Rental Car Experiences?

Sandman6472

For our trip to Chicago in October, going to rent from my Hertz HLE location since I get a decent discount and am a Gold Member. I prefer a minivan but the wife says she wants a mid-size like a Sonata...guess who'll win that battle? Lol!!! Will have to check with American Express, Visa and Mastercard as to who has the best rental policies so I can keep the cost down a bit. Figuring that a two week rental will be the best way to go since I'll need it longer than seven days. A Sonata or Optima should both have decent mpg's and they are comfortable drivers, ours usually have SAT radio also. The trunk space is also pretty decent since we'll need clothes for about ten days worth. Renting from my location will also be good so I can secure a newish vehicle with low miles with SAT radio a must.
Luckily my boss is a pretty cool guy and am sure he'll hook me up with something pretty nice for a decent enough price. It'll need to be able to transport five folks in a pinch as my oldest's boyfriend is a big guy to begin with. Plus we'll need easy in and out for me and my spinal issues.

The Sandman

fintail

Got behind a rental Challenger Hemi today - National I think, with the QR code in the window. Driver was having fun with it.

Sandman6472

Drove one at work last week and it's quick as you well know. Did enjoy hitting the gas to get that rush as the car just bolts forward. Not sure I could do it on a daily basis. Also, it was a bit thirsty but guess ya gotta pay for all that power under your right foot!

The Sandman

fintail

Pretty fun for a US market normal fleet rental car.

Speaking of that, at work today, a rental 300 parked beside me. Basic spec, AWD, possibly Hertz. I think it might have been brand new - along with the usual barcodes, it had a large barcode on the window that said "Fleet", probably something to be meant to be removed before hitting the road.

Sandman6472

Could be one of ours but did see a couple at the Miami yard the other day that were anything but base models. Worked an extra day last week, spring break down here, and was asked to come in tomorrow again. Said sure since if one stays home from work, one either works around the house or goes out and spends money. Better I work I guess!

The Sandman

jpp75

I just turned in a Fusion Hybrid in SFO. Decent enough and averaged 45 mpg in a 50-50 mix of highway and city driving (120 miles total). It had 17k on it and was quiet and competent.

Much better than the Lincoln MKC I had a couple of weeks ago in Denver. It had a loud rattle in the dash and averaged 17 - 18 mpg for the week I had it. Disappointing mileage from a 2.0 4-cyl that had horrible turbo lag. It was as bad as a 1980's turbo, floor it, count to 2 or 3 and then feel the power surge.

fintail

Regarding base spec, the spec list on a 300 isn't diverse. I think it is mostly normal vs S or C, and moonroof models. The one I saw didn't have a moonroof (just like my 300 rental in ATL in November, which was quite basic spec).

Michaell

jpp5862 said:

I just turned in a Fusion Hybrid in SFO. Decent enough and averaged 45 mpg in a 50-50 mix of highway and city driving (120 miles total). It had 17k on it and was quiet and competent.

Much better than the Lincoln MKC I had a couple of weeks ago in Denver. It had a loud rattle in the dash and averaged 17 - 18 mpg for the week I had it. Disappointing mileage from a 2.0 4-cyl that had horrible turbo lag. It was as bad as a 1980's turbo, floor it, count to 2 or 3 and then feel the power surge.

What are we going to see you driving tomorrow?

berri

Personally, I think Ford has let GM pass it up in quality.

andres3

berri said:

Personally, I think Ford has let GM pass it up in quality.

With exceptions of course. A couple of Mustang owners around here don't seem to have any problems.

And then Cadillac is part of GM.....

I'm finding the free loaner car warranty policy of the higher end makes to be quite valuable right now.

berri

If quality and reliability are a person's personal priority, then the Toyota/Lexus is probably your best bet (with exceptions of course). Cadillac, my opinion only, but I think they are throwing too much not ready for prime time electronics at it in an attempt to take on Germany. Lincoln may end up smarter, if it succeeds, by instead pursuing the old American luxury approach. Germany seems to own the lux space in America right now, so I don't think many of the people interested in German are going to jump over to Detroit or Japan. Lux is about status.

andres3

berri said:

If quality and reliability are a person's personal priority, then the Toyota/Lexus is probably your best bet (with exceptions of course). Cadillac, my opinion only, but I think they are throwing too much not ready for prime time electronics at it in an attempt to take on Germany. Lincoln may end up smarter, if it succeeds, by instead pursuing the old American luxury approach. Germany seems to own the lux space in America right now, so I don't think many of the people interested in German are going to jump over to Detroit or Japan. Lux is about status.

To some people and buyers of Luxury, it is about status, to others it is just about performance and sport and fun.

Are there people that buy an RS7 just because it costs more than an A7, sure, but there are also some that realize the A7 is plenty for them. If someone made a car as fast and as nice as some Audi's I've had at a lower price point, I'd be very interested, but so far, not including my latest issue, Audi has been very reliable (until my latest issue). It's got me thinking maybe I made a mistake. But there are buyers out there just like me that drive the hell out of their cars, but I'll agree we are in the minority.

fintail

Saw a rental Subaru Forester today. Oregon plates (of course), nearly stopping for a green light on a 30mph arterial, then doddering into the right turn only lane. I won't claim I didn't honk

Mr_Shiftright

Well now they're trying as hard as they can!

fintail

I usually try to be kind to rental car drivers, but this one set me off. I've never understood the "I'm lost, panic and freeze OMG!" mentality. You're in Bellevue, not in Compton or Newark, you can pull over and check your phone or ask someone and you will live to tell the tale.

berri

Finally got stuck with a Hyundai Sonata, which btw seems to have overtaken the Altima as the rental car fleet queen. So I go to my Hertz Gold slot and the passenger seat has a big stain like someone couldn't hold it or something. (I guess the United flight attendant didn't get there in time with the pee cup ) After awhile I finally find a human and he says take any sedan in slots whatever. They were all Sonata's! The next one starts up with a big low tire pressure warning. You'd think they'd take care of these things before putting them out to the customer, particularly in Gold? Finally got a working one the 3rd time. It actually has improved a lot from the last time I had a Hyundai rental several years ago. But get this, Hertz doesn't even put a power seat or automatic headlights on the ones they purchase! I fear they are following the airlines downhill unfortunately.

Sandman6472

Funny you mention power seat because yesterday afternoon, had to move a '17 Sonata from the Miami Gardens Hertz HLE location to my home base, Pembroke Pines aka Pines East. Had a power drivers seat plus working XM radio with mileage at about 16K. Clean interior and drove nicely. Guess it just depends on what one gets. Personally, I always choose an Optima over a Sonata if available. Though the same vehicle underneath, think Kia does a better job with this sedan, nicer interior also.
I did get stuck moving a 13 passenger van yesterday and was totally out of my comfort zone. Talk about big, thing felt like it was a city block long! To be honest, it drove nicely for being so big with decent acceleration and linear braking. Felt pretty comfortable within a few minutes but backing into the Popey's parking space for lunch was a bit tricky!!!

The Sandman

fintail

Hertz Gold has zero status value IIRC, it is free and given for the asking. All it means is that they have your data in the system for easier checkout.

I know the company has had some less than stellar financial news as of late. The often true stereotype of low spec high mileage cars can't be helping things either - Sandy's HLE might be in a good zone, but some of the airports have pretty bad reps. I have a ton of Hertz points that I might just save up for a prestige line rental someday - the mass market can be unexceptional, especially given that the brand is marketed as a premium product.

I'd choose an Optima over Sonata too, just better looking.

berri

You're probably right Fin. Used to be they put their best stuff in Gold. Nowadays it just saves check in time. I prefer National, but don't have any discount program with them now that I'm retired.

fintail

I think for the nicest mainstream fleet, National might win - not all cars are base models, and being able to choose is a fun perk.

Hertz has a nice prestige fleet, though. Sixt has some decent offerings in some markets too, but reviews make it appear to be hit and miss.

tjc78

I haven't rented for a long time, but National was always the best IMO.  The cars were almost always like middle trim levels, clean, and low mileage.   Emerald Aisle was intermediate charge and great chance to get a full size, SUV, or even a premium.  

fintail

On the road today, a rental Outlander with OR plates, and a rental Accent with MS plates - that's a long drive.

berri

Hyundai rental car from Mississippi in Seattle - someone very young or a stoner?

fintail

Probably just another domestic immigrant

berri

A deep southerner in Seattle - interesting mix. Wonder how long that will last

fintail

Culture shock, or like my friend who lasted just a few years in Atlanta, a local who moved away on a whim and couldn't take it anymore.

Mr_Shiftright

WA is in the top ten for population growth and MISS in the bottom 10. So it kinda makes sense

berri

There are a lot of military bases and facilities in that region, so might relate to that as well.

jpp75

I had a Honda Fit for a rental in Seattle last week, got to meet up with @fintail for dinner one night. The Fit was OK, a bit loud and buzzy but unoffensive.

kyfdx

jpp5862 said:

I had a Honda Fit for a rental in Seattle last week, got to meet up with @fintail for dinner one night. The Fit was OK, a bit loud and buzzy but unoffensive.

Buzzy and loud?

Was that the Fit or @fintail ?

Oh.. unoffensive.. .must have been the Fit.

fintail

Not much military stuff in downtown Bellevue - but a lot of tech stuff.

A Fit or Subaru seems to be a fitting PNW rental. If I was a rental, I wouldn't be buzzy

Michaell

jpp5862 said:

I had a Honda Fit for a rental in Seattle last week, got to meet up with @fintail for dinner one night. The Fit was OK, a bit loud and buzzy but unoffensive.

What, no Ram Pickup?

With all the travel you do, are you getting any repeats?

I've seen a handful of Subaru Outbacks as rentals here in Colorado the past couple of weeks.

berri

I friend of ours was in Seattle recently and got a Subaru sedan as a rental. Is that appropriate or what?

suydam

I got an Impreza there once in Portland, Oregon. Only time I've had Subaru as a rental.

jpp75

Michaell said:

jpp5862 said:

I had a Honda Fit for a rental in Seattle last week, got to meet up with @fintail for dinner one night. The Fit was OK, a bit loud and buzzy but unoffensive.

What, no Ram Pickup?

With all the travel you do, are you getting any repeats?

I've seen a handful of Subaru Outbacks as rentals here in Colorado the past couple of weeks.

Ha, no and thankfully so. I booked last minute and National (my preferred rental company) was sold out so I had to go to Avis where I have no status, just our corporate rate. She initially offered me a Kia Soul, which I was fine with, then changed it to a Fiesta, again that's fine but then handed me the keys to the Fit so I took it.

I had a Legacy for a rental in Denver a couple of years ago but it's been a while since I've seen one in the fleet there. And I just realized I won't be renting cars in Denver anymore.

jpp75

Michaell said:

jpp5862 said:

I had a Honda Fit for a rental in Seattle last week, got to meet up with @fintail for dinner one night. The Fit was OK, a bit loud and buzzy but unoffensive.

What, no Ram Pickup?

With all the travel you do, are you getting any repeats?

I've seen a handful of Subaru Outbacks as rentals here in Colorado the past couple of weeks.

Oh, forgot to answer your question on repeats. I generally find a varied selection, you can always count on several Sonatas, Altimas and 300s in the fleet but other than that you can usually find something different each time. Thinking back over my last few rentals it's been a while since I've had a repeat and it was probably a couple of Fusions out in Denver last year.

For fun I looked up my last few rentals, in order from most recent to oldest:

Jeep Cherokee
Honda Fit
Fusion Hybrid
Altima
Lincoln MKC
Ford Focus
Sonata
Tahoe
XT5
Fusion
Elantra
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Altima
Impala
Edge
Avalon
Flex
Camry
Renegade
Sonata
Altima

So not many repeats.

Michaell

jpp5862 said:

Michaell said:

jpp5862 said:

I had a Honda Fit for a rental in Seattle last week, got to meet up with @fintail for dinner one night. The Fit was OK, a bit loud and buzzy but unoffensive.

What, no Ram Pickup?

With all the travel you do, are you getting any repeats?

I've seen a handful of Subaru Outbacks as rentals here in Colorado the past couple of weeks.

Oh, forgot to answer your question on repeats. I generally find a varied selection, you can always count on several Sonatas, Altimas and 300s in the fleet but other than that you can usually find something different each time. Thinking back over my last few rentals it's been a while since I've had a repeat and it was probably a couple of Fusions out in Denver last year.

For fun I looked up my last few rentals, in order from most recent to oldest:

Jeep Cherokee
Honda Fit
Fusion Hybrid
Altima
Lincoln MKC
Ford Focus
Sonata
Tahoe
XT5
Fusion
Elantra
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Altima
Impala
Edge
Avalon
Flex
Camry
Renegade
Sonata
Altima

So not many repeats.

I don't see the Ram pickup on your list.

And, I'll finally get to see your VW. We can get a family picture @breld's GTI and my Jetta.

jpp75

Michaell said:

jpp5862 said:

Michaell said:

jpp5862 said:

I had a Honda Fit for a rental in Seattle last week, got to meet up with @fintail for dinner one night. The Fit was OK, a bit loud and buzzy but unoffensive.

What, no Ram Pickup?

With all the travel you do, are you getting any repeats?

I've seen a handful of Subaru Outbacks as rentals here in Colorado the past couple of weeks.

Oh, forgot to answer your question on repeats. I generally find a varied selection, you can always count on several Sonatas, Altimas and 300s in the fleet but other than that you can usually find something different each time. Thinking back over my last few rentals it's been a while since I've had a repeat and it was probably a couple of Fusions out in Denver last year.

For fun I looked up my last few rentals, in order from most recent to oldest:

Jeep Cherokee
Honda Fit
Fusion Hybrid
Altima
Lincoln MKC
Ford Focus
Sonata
Tahoe
XT5
Fusion
Elantra
Jeep Grand Cherokee
Altima
Impala
Edge
Avalon
Flex
Camry
Renegade
Sonata
Altima

So not many repeats.

I don't see the Ram pickup on your list.

And, I'll finally get to see your VW. We can get a family picture @breld's GTI and my Jetta.

Ah, yes I forgot about the Ram, for some reason it didn't show up and neither did the 4Runner I exchanged it for.

I like the idea of the family picture.

Mr_Shiftright

Did any of that rental fleet particularly impress you, to the point where you would request that car above any others?

berri

For me, I don't think generally that rental cars have near the differences between them as say a decade or two ago. Cars are getting more generic by necessity I think, differing mostly perhaps by who can out ugly the other, but safety and quality have jumped by magnitudes over the same time period.

andres3

berri said:

For me, I don't think generally that rental cars have near the differences between them as say a decade or two ago. Cars are getting more generic by necessity I think, differing mostly perhaps by who can out ugly the other, but safety and quality have jumped by magnitudes over the same time period.

I guess it depends how spoiled you are. I found the Nissan Frontier pickup rental I got to be rather crude. It had a nice V6 engine, but other then that powerful power-plant, it was very ancient feeling. Maybe I'm just not a pickup truck kind of man.

fintail

I think for most fleets there's still an equipment gap between rentals and the cars you'll find on the lot.

Michaell

andres3 said:

berri said:

For me, I don't think generally that rental cars have near the differences between them as say a decade or two ago. Cars are getting more generic by necessity I think, differing mostly perhaps by who can out ugly the other, but safety and quality have jumped by magnitudes over the same time period.

I guess it depends how spoiled you are. I found the Nissan Frontier pickup rental I got to be rather crude. It had a nice V6 engine, but other then that powerful power-plant, it was very ancient feeling. Maybe I'm just not a pickup truck kind of man.

I have a friend on FB who posts photos of the rentals he gets - he's a consultant, so is on the road almost every week.

He had a Frontier once, and really liked it. This week he has a Kia Soul, and hates it.

andres3

fintail said:

I think for most fleets there's still an equipment gap between rentals and the cars you'll find on the lot.

I'm immediately turned off if I have to reach for and use a key. Where's the button!

fintail

My 300 rental had a button, but not a lot else. Absolute base model. When I see a base 300, I suspect rental, as nobody buys them that way new (and ex rentals become livery cars here).

andres3 said:

fintail said:

I think for most fleets there's still an equipment gap between rentals and the cars you'll find on the lot.

I'm immediately turned off if I have to reach for and use a key. Where's the button!

jpp75

Mr_Shiftright said:

Did any of that rental fleet particularly impress you, to the point where you would request that car above any others?

I'd say my favorites and ones I would seek out again are the Grand Cherokee and the Edge. I liked the Tahoe but it's generally too big for me to enjoy.

What stands out more are the ones I wouldn't pick again. The MKC had horrible turbo lag and gas mileage. The XT5 rattled like a mariachi band, could just be due to rental abuse but I wasn't impressed enough with anything else on it to give it another try. The Flex was a great drive but too big for what I normally use a vehicle for, but other than that I like it.

Michaell

jpp5862 said:

Did any of that rental fleet particularly impress you, to the point where you would request that car above any others?

I'd say my favorites and ones I would seek out again are the Grand Cherokee and the Edge. I liked the Tahoe but it's generally too big for me to enjoy.

What stands out more are the ones I wouldn't pick again. The MKC had horrible turbo lag and gas mileage. The XT5 rattled like a mariachi band, could just be due to rental abuse but I wasn't impressed enough with anything else on it to give it another try. The Flex was a great drive but too big for what I normally use a vehicle for, but other than that I like it.

jpp5862 said:

Did any of that rental fleet particularly impress you, to the point where you would request that car above any others?

I'd say my favorites and ones I would seek out again are the Grand Cherokee and the Edge. I liked the Tahoe but it's generally too big for me to enjoy.

What stands out more are the ones I wouldn't pick again. The MKC had horrible turbo lag and gas mileage. The XT5 rattled like a mariachi band, could just be due to rental abuse but I wasn't impressed enough with anything else on it to give it another try. The Flex was a great drive but too big for what I normally use a vehicle for, but other than that I like it.

The Flex is bigger than your VW?

tjc78

andres3 said:

I think for most fleets there's still an equipment gap between rentals and the cars you'll find on the lot.

I'm immediately turned off if I have to reach for and use a key. Where's the button!

My wife still busts my tomatoes that our 15 Enclave doesn't have push button.   It just wasn't available at any price point.  Pretty sad at $47k.  At least the cheapie Elantra has it!

PF_Flyer

Needed a little more space for our trip this weekend so we got a rental. The big wheel spun and gave us a 2016 Jeep Compass. First thing I thought of sitting in the driver's seat was a Dodge Caliber rental I had once once. Sight lines are not the greatest. Even the A pillar is something that seems in the way. But, we'll have it until Tuesday morning, so maybe it will grow on me. We shall see

ab348

Aren't the Compass and the Caliber the same vehicle, with just some different body panels?