Rental Car Experiences?

iluvmysephia1

2016 Scion iA

Trust me, guys, the look grows on you! Watch a video of the car being driven and watch as it comes at you and turns one way or the other. Not as gaping a maw shows - it actually was looking 1/3rd the size during some video shoots.

It's how Scion made the front jut out towards the middle. That metal there is what some are going to object to body-design wise. The Denver dealer has a white iA for $15,470. Pure Pricing holding up, there. They have a blue iM going for $18,663 - so at least this dealer isn't upping the pricing annoyingly. That's nothing added at all on the window sticker - just like Scion asks for it to look. I really do like the look of the iM more than the iA.

If this hunt were to escalate I would no doubt test-drive both an iA and an iM first. Denver is about a 6-hour drive west of us here in Dodge City.

Michaell

iluvmysephia1 said:

2016 Scion iA

Trust me, guys, the look grows on you! Watch a video of the car being driven and watch as it comes at you and turns one way or the other. Not as gaping a maw shows - it actually was looking 1/3rd the size during some video shoots.

It's how Scion made the front jut out towards the middle. That metal there is what some are going to object to body-design wise. The Denver dealer has a white iA for $15,470. Pure Pricing holding up, there. They have a blue iM going for $18,663 - so at least this dealer isn't upping the pricing annoyingly. That's nothing added at all on the window sticker - just like Scion asks for it to look. I really do like the look of the iM more than the iA.

If this hunt were to escalate I would no doubt test-drive both an iA and an iM first. Denver is about a 6-hour drive west of us here in Dodge City.

Mazda is choosing not to offer the new 2 here in the US; instead, they are going to focus on the 2-based CX-3 CUV.

And, since I live in the Denver suburbs, I'll be happy to test drive the iM for you. Mountain States is on the wrong side of town from me, however.

iluvmysephia1

Ya beat me to it, Michaell. Ah, I'll have ta see how far up Mazda is going to outprice me on that new CX-3 CUV. Goody gumdrops, another new car to research. Because if this is their hatch/SUV New World Order Mazda2 I've been reading about, I'm gonna have to take a good look at it in cyberspace.

Michaell

iluvmysephia1 said:

Ya beat me to it, Michaell. Ah, I'll have ta see how far up Mazda is going to outprice me on that new CX-3 CUV. Goody gumdrops, another new car to research. Because if this is their hatch/SUV New World Order Mazda2 I've been reading about, I'm gonna have to take a good look at it in cyberspace.

The CX-3 starts around $20K (base, FWD) and goes up to around $27K (tricked out and AWD).

But, it also has the 2.0L SkyActiv engine from the Mazda 3, slightly detuned (148HP, I believe).

iluvmysephia1

How far is Mountain States Scion from you, Michaell? I still like the Scion iM the most. They are keeping the Pure Pricing promise. That's 1 of 3 Scion dealers that is, anyway! Heck, all I need is one participating dealer. I'd be trading a 2011 Kia Soul base 5-speed. Good shape, they'd need ta treat me right on the trade in order ta do this.

Michaell

iluvmysephia1 said:

How far is Mountain States Scion from you, Michaell? I still like the Scion iM the most. They are keeping the Pure Pricing promise. That's 1 of 3 Scion dealers that is, anyway! Heck, all I need is one participating dealer. I'd be trading a 2011 Kia Soul base 5-speed. Good shape, they'd need ta treat me right on the trade in order ta do this.

About 30-35 miles from my house - but, as I noted, I live southeast of Denver and the dealership is north of downtown.

iluvmysephia1

Never drove by Denver before until the end of July 2015 on our way with the U-Haul to SW Kansas. Those are some huge retail stores there north of town. Wow!

fintail

Good heavens that maw.

berri

sephia - I thought the term was "get out of Dodge"

iluvmysephia1

Now the City likes to say Get In to Dodge, berri. 

ab348

fintail said:

Good heavens that maw.

Looks like a largemouth bass.

Sandman6472

Our office sometimes able to get the exact vehicle a customer asks for given enough time. We pick up all different makes and models from the airport that we never know what they will have. Always best to ask the store where you'll pick up your rental from if they could get that certain make and model...you never know!!!

The Sandman

stever

"Hertz has quietly dropped one of the car rental industry’s most unpopular surcharges: the cleaning fee.

“Although we appreciate when a vehicle is returned in clean condition, we do not charge a cleaning fee to vehicles reflecting normal wear and tear,” Hertz spokeswoman Beth Davis told me."

Hertz scrubbed its rental-car cleaning fee, but it’s unclear others will follow (Washington Post)

fintail

They clean cars? I've received some where it was hard to tell Maybe it's an excuse to leave them dirty. Of course, the cleaning crew probably gets 30 secs per car - gotta keep costs down, some cereal box MBAs need a new boat.

I don't know if wear and tear and garbage and abuse are the same thing. People should be billed for a mess, especially for stains and piles of garbage.

iluvmysephia1

It was Hertz that my potential employer paid to provide me with a rental 2015 Ford Fusion here in Dodge City. The entire airport is about the size of the Cardio-Rehab room at the hospital. The person from Hertz has ta get called ta come over to the airport to check your car out to you when you arrive.

There was no cleaning requested of me or any charge - of course, this one was employer-paid. As to gassing it back up, the lady just said something to the effect "nah, you don't have to. If you want to, people just usually bring it back up to the 3/4 mark."

Umm...ok. Man, that was the loosiest-goosey car rental experience ever for me. Liked the Ford Fusion - it had a much more exacting steering than the 2009 Toyota Camry I rented in 2009. Good acceleration and ride and handling. And comfort. Competent but not great stereo in the all white car.

I'm digging white all the more for color choices on rigs. Our '11 Kia Soul is clear white. The '16 Scion iA I have my eye on in CO is white and the "color" white does the small import sedan plenty a good, too.

Sandman6472

Our A3 is white and looks good in that color. Luckily the Audi store is about 2 miles from our house and since they give free washes/vacuum, we tend to get it over there at least 3 times a month. My VW store only gives this service when in for service which is a bummer as I tend to keep my vehicle clean at all times and would be nice for VW to offer gratis wash/vacuum all the time. Just part of the difference when purchasing at the upper level car companies.
Must admit though, most of our customers bring back their rentals filthy,I mean trashed up with cups half full of liquid, open snack wrappers and the like. Really makes me wonder why folks feel the need to trash up rentals...would they do this in their personal rides? Doubtful methinks. I know I treat every rental I drive like my own and never abuse them one bit. But, I was brought up to respect the property of others which from what I am seeing, most were not!!!


The Sandman

fintail

That's the funny thing, a lot of people have personal cars that are quite grungy inside, too. Now and then when I ride with a co-worker, I am kind of amazed that's just how it is. I can't deal with it. My cars are usually more or less spotless inside, and I almost always clean the rental inside too. A lot of people are just slobs in general.

I am in Stuttgart now, was walking around and noticed I was near the rental agency where I will be picking up a car soon. I almost strolled down to the garage to see what might be in the fleet, but I resisted temptation, don't want to jinx it

stever

We have two or three rental agencies - there's no scheduled air service here and it's not that big of a town anyway, so I guess I can't complain.

We're heading to SoCal in a few weeks and decided to rent something. Hertz has awful reviews here but I took them with a grain of salt and got some online quotes. They were the cheapest and I have a discount business number thing. Then read the fine print and adding an extra driver pooches the deal. (Apparently in some states, your spouse can automatically be added without extra charge).

Budget is combined with Avis and they sound okay, but Enterprise is a good bit cheaper for the full sized cars with no spouse driving charge. They advertise "VW Passat" or similar. A Passat would be fine as would be something like a Malibu.

We'll see what the actual deal is when we pick it up.

Plan B is to drive to Tucson or Phoenix, leave the van with friends, and rent something there.

Plan C is just to drive the van, but since I don't plan to buy anything*, it'd be more fun to drive something smaller that gets better gas mileage, and try out a new ride for a week

*famous last words.....

henryn

When I was younger, I traveled perhaps 4,5, 6 times a year, by airline, and renting a car. I always kept the rental cars clean, but I did tend to run the h-e-double-l out of them. One reason why I have always avoided buying a used car that started life as a rental unit.

kyfdx

My company has a corporate deal with National. Always unlimited miles and unlimited drivers, which is handy. And, the rates are pretty good, too, even when renting for personal use.

fintail

And at most National locations you can choose your car. Might not always be an awesome selection, but it's better than nothing.

kyfdx

fintail said:

And at most National locations you can choose your car. Might not always be an awesome selection, but it's better than nothing.

Yeah... I remember checking out about 60 cars in Phoenix, right after my son got really interested in cars.

stever

Oh, forgot, I signed up with Costco travel for some more bucks off (supposedly....).

hamobubba

all rent-a-cars are scams! I recently rented a car in Europe and they tried to stick me with paying for a brand new windshield because of one dot.

Sandman6472

AT Hertz HLE, LE stands for "local edition" which is basically your neighborhood location where we come pick you up and drive you home if that's what the customer wants. Seems that we took the Enterprise model and ran with it. At our locations that I service, if we can get the exact vehicle a person requests, we definitely try to do this but it's not always possible. We get our vehicles from the local airports when they give us vehicles and from folks who drop off and pick up rentals. Also, if someone is unhappy with their rental for whatever reason, if they want to swap out, we can usually do it then or later in the day when we get more vehicles. Many pick up their vehicles somewhere else and drop them off by us so we never know what may be coming in that day. When renting from the airport, it's always more expensive due to taxes and such which most folks understand.
But like I said, if we can get someone a certain vehicle, we'll do our best to accommodate. A lot of our rentals are for insurance work and State Farm is a big customer of ours. Right now, Hertz is in the midst of receiving a bunch of new 2016 vehicles daily and retiring many vehicles with higher mileage which is a good thing for us all. Unfortunately, only at the airport are the vehicles lined up by class where the customer gets to choose what they like. I know it's like this at Ft. Lauderdale and Miami airports where we go so if you have to have a particular vehicle, probably your best bet. But if not, an HLE location will be cheaper and be close to home...just according to what your needs are.

The Sandman

tjc78

I always loved National's Emerald Aisle.. Very convenient. My rentals were kept clean (the engines too, I'd bet there wasn't a drop of carbon in them when I was done )

stever

You know, for all the talk about why you shouldn't buy a used rental, you really don't see that many posts about people having problems with them.

That kind of fits in with the motorcycle theory that, for best performance, you should run the heck out of them from the get-go, skip the break-in period, etc.

Mr_Shiftright

I don't clean the hotel room that I rented either.

tjc78

stever said:

You know, for all the talk about why you shouldn't buy a used rental, you really don't see that many posts about people having problems with them.

That kind of fits in with the motorcycle theory that, for best performance, you should run the heck out of them from the get-go, skip the break-in period, etc.

I know many mechanics whose theory has always been "Drive it like you stole it" from day 1.

fintail

Regarding cleaning, I do it beforehand, usually right after I pick up the car. Especially the steering wheel and switchgear.

About the rental damage complaint - that's a known thing in Europe. The agencies here have a rep for being picky - it has to be a profit center for them, and at the same time, I have read renters want a pristine rental here. I have never received a damage claim, but the last time I rented here, I noticed a small chip or tiny scrape on the lower front bumper/air dam of the car I rented (A8). To be safe, I bought a permanent marker and filled it in. It was fairly invisible, and nobody said a word. I don't know if I did it or not, but I didn't want a $300 bill for it.

slorenzen

I never had to rent a car when I went to yurup on business.

The company I worked for always had a couple cars laying around unused, so I'd borrow one from them.

Apparently, a standard perk for a manager over there is a company car.

fintail

Yep, the "repmobile" as it is called in the UK.

The rental fleets here are interesting and can be a fun part of a trip. On Thursday I pick up my car.

suydam

We have always rented cars on European trips. Never had a problem.

slorenzen

fintail said:

Yep, the "repmobile" as it is called in the UK.

The rental fleets here are interesting and can be a fun part of a trip. On Thursday I pick up my car.

So what's on the menu?

The cars I'd get were something like a Passat, maybe a Peugot or a 3-series with a 1.8 or 2 liter gas engine.

Once I got a new 5-series, but with a 2 liter.

ab348

stever said:

You know, for all the talk about why you shouldn't buy a used rental, you really don't see that many posts about people having problems with them.
.

My '02 Intrigue was an ex-Avis car, bought off a GM dealer lot by me as a Certified Used Car. One model year old, paid less than half the original sticker price for it when it had about 12,000 miles. Warranty took care of the relatively few issues it had and it was a very good car overall. No qualms.

berri

Those were the good old days when the auto industry encouraged short term leases and purchases and then put the used car back on the market. Well, good for the buyer, not so much the manufacturer necessarily (but it took Detroit awhile to figure that out).

Sandman6472

At Hertz, we keep up with the maintenance religiously. Vehicles get oil changes on a regular basis and any problem, they either go back to the dealer if it's warranty work like a bunch of Dodge/Chryslers lately or we take them to our maintenance areas to be taken care of. I know this for a fact in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale because yours truly is one of the drivers to do this grunt work. Just wish customers wouldn't trash them like so many do, stuff thrown everywhere and folks just seem to not even care. But buying a used vehicle from Hertz, rest assured that they are taken care of mechanically very well.

The Sandman

fintail

I rented in category "LDAR" (ACRISS codes here), which usually means 6cyl middle luxury - 5/E etc. As it is Sixt, a 5er is most likely, but they have a lot of oddities in the fleet, too.

I slinked down to the garage this morning and saw what was hanging around. Had to be a little discreet, as there was a worker cleaning a car and I didn't want to look like a freak. I don't pick up til tomorrow, so who knows what will be there when I arrive. Interesting selection - F10 sedan (looked loaded, likely M550d), F11 (touring) with M sport package, M4, S-class, 640d Gran Coupe, and some smaller cars.

slorenzen said:

fintail said:

Yep, the "repmobile" as it is called in the UK.

The rental fleets here are interesting and can be a fun part of a trip. On Thursday I pick up my car.

So what's on the menu?

The cars I'd get were something like a Passat, maybe a Peugot or a 3-series with a 1.8 or 2 liter gas engine.

Once I got a new 5-series, but with a 2 liter.

fintail

Mt grandmother bought one of those about 2003-04. Year old normal rental spec Taurus SEL, ~20K miles, full CPO warranty, something like 13K. Seemed like a steal to her, and the car had no issues.

berri said:

Those were the good old days when the auto industry encouraged short term leases and purchases and then put the used car back on the market. Well, good for the buyer, not so much the manufacturer necessarily (but it took Detroit awhile to figure that out).

andres3

henryn said:

When I was younger, I traveled perhaps 4,5, 6 times a year, by airline, and renting a car. I always kept the rental cars clean, but I did tend to run the h-e-double-l out of them. One reason why I have always avoided buying a used car that started life as a rental unit.

If a car can't handle being driven hard, it isn't a car at all. This doesn't mean abuse like flooring the car from 0-60 MPH when it's -20 degrees F out and you just started it, but once it's warmed up, anything goes.

fintail

And here it is, my rental. The perfect car for narrow streets:



x5 30d, ~15K kms on it, pretty loaded, much more so than USA Sixt BMWs - HUD, some assistance features, pano, "exclusive" (I think) leather seating, etc.



And it was even pretty clean inside, but I gave it a quick wipe anyway.

Definitely not my first choice, but I only had a little to choose from. I was first put in a 520 wagon, but I mentioned that was a lower class than I booked. They had nothing in my class. I was offered a CLS 220d (basic spec), but I declined, as I am used to MB and want something different, and it was a basic car, and dirty. I was also offered a ML - also declined, only MB I'd want is an S or SL, or AMG car. They had a Gran Coupe - rented just before I arrived. Ugh. I was offered an upsell to a Ghibli for 100 Eur/day (!), I laughed. So, this will do. Not a bahnstormer, but I will be doing a lot of driving in limited areas anyway. It will be comfortable for sure.

I have rented from this branch before. The agent was charming and nice, and spoke much better English than my German - she realized I pay attention to cars. Good experience so far.

Michaell

fintail said:

And here it is, my rental. The perfect car for narrow streets:



x5 30d, ~15K kms on it, pretty loaded, much more so than USA Sixt BMWs - HUD, some assistance features, pano, "exclusive" (I think) leather seating, etc.



And it was even pretty clean inside, but I gave it a quick wipe anyway.

Definitely not my first choice, but I only had a little to choose from. I was first put in a 520 wagon, but I mentioned that was a lower class than I booked. They had nothing in my class. I was offered a CLS 220d (basic spec), but I declined, as I am used to MB and want something different, and it was a basic car, and dirty. I was also offered a ML - also declined, only MB I'd want is an S or SL, or AMG car. They had a Gran Coupe - rented just before I arrived. Ugh. I was offered an upsell to a Ghibli for 100 Eur/day (!), I laughed. So, this will do. Not a bahnstormer, but I will be doing a lot of driving in limited areas anyway. It will be comfortable for sure.

I have rented from this branch before. The agent was charming and nice, and spoke much better English than my German - she realized I pay attention to cars. Good experience so far.

Looks nice - is that a different engine than the X5 35d they sell here in the States?

fintail

I checked the mfr websites - power specs are virtually identical. I suspect it is the same unit, as it is a 3.0 in the US too.

Michaell said:

fintail said:

Looks nice - is that a different engine than the X5 35d they sell here in the States?

Michaell

fintail said:

I checked the mfr websites - power specs are virtually identical. I suspect it is the same unit, as it is a 3.0 in the US too.

Michaell said:

fintail said:

Looks nice - is that a different engine than the X5 35d they sell here in the States?

OK, just different badging. Makes sense ... or, well, it doesn't make sense, since BMW is using nomenclature that has nothing to do with the engine displacement here in the states.

Sandman6472

Very very nice vehicle especially the large infotainment screen in the perfect color. Though I prefer the X1, would take one of these if had to.

The Sandman

fintail

A couple daylight pics. No problems so far, it is quite comfortable for cruising. The matte finished wood has a unique texture and feel. It is an interesting thing to fling around winding mountain roads or squeeze through tight ancient streets, I get just a little of the "herding cats" feeling, maybe as I am not used to the size:

slorenzen

fintail said:

A couple daylight pics. No problems so far, it is quite comfortable for cruising. The matte finished wood has a unique texture and feel. It is an interesting thing to fling around winding mountain roads or squeeze through tight ancient streets, I get just a little of the "herding cats" feeling, maybe as I am not used to the size:

Does that have the electric steering?

How's the road feel?

ab348

I like that kind of wood trim treatment. M-B does something similar with their open-pore wood trim. Very distinctive. High-gloss finishes on real wood trim often make it look like fake plasti-wood.

Mr_Shiftright

I guess you're pretty used to BMW controls, or did you need a tutorial on anything?

fintail

I believe so. It feels a lot like the "light and easy" MB electric steering. Road feel is...somewhat detached. Maybe just per my perception, as I am not used to sitting so high. It seems to handle well enough, but to me feels more cumbersome than a car, at least on hairpin alpine roads. Even BMW can't win over physics, center of gravity is what it is.

And about the wood, I like the matte finish too. The laminated shiny wood can sometimes look iffy, and it can get scratched. Even some metal trim can look good, Lexus has a metal trim available on the GS that's cool, and even MB has it for the E, although maybe not in NA.

slorenzen said:

Does that have the electric steering?

How's the road feel?