The first American car rental entrepreneur was a guy named Joe Saunders from Omaha, Nebraska. He began leasing the Ford Model T in 1916. By the next year, his Ford Livery Company was leasing 18 Model Ts for 10 cents a mile. Saunders renamed his company several times – to Saunders Drive-It-Yourself System, and then to Saunders System. Within a decade, it expanded to 56 cities. Saunders’ company was bought by Avis in 1955.
Meanwhile, in 1918, a 22-year-old Chicago entrepreneur named Walter Jacobs opened his own car rental company with a dozen Model Ts. Five years later, he sold the company to John D. Hertz, who renamed it Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System, and the rest is history.