I don’t think that I would have ever encountered the Dodge Avenger in my life had it not been for AVIS. I do know that I was always attracted to the 2 door, V-6 sports coupe from afar every time I would come across it on the freeways. While my trusty Honda Accord was in the shop for routine maintenance, I had a choice between renting the dependable, but rather boring Ford Taurus, or the spirited sibling of the Chrysler Sebring, the Avenger. This wasn’t that hard of a choice, really. I was immediately enticed by the Avenger’s sleek, falcon like exterior, which borrows a few design concepts from its company mascot the Viper. Visually the car is stunning for its price point of well under $18,000.

The interior features comfortable seats, powered accessories (depending on the model) and a dash that’s relatively easy to see. All the controls are located within reach, although the seat controls were a little harder to use and customize. The cruise control does not have buttons placed on the steering wheel as my Accord does; rather the cruise is on a handle placed to the right, which I found inconvenient and rather cumbersome to use. In most cars the stereo is pretty intuitive and although the six-speaker setup was a blast to listen to, the standard AM/FM cassette receiver took a little time to get used to. The second set of presets were hard to program given that I didn’t want to spend any time thumbing through the manual.

The driver/passenger seats were comfortable for rides up to 2 hours, after that I found myself moving around. There was adequate room in the back, but you have to remember that the Avenger is a sports coupe. Getting in and out of the car from the back was a little difficult, but at least the seatbelts, etc were not terribly in the way.

Once in and ready to go, I slowly pulled out of the car lot. Wow….you can tell this baby was waiting to let go. Who was I not to let it? I headed to the freeway on ramp and unleashed the beast (you have to understand that after driving a V-4 Accord, any slight improvement in the engine will get my attention). Even though the rental was automatic, the car zoomed me into traffic and immediately I could tell that the horses were running...I punched the Over Drive button off and in no time I was in the fast lane driving 75 mph enjoying the smooth ride and the humming of the engine. Then I realized that one more speeding ticket and I would have my license revoked, so I cut the gas and settled to a decent 65 mph. So that’s why sports cars sell so much. Throughout the rental period, the Avenger never disappointed me in the speed output and quick acceleration, but it did on the turns as its handling and relatively heavy chassis made the cornering a little difficult. The car gave me about 340 miles on a full 14-15 gallon tank with about 75% freeway miles.

Although I will never be convinced of domestic car reliability, I can definitely say that driving the Avenger was fun, not to mention that because of its good looks and rarity on the freeways, you do get some attention. So if you are in the mood for a fun rental car for the weekend or more, give the Avenger a run. You definitely wont be disappointed in its performance.