Avis employees were not required to sacrifice anything personally to help finance the transaction.

As a further benefit, Avis employees will receive the stock free as the loan is repaid.

Avis employees who want to stay on Long Island should have not trouble finding jobs, he said.

Avis employees will buy the No. 2 car-rental company for $1.75 billion from a group headed by senior executives of Avis and Wesray Capital.

Avis employees, said one fan, "will be motivated, they will be happy, they will be competitive."

"It's a very logical equation," he said, adding that Avis employees have seen the value of their stock rise 250 percent over six years.

And Avis is being sold again - this time by Wesray to Avis employees, for $1.75 billion.

Altogether, the thousands of Avis employees participating in the ESOP would make $340 million from the sale.

Some Avis employees, however, said that even though they own the company, they often didn't feel like owners.

Avis employees parked the cars outside airport terminals, and customers, who were at first confused, soon figured out the new system.