After 45 minutes, my status as the third person in line at the Thrifty Rent-a-Car counter remained unchanged. Though the company's attendants maintained a steady pace of pecking away at the keyboard in front of them, they made no progress and the line remained frozen.

My initial guess-that no one had turned the computers on and the Thrifty personnel had yet to discover it-proved untrue when after repeatedly being asked, one of the less dim personnel informed me that "they didn't have any cars." Apparently, though every person waiting had made a reservation, this particular rental car company had neglected to consider that many of us would actually come to claim a vehicle.

Occasionally, one of the "customer service" representatives did make eye contact with one of us, raising a spark of hope. Unfortunately, this seemed like an accidental occurrence that should in no way be construed as an attempt to explain why 20 or so people were waiting in a line that was beginning to resemble the scene outside Fenway when playoff tickets went on sale.

Thrifty employees know as much about the process of renting cars as your average hot dog vendor knows about performing an appendectomy. I'm guessing the entire Thrifty employee training process involved little more than pointing people toward a computer terminal and showing them how to pin on their name tags.

Asking about the delay only brought replies of "yes," which was especially strange when you had not asked a yes/no question. It seems that none of the people behind the counter was a manager, and only managers had answers to questions like, "Why does your rental-car company sell services-in this case, rental cars-that it has no intention of providing?

Most consumers assume, based on the "Thrifty" name, that choosing this particular brand will save you money. Instead, it appears that the thrift comes from the company only owning four cars that they rotate through thousands of customers.

Having a reservation gives you the privilege of standing around for hours hoping someone returns a car. Once this happens (nearly two hours for me), you get the privilege of standing in another long line-which, to be fair, does have the added amenity of being in an exhaust-filled parking garage. Using Thrifty (one of the 75 or so rental outfits with a name implying economy) does save you a couple of bucks-approximately $1.80 a day compared to its high-end competitors. Unfortunately, to save you that money, Thrifty has cut back on the one essential part of its service-providing cars in exchange for money.

This may seem like nitpicking, as Thrifty does offer a well laid-out line and a very convenient stand selling coffee, but old-fashioned travelers like me generally insist on receiving a car as part of the rental contract.

Though I saved almost $8 by taking the cheap way out, I could have earned the same amount by spending the time I wasted in line working at Starbucks or juggling for change.