Locally owned and operated by Konnie and Mike Chitty, Rent a Wreck has been serving Juneau since its initiation in 1984.

From its modest beginnings more than a quarter-century ago in Los Angeles, few would have believed that Rent-A-Wreck would still be around today.

With a name too popular to abandon the company long ago decided it was easier to update its fleet rather than worry about the image the name seemed to imply. Now, with the 29th year of operation under its belt Rent-A-Wreck is flexing its muscles to challenge the giants, boasting some 450 franchises throughout the United States and overseas, extending from the deserts of Dubai to the frozen tundra of Norway and Sweden.

The imaginative company first gained popularity in the mid-1970s, when Hollywood icons like Henry Fonda and Paul Newman would rent beat-up vehicles to help preserve their anonymity with the public.

These days the company has cast off the "clunkers" in favor of late-model cars, vans, pickups and even, at some locations, motor homes and high cube trucks. Its reputation as a bargain hunter's delight, however, remains.

An article in Time magazine once recommended that Donald Trump, who's Taj Mahal was mortgaged to the hilt, sell his palatial home, set up residence in a Motel 6, and dispose of his corporate jet in favor of a Rent-A-Wreck. An article in Forbes magazine stated that multimillionaire John P. Morgridge, Board Chairman of Cisco, rented from Rent-A-Wreck while on vacation.

Even Agent-007 himself, Pierce Brosnan, said on the Jay Leno and and Rosie O'Donnell shows that he chose a Rent-A-Wreck during his personal visit to the U.S..

It's the kind of notoriety that company founding father Dave Schwartz would only have dreamed of when he opened his Hollywood door for business 29 years ago.