Author Topic: Rental car thread (Read 347941 times)

MD1987 · « **on:** March 29, 2010, 08:09:31 pm »

I think this could be an interesting topic. I know there has been various topics about one person's experience from years ago, but what about now?

My best car rental was: the 2009 Altima 2.5S from Enterprise. The 2.5 hauls MAJOR MAJOR BUTT and it does it with pure class, smooth and quiet. Nice comfortable seats, CVT is very nice and push button, oh so cool! If this was a 2.5 SL or 3.5 SE, I would be dancing atop the clouds.

My worst car rental was: the 2010 Mazda3 from Discount. Uncomfortable seats, pedals don't feel very comfortable either. Did not like audio system either. Never again! 2nd place was a 2009 Caliber with a thermostat failure...

My worst/best rental was: 2009 Lincoln Town Car. The car was a dream from heaven until it had electrical problems. Something in the ignition system screwed up and it suffered from chronic no start problems. The car had to be towed away. This car is an absolute dream...when it works!

Okay, so let's hear your side now. Anything you rent recently, any experiences, any new rental cars you have seen at such and such, don't be shy to tell!

No H2O · « **Reply #1 on:** March 29, 2010, 08:15:30 pm »

Its a great way to really test drive and evaluate a car before buying. Too bad none of them come in a standard.

Recent rental: Pontiac G6. I can't believe they call that a car. Now what I wanted, but all I was left with.

rrocket · « **Reply #2 on:** March 29, 2010, 08:25:43 pm »

Best upgrade: I had booked a full size car (Crown Vic) at a rental place across from LAX. They were out of Crown Vics, and I pitched a fit when they tried to downgrade me. In the end, I got a Jaguar XJ.

Weels · « **Reply #3 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:03:41 pm »

All my rentals are just work travel standard issue intermediate fare, and for the most part forgettable.

I mainly remember the crap ones - those that you cant wait to get the heck out of...
A few of those:

Chrysler PT Cruiser. Just a weee bit underpowered. Had to be absolutely tromped to get it to move.
Chevy Trailblazer. Drove and sucked gas like it weighed 6 tons. I think this was my #1 most hated rental.
Chevy Aveo. I can't recall how tired I must have been to have agreed to take that thing. Although, after a bunch of driving it only took 6 bucks to fill it back up!

Just got back from Florida a couple days ago and had a Focus. Was impressed how well it drove. Had 34,000 miles on it which surprised me. Makes me all the more interested to check out the 2011's when they come out.

tpl · « **Reply #4 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:21:50 pm »

Best rental. Arrived in France on vacation and was handed a M-B A-classe. A gasoline one. Went back to the counter and complained...much shrugging and explaining that there were no diesels in for 2-3 days so I took it. A very nice car. 3 weeks later there was a major strike at refineries and distribution points. The whole country ran out of diesel fuel in 2 days. Gasoline, admittedly premium only, was still easy to find. This improved the vac immensely...being mobile while everyone else had to drive down into Spain to buy fuel. And, I liked the A-classe. Pity they didn't sell it here.

Worst rental. A Pontiac G6 while the BMW was in being serviced. Yuk...people actually buy these things?

Thinking Out Loud · « **Reply #5 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:30:51 pm »

One of those lime/evergreen turbo Beetles that had the little wing that popped up over a certain speed.

Wanted a Neon as we were going on a road trip, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity for the offered free upgrade.

It was one of those $99 weekend specials with unlimited kms.....they asked if we were leaving the Province, which we weren't. We did drive (honestly) really far north into Ontario, though. Came back with 3,000 kms on it.

Back then there were lots of waves from other Beetle drivers and others since they were still pretty rare north of North Bay...pretty much everywhere else for that matter.

Snowman · « **Reply #6 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:31:57 pm »

Rented a Mustang Convertible while on vacation in Florida...awesome.

initial_D · « **Reply #7 on:** March 29, 2010, 09:57:42 pm »

1998 Pontiac Sunfire Convertible, in the early fall of that year, during the courtship period of me and the Mrs. I was working in Calgary, and the wife was attending Carleton in Ottawa. We visited Montreal and Quebec City, it was a wonderful trip, and the Sunfire was perfect on a occasion. Maxed out on 2 Credit Cards in 2 weeks.

Worst rental experience was with Enterprise, not the vehicle itself, but over a chip on the windshield of a cargo van, which I was not notified during the rental return, and later get the call and said I was responsible.

Railton · « **Reply #8 on:** March 30, 2010, 07:41:48 am »

Rented a Buick SUV in Ft. Myers last week. Equally awesome. I miss it now that we're back driving and the Escape.
Railton

Ex-airbalancer · « **Reply #9 on:** March 30, 2010, 08:06:57 am »

It hard to beat a large SUV when you are just driving around

toolatecrew · « **Reply #10 on:** March 30, 2010, 08:32:01 am »

Best upgrade was from Avis. Booked a midsize but with none left they gave me a Pontiac GB GT. I expected a 4cyl Fusion or something and I got a 360 hP v8 for the week. It was for work so I really din't care about the extra gas.

Since the car was discontinued rather quickly likley never would have had a chance to drive one. Second favorite V8 sedan I've driven after BMW 540i.

tpl · « **Reply #11 on:** March 30, 2010, 08:47:04 am »

One good rental experience although it wasn't strictly mine. Arrived with 3 colleagues at Boston Airport expecting a Camry. ( This was in 1994) The rental Co, I forget which one, had a special on Jaguars and we got an Xj for the price of a Camry. I didn't get to drive it nor was it on my expense chit but many times nicer than a Camry ( It did not break down).

Weels · « **Reply #12 on:** March 30, 2010, 09:03:27 am »

Quote from: airbalancer on March 30, 2010, 08:06:57 am

It hard to beat a large SUV when you are just driving around

Hah. I counter with the Chevy Trailblazer. The worst vehicle I ever driven.

blur911 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 30, 2010, 10:09:39 am »

Quote from: Careener on March 30, 2010, 09:01:53 am

Worst Rental Car - that horrible long 2 door GM coupe (hated it so much the name escapes me..some Nascar related name). It had the same instrument panel as our 1985 Olds but it was 2008!

Perhaps a Monte Carlo?
I had one as an insurance replacement once, anemic 2.7 liter, but got amazing mileage. Unfortunately for it, I was instructing at Shannonville and at lunch did about 30 laps with it.
I took it back to the rental place after dark, fortunately they didn't look at the tires too closely.

erich · « **Reply #14 on:** March 30, 2010, 12:50:03 pm »

For work related travel I rent an intermediate size from Avis (G6 on their web site)
In December I got an Impala.
Last week it was a Hyundai Elantra.
How do they assign these categories?
Also, I had to pay $10 late fee for returning it after the office closed - new regulation since January.

Over Xmas I rented a Renault Clio auto in Mexico. I could not believe it had a 1.6 engine - the tranny would lock in second gear, so it could hardly climb the hills. On the other hand, it would not go fast eihter and it burned a lot of gas...

ovr50 · « **Reply #15 on:** March 30, 2010, 01:12:54 pm »

Here is a "worst" that happened to me in the mid-70s.

I flew to Bangor, Maine and rented a car from Budget there to tour around New England. It was a Plymouth or Dodge mid-sized car, can't recall the exact model tho. Once out on the hiway out of Bangor, realized that the front end of this thing was seriously out of alignment and/or wheel balance, as it had a terrible vibration at hiway speeds. Took it back to Budget, and got a different car of the same model. Drove it for 2 days, by which time we were a long way from Bangor. It developed a "pinging" noise, which rapidly became a "knock" in the engine. It had lots of oil, but somewhere in it's past, it had been mistreated. It failed us in a little town in Vermont, and we sat on our butts for several hours waiting for Budget to come with yet another replacement car. This third one was OK. I was not happy, and asked to be able to drop the car in Bar Harbour (instead of Bangor) for no drop fee. Budget agreed, but when I got my credit card slip on return home, found out they did charge me a drop fee. I was pretty mad, and had Amex back bill the entire charge to Budget.

A colossal

-off, the entire experience. I stayed away from Budget after that for a number of years.

goodsonr · « **Reply #16 on:** March 30, 2010, 02:38:02 pm »

Really enjoyed a Sonata V6 a few years ago in Arizona. Normally I'm tooling around in an anemic 4-banger so the power was a nice change.

Was happy to rent a Toyota Matrix - so I could cross it off my list when I was in the market to buy a car and it was on the list.

Worst Rental - Toyota Yaris -- pathetic on the 401

Worst Experience - Didn't realize exactly where the back end was on that Focus when I backed it up into a pole during a "discussion" with a family member

Weirdest Experience - I had rented a car in San Diego and went up into the hills for a hike in the afternoon. Decided to go "off-route" and ended up bushwacking through the thickest thicket I've ever encountered. I didn't get back to the car until near midnight - only to find out that the pack had been snagged on said-thicket, and everything had spilled out who-knows-where - including the car keys.

A fellow picked me up and gave me a ride to a phone booth and - since I didn't know exactly where I was, he did the talking to the rental guy (now its closer to 1 am). Here is the side of the conversation I heard

"If I slice all four tires, then is it an emergency.

Turned out the rental guy was saying that I had "emergency insurance" but that losing the keys wasn't an emergency. Even at the time it seemed funny despite the situation. Not to the rental-guy, though .. he had to drive about one hour out of town to deliver a set of key.

ron

CyberNick · « **Reply #17 on:** March 30, 2010, 04:15:32 pm »

Absolute best rental I ever had: 2010 Ford Fusion SEL, 2.5L I4, 6-speed auto, leather interior, new & clean! Rented this from Avis in Ottawa for a business/pleasure combo trip in May 2009. When I saw this car on the lot, I asked for it and to my delight it was available! I loved it and I can say that if Ford offered a 6-speed manual transmission in this trim level I would have been seriously tempted to ditch the (crashed & squeaky) Mazda 6 to buy one of these.

Second best: 2009 Hyundai Sonata GL, 2.5L I4, 5-speed auto, not new but clean! Rented this from Budget at San Francisco airport in July 2009 while on a business trip. This was another one of those where I had choice, this time I didn't check my luggage and I was though the gates and first inline at the rental counter... Among the PT cruisers, Calibers and Malibus, way at the end a lonely Sonata had my name all over it... Did not regret that choice one bit while I cruised the Bay Area freeways with ease and comfort.

Worst ever: 2009 Chrysler Seabring, V6, 4-speed auto, new and clean. Had this inflicted upon me by Di$count as an "equivalent" replacement vehicle when my Mazda was in the shop for the rear end collision back in September 2008.

handling, rough ride, rock hard seats,

poor gas mileage, headache inducing VOC's, in summary "craptastic". After a week, I could no longer stand it and turned it in for the second worst rental I ever had the misfortune of driving.

Second worst: 2008 Mazda 6, I4, auto, not new and not clean! The most disgusting smell I've ever sniffed in a car... Someone spilled something with milk or cream which soaked into the back seat and carpet and spoiled. The Di$count boys attempted to mask the odor by stuffing several sheets of bounce under the seats, but that only masked it temporarily while I inspected and OK'd the swap. Once I started driving, I had several near vomit inducing whiffs of the foulness... I had to continue driving (with the windows down) to make my appointment 2 hours away. I ended up taking my Hoover steam vac and washing the seats and carpets in that car. The smell was gone - I figured we had to live with it for about 3 weeks so what the heck... 2 days later, some yahoo missed a stop sign and crashed into it. After that we got a V6 Impala and that was so-so for a rental... had better, had worse...

Weels · « **Reply #18 on:** March 30, 2010, 06:46:31 pm »

^
|
|
|

Heh... I remember reading about that barfy Mazda 6 you had...

I do recall a V6 Sonata rental I had a few years ago in Atlantic City... drove really well, just remember the leather seats were flat as an ironing board...

CyberNick · « **Reply #19 on:** March 30, 2010, 07:54:43 pm »

Hey... actually those are all recent and I forgot about this one:

There was this one time I visited eastern Europe about 10 years ago, and I had the great idea that I can save a bit of money by going with a rent-a-wreck for a trip out of the city. I found one for $7 USD per day for a 15 year old or so Lada 1500. It seemed to be fully functional, as everything on it worked. I drove it in the city for a couple of days, but every trip in that... thing, felt like a punishment. I was afraid of it and I was not prepared to take it on a trip into the country. Kind of like the Seabring in 2008, actually. Hehehe. I ditched that and rented a new Opel Corsa from Avis for about $50 USD per day. That seemed to me like a lot of money to pay for such a small car, but the good thing is I wasn't afraid to drive it.