being generated by neighborhood-based locations than by airport locations.

In its January-February edition, Auto Rental News, the industry's leading trade publication, estimates that total market revenue for 2004 was $17.6 billion, with home-city rental accounting for $9.5 billion (or 54 percent of the market) and airport approximately $8.1 billion (or 46 percent).

Renting at neighborhood locations is a trend pioneered and driven by Enterprise, which operates more than 5,500 local branches in the United States - more than four times as many as its largest competitor and more than all of its national competitors combined. Enterprise continues to open about 300 new local branches each year.

"Twenty or so years ago, we began to seriously accelerate our neighborhood rental car business. It is very rewarding to have transformed our industry by building a nearly $10 billion business that simply wasn't there before," said Andy Taylor, chairman and chief executive officer of Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

The industry's growth over the past 14 years can be directly traced to the off-airport market, which has almost quadrupled in size - from $2.5 billion annually to $9.5 billion since 1991, according to Auto Rental News. During that time, the overall rental car market grew by about 65 percent, from $10.7 billion to $17.6 billion, with airport-based rental remaining flat at about $8 billion. Enterprise identified and grew the local market niche by putting locations closer to neighborhood driveways than to airport runways. Now, what was once an industry niche is the leading segment.

Enterprise's leadership position received further affirmation last week from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, which raised the company's long-term credit ratings to A- from BBB+. "The upgrade reflects the company's strong and improved financial profile ... Enterprise's credit ratios have been, by far, the strongest in the car rental industry," S&P stated in a Jan. 13, 2006 news release.

Today, Enterprise has locations within 15 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population and opens, on average, a branch per day.

"What you're seeing is that American consumers are using rental cars in their home towns and neighborhoods for many needs beyond replacements for automobiles that are in the shop. They're renting for corporate and leisure needs, driving vacations, an extra car, or a different kind of car," Taylor said.

In addition to its success in the neighborhood rental market, Enterprise is also the fastest growing rental car company at U.S. airports. The company operates 200-plus on-airport locations and has received J.D. Power & Associates' highest rating in the firm's annual Domestic Airport Rental Car Customer Satisfaction Survey six of the past seven years.

About Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Founded in 1957, Enterprise Rent-A-Car has more than 6,500 offices in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Germany, and operates more than 800,000 Rental and Fleet Services vehicles worldwide. The company had $8.2 billion in revenue in its 2005 fiscal year. Enterprise is ranked No. 16 on the Forbes "500 Largest Private Companies in America" list. For more information visit www.enterprise.com.