There are times that we as individuals, institutions or companies mess up. After all, no one's perfect. The question is, how do you handle a mistake when you mess up?

Clark recently read a Wall Street Journal report about medical facilities that admit when they make an error. Traditionally, lawyers will tell you to deny, deny, deny any wrongdoing. But that's one of the prime problems in corporate America. People can't seem to say, "I messed up."

One corporation that did manage to own up to its mistake is Enterprise Rent-A-Car. The Kansas City Star reports that the nation's largest car rental agency found a unique way to save money as a fleet buyer. They deleted side airbags from Chrysler vehicles they were purchasing from GM!

It's important to realize that their decision was totally within the limits of the law. Typically, only front airbags are required by law.

The company saved nearly $12 million over three years with this cost-cutting measure. But here's where they went wrong: They didn't disclose that the side airbags were deleted when they resold the cars to consumers.

Enterprise has since contacted every single buyer and made full disclosure. They've also offered to buy the cars back -- regardless of condition -- at above market prices.

Kudos to the car rental giant on this one. They made a misstep and then took action to correct it.

Clark has a trio of travel tidbits to share involving cruises, airlines and car rentals.

First, look for deep discounts on cruise cabins coming soon. The industry has overbuilt too many giant ships with too many cabins. In fact, the number of cabins will be up roughly 10% year over year for the next 3 years. So cruise lines will be willing to take a hit on the price of a cabin because they're really just loss leaders; the real money comes not from cabin fare, but from what you spend in onboard extras and onshore excursion packages.

Meanwhile, redeeming frequent flier seats is the most difficult it's ever been. The airlines flooded the market with frequent flier miles through promotions with mortgage lenders, car rental companies, florists and just about anybody else who wanted a piece of the action. But with more and more planes being parked in the desert, it's near impossible to use the miles you have accumulating.

Now Yapta.com has a new function that allows you to search for available frequent flier seats. Clark thanks The Practical Traveler for this tip. Of course, he'd prefer you'd stop using frequent flier credit cards altogether in favor of those that give you cash back.

Finally, there are some oddball opportunities to rent a car for as little as $1/day. Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental have been advertising cheap deals like this for people willing to move their vehicles from the Northeast and Midwest to Florida in time for peak vacation season, according to The Orlando Sentinel.

It's certainly to their benefit -- because otherwise they'd have to fly paid employees out to do the same work. There may also be similar deals to reposition cars from the West to vacation destinations like Arizona and Southern California.

The summer is a big time for people moving. Many opt to rent a truck instead of hiring professionals to do the job. There's one company that Clark suggests you avoid if you intend to rent a truck. U-Haul has long had problems with putting allegedly unsafe vehicles on the road. Clark recently saw a Bloomberg report about a man who won an $84 million judgment when his U-Haul ran him over! The jury assessed $21 million in damages and $63 million in punitive damages. U-Haul, of course, feels the damages are excessive and plans to appeal.

Clark thinks this was a case of a jury being furious about company that seems doesn't seem to learn from past mistakes. Go to Google and type in "U-Haul problems" to see for yourself. U-Haul vehicles tend to be old and not properly maintained. The reality is that the company needs to look in the mirror and make some changes, not point fingers at a jury verdict as unfair. Clark invites any U-Haul representative to come on the air and tell him why his view is flawed.

Are you willing to pay more for a car rental just to get a "green" automobile that's fuel efficient? Enterprise Rent-A-Car -- the nation's largest car rental company -- is experimenting with 4 new offices in the Atlanta area offering fuel-efficient or hybrid vehicles at a premium price. Will people pay more for this at a time when we're experiencing record-high fuel prices?

Clark recalls that Budget mounted a similar experiment several years ago in Los Angeles when the Prius was very popular. That experiment was ultimately a failure. But gas was much cheaper at that point. Today, it could be a different story. Enterprise could potentially make a lot of green by going green. Would you pay more? Share your comments and tell us!

Have you noticed that car rental rates have dropping recently? Now that fall is arriving, there are very few leisure renters in the marketplace. So that drives prices down. Also, Clark's been seeing a lot of coupons that offer things like $25 off a rental or 20 percent off the entire bill. The easiest way to get these coupons is to sign up online with the individual car-rental companies.

Clark rents cars up to 40 or 50 times a year, so he's very interested in a new Hertz sub-brand that he read about in The Orlando Sentinel. Simply Wheelz is a discount Hertz company doing a trial run in Orlando -- the world's largest leisure car rental market. Weekly rentals are less than $100! Clark believes that Simply Wheelz is patterned after Europe's easyCar. You book online and use an automatic rental machine to get your vehicle -- the whole process is automated and there's no human interaction. Hertz is hoping Simply Wheelz will give it an edge over Enterprise, which is usually 30 percent cheaper head-to-head at the airports.

Clark made a prediction in January that ended up wrong. He said gas prices would be a lot lower by this summer. He says he really blew it on that one. However, he made another prediction several years ago that may just be turning out to be true. He predicted there would be increasing demand in the US for shared cars services. Two companies who are doing this are Zipcar and Flexcar. These are services where you can rent a car by the hour just to do your errands, and just return it to where it was parked when you're done. Gas and insurance are usually included. It's kind of like "public transit, private driving," and it's much cheaper than adding another car to the family fleet! It's expanding like wild fire to many American cities, and even to some suburban markets. Since cars are such a huge part of our daily budget, it can save you a lot of money. It's like owning 1 and 1/4 cars, instead of 2 cars, or a time share for a car. But everyone knows that's not a term Clark likes to use -- so he prefers to call it "shared ownership!"

The oversupply of big SUVs is huge these days. So, if you are into SUVs, you have a great opportunity in your reach. Also, November is supposed to be the best month to buy an SUV. Why? Well, the cost of SUVs spikes in December because people tend to buy them as they head into heavy winter. So, you’ll find better deals in November.

---

In other car news, car rental rates have been very cheap recently. That’s because GM, Ford and Chrysler have been pumping out cars that no one would buy. Car rental companies have been able to get cars extra cheap and the savings has been passed onto consumers. The tide is about to turn, though. Detroit automakers are closing factories and plants, so there will be fewer cars for sale and higher costs for rentals. To get better deals, Clark follows three steps. First, Clark visits a multi-company shopping site like Expedia or Breezenet. Look several pages in. Then, he goes to Hotwire and compares prices. If Hotwire is cheaper, you already have a better option. But before he books, he goes to Priceline and enters a standard bid of $10. He moves up in $2 segments if he gets turned down. Then, he adds a higher-level car with each rejection. And the highest he goes is $16 a day for a mid-sized car. Try it out sometime!

Clark read a story recently about how difficult it has become for young people to rent a car. Years ago, if you were 18 to 20 years old, you paid a surcharge to rent a car. Then, at 21, you were free to rent a car. Now, most companies charge as much as $100 extra per day for those between 21 and 24. How can these companies do that, you may ask? Well, the accident rates for people in their early ‘20s are outrageous. Now, not every 22-year-old is going to get in a wreck, but the statistics don’t lie. So, why are some young people such reckless drivers? A new study from the National Institutes of Health shows that certain regions of the brain that deal with risk situations are not fully formed until the 25th birthday. In fact, some scientists now recognize adolescence as lasting until age 24. We used to think immaturity and lack of experience were the main causes of accidents among young people, but maybe it’s more biological and scientific than that. You can now blame it on your brain.

In the fall of 2003, Clark trashed Thrifty Car Rental on the air. Thrifty was developing a pretty bad reputation for doing business, in part because J.D. Power & Associates ranked Thrifty as the worst company. Clark gave the company a chance to go on the air, and the representatives were very apologetic. They even said they played a tape of Clark’s original broadcast at a company meeting to impress on employees how important this was. They also asked Clark to try the company again – anonymously of course – and he has rented Thrifty cars four times since that challenge. All of his experiences were fine, unlike in past years. And apparently other people think so too. The new J.D. Power survey shows that Thrifty has moved from 9th place (last) to 4th place. Company representatives said they are more focused on serving customers and that is why they have improved. In case you're wondering, Enterprise ranked No. 1 in the survey, Hertz was No. 2 and Payless was ranked as No. 9 (the worst). National has just gotten out of a bankruptcy filing and ranked third from teh bottom. Also, when renting a car, rememeber that the stated rate price may not be the real rate price. You want to get the quoted rental price. And don't buy insurance products or add-on services at the rental counter. You may already be covered and they are not worth it.

About a year ago, Clark talked to a woman who had rented a car in California and accidentally taken a wrong turn into another state before she quickly turned around. Unbeknownst to her, the car was restricted to a certain geographical area and it had an internal GPS system that was tracking her. She went just two miles across the state line, but she was hit with several thousand dollars in penalty fees. Many car rental companies do this as a way to prevent theft of the cars. But Payless car rental turned the unit into a spying device and decided to charge people massive fines if they crossed state lines. Customers were very upset about this and filed suit. Now, California has reached a settlement with Payless for charging people. Payless must now reimburse those people, including the woman who called Clark. Most people were charged $1 per mile, and all of that will be refunded. The issue of spying on people in cars still exists, though. Technology allows eyes and ears to be everywhere these days. Progressive Insurance, for example, has a voluntary program that allows a GPS system to monitor peoples’ driving if they agree to it. Then, the company sets a driver’s insurance rates based on how well they drive and behave in a car. So, if you’re a good driver, that’s a great thing. Clark thinks that as long as we have the potential to benefit from technological advancements, it’s a great thing. The sneaky nature of technology is where the line gets crossed. That is why some companies are getting their hands slapped.