Rental Car Experiences?

fintail

Just dropped off the Gran Coupe, waiting to board the flight home. Observation time: Pros - the car has nice supportive seats, feels light, suspension is firm but not punishing. Cons - could use a rear wiper, not a fan of some of the infotainment menu logic (maybe as I am just accustomed to the competitor), the transmission seems to hunt a lot, but as I am used to higher torque applications, it isn't apples to apples to what I am used to. I like the auto wiper setup too, as you can put it on auto and adjust the sensitivity - I am not aware of MB having this option.

Spotted at Hertz PC when dropping off - 530i, SLC, Camaro, some normal cars. Upgrade/prestige section had the same 7ers as before and a Grand Cherokee, appeared to be a SRT8/Trackhawk kind of thing.

xwesx

Trackhawk?! I wouldn't mind trying that out.

fintail

It was some kind of sport model - a normal Grand Cherokee wouldn't be in the "prestige" row. If one could get it for like a $25 upgrade fee, it'd be cool. I was happy with my little 430i Gran Coupe, probably due to the recent unpleasantness and the situation at Hertz, this trip had the best PC selection I've experienced.

fintail

Hertz exits bankruptcy

Maybe they'll upgrade the fleet - I've read of 2019 models still in service, plenty of 50K+ mile cars, etc. I will probably be renting at Christmas, but on points.

kyfdx

Be sure to book early. I've looked at a couple of trips, where I couldn't rent a car through National.

fintail

I'll probably be booking it all around Labor Day, need to finalize dates, and if I book early enough, air miles are a lot "cheaper", too.

I got that 4er GC last Christmas, I'd be happy if I got something similar.

kyfdx

PVD airport on Sunday. Once you get out of baggage claim it's about 3/4 of a mile of moving sidewalks to get to the rental garage.

Emerald Aisle had four lonely vehicles. Three new Corollas and a Hyundai Kona. We took the Kona. Fairly loaded model with the turbo engine, Nav, and a sunroof, plus Apple CarPlay.

Decently quick, and we are happy with it. Easy to get in and out of. Very small cargo space, but we only have one suitcase.

xwesx

kyfdx said:

PVD airport on Sunday. Once you get out of baggage claim it's about 3/4 of a mile of moving sidewalks to get to the rental garage.

Emerald Aisle had four lonely vehicles. Three new Corollas and a Hyundai Kona. We took the Kona. Fairly loaded model with the turbo engine, Nav, and a sunroof, plus Apple CarPlay.

Decently quick, and we are happy with it. Easy to get in and out of. Very small cargo space, but we only have one suitcase.

My mother ended up renting a a Kona in Anchorage through Turo. It was cheaper than the typical rental companies, and otherwise was a similar experience (pickup/drop-off at the airport, clean, etc).

She and my brother's family (total of six persons) all piled in there to go from the airport to their lodging! My family showed up later that day and I dropped off the Q7 for them to use the rest of the time they were there.

fintail

Friend is in LA for a few days, needed a 7 passenger from Hertz - got an Explorer, he says it is fairly loaded (leather, moonroof, adaptive cruise). 7 passenger seems like a stretch, but I guess kids count

I read on Flyertalk that some are getting 2018 model year cars as rentals lately - and not miled up. Sounds like some private cars have been purchased for fleet use.

fintail

Friend is in town for a day, rented a car at GEG. Thrifty gave him an ID-plated basic Legacy sedan (no sunroof, key ignition), 33K miles and showing it. Seems to run and drive fine. Cost was about $100 all-in for a day.

Speaking of rentals, now working on my Christmas rental, but Hertz has instituted blackout rates for holiday points redemptions (they never did this in the past). I have enough points to almost cover it, but not quite, and the site won't let me book a trip with points and money mixed. I'll have to call it in, Presidents Circle apparently has a special care line.

fintail

Had a conference at work, where visitors can rent what they want and my employer reimburses them. They chose a "mystery car" from Budget or Thrifty, got a 10 passenger (or something) van, funny.

fintail

Renting a car from SEA in about 2 and a half weeks, 5 day rental. Flying over for Christmas, as it is about an 8 hour drive from here to my mom's place, and with the risk of dicey pass conditions and pass gridlock, flying is easier as I have plenty of air miles to cover the flight. Rental car, not so much - I thought I had enough Hertz points, but they went into full blackout mode for the holidays, and what was once more than enough points for a week barely covers 3 days. The remaining two days are so overpriced that I was able to rent a similar car from National for very little more, for the entire 5 days, so I am doing that. Sixt was even more expensive, it's insane. I notice now National is stating no availability at SEA for the holidays - maybe being proactive and trying to prevent overbooking. I am taking a early flight and will be at the rental car center probably by 0730 - already hoping I am not skunked.

kyfdx

Our last two trips, we had reservations with National, but checking for a better rate a week ahead, they were completely out of cars.

Our reservations were honored, but upon arrival, pickings were very slim. I have no doubt they are actually selling out, completely.

mlevine

I sometimes check about a week before I travel on costco travel. Sometimes I have found rentals much cheaper as I pre-book about 2 to 3 months in advance. My recent trip booked a camry or equivalent and I got a Nissan Amada.

fintail

As long as I can get something that isn't a church van or a 5 year old Yaris with no cruise, I won't really complain. Might be a chance to get into something unique ("premium" reservation, but if they are out they can put me in an unclaimed "luxury" model of some kind, sports car, etc - kind of like in 2019 at Sixt when they had nothing in the middle premium SUV I reserved, so I ended up in an Escalade).

My last Hertz booking ended up being an Armada, which was a beast.

kyfdx

fintail said:

As long as I can get something that isn't a church van or a 5 year old Yaris with no cruise, I won't really complain. Might be a chance to get into something unique ("premium" reservation, but if they are out they can put me in an unclaimed "luxury" model of some kind, sports car, etc - kind of like in 2019 at Sixt when they had nothing in the middle premium SUV I reserved, so I ended up in an Escalade).

My last Hertz booking ended up being an Armada, which was a beast.

They always try to put me in Crew Cab pickups or Suburbans, when they are short on cars. Uh, no thanks

fintail

If I could get into a fancier version of either, I'd be fine, I won't be in any tight urban parking situations. For those in US fleets, I would fear very basic fleet/oilfield spec vehicles.

kyfdx said:

fintail said:

As long as I can get something that isn't a church van or a 5 year old Yaris with no cruise, I won't really complain. Might be a chance to get into something unique ("premium" reservation, but if they are out they can put me in an unclaimed "luxury" model of some kind, sports car, etc - kind of like in 2019 at Sixt when they had nothing in the middle premium SUV I reserved, so I ended up in an Escalade).

My last Hertz booking ended up being an Armada, which was a beast.

They always try to put me in Crew Cab pickups or Suburbans, when they are short on cars. Uh, no thanks

ronsteve

I was surprised to see what looked like a decent supply of cars at Hertz at MCO last week. Didn’t get a look at the Ultimate Choice pickings because I took advantage of a weird rate structure and locked into a “small elite sedan” or some similar wording. Wasn’t sure how small they would go based on the description of MB A-class or Audi A3, but ended up with a Q50 with just 3k miles on it. Not really impressed tho… never been a fan of most Nissan or Infiniti seats, and so many electronics in the way that you can barely tell it’s got a twin turbo V6!

Rates were pricey but not substantially higher than what I saw in the before times in Jax or Tampa.

kyfdx

Planning a possible trip to Dallas for NYE. Flights are outrageous, due to extra demand on that route (CVG to DFW). $750-$1000 p/p.

I can rent a car for a week from National at the CVG airport (Emerald Aisle) for $277 total. Unlimited mileage. I'm thinking of doing it. It involves an overnight stay in Memphis, each way, since my wife isn't going to go for a 13-14 hour drive.

xwesx

kyfdx said:

Planning a possible trip to Dallas for NYE. Flights are outrageous, due to extra demand on that route (CVG to DFW). $750-$1000 p/p.

I can rent a car for a week from National at the CVG airport (Emerald Aisle) for $277 total. Unlimited mileage. I'm thinking of doing it. It involves an overnight stay in Memphis, each way, since my wife isn't going to go for a 13-14 hour drive.

Sounds like a great idea, @kyfdx! It's not a particularly long drive, you'll see some nice country, and you can even splurge a bit on hotel and restaurants without even coming close to the cost of flying!

texases

kyfdx said:

Planning a possible trip to Dallas for NYE. Flights are outrageous, due to extra demand on that route (CVG to DFW). $750-$1000 p/p.

I can rent a car for a week from National at the CVG airport (Emerald Aisle) for $277 total. Unlimited mileage. I'm thinking of doing it. It involves an overnight stay in Memphis, each way, since my wife isn't going to go for a 13-14 hour drive.

Alabama - UC?

kyfdx

texases said:

kyfdx said:

Planning a possible trip to Dallas for NYE. Flights are outrageous, due to extra demand on that route (CVG to DFW). $750-$1000 p/p.

I can rent a car for a week from National at the CVG airport (Emerald Aisle) for $277 total. Unlimited mileage. I'm thinking of doing it. It involves an overnight stay in Memphis, each way, since my wife isn't going to go for a 13-14 hour drive.

Alabama - UC?

Yes! We attended the UC-Houston game on Saturday. Amazing atmosphere.

texases

We'll be there, but in red - wife's a Bama fan!

kyfdx

texases said:

We'll be there, but in red - wife's a Bama fan!

Yeah, there is no fixing that.

We've only been to two games, this year. Notre Dame on the road, and Houston, this week. Anything can happen! (UC's color is red, as well).

fintail

Rental car fun already. Checked rates last night and they fell, so I cancelled and rebooked a "luxury" for $24 less than the prior "premium" reservation. "Premium" isn't even an option now, but there is a "full size elite" (claimed to be Q50 or A5) that was almost the same price. I am hoping my higher tier reservation helps with something, maybe getting me AWD as it now looks like the west side could have snow when I am there.

fintail

And the rental car is....something unexpected:




1700 miles on it, what I expect is rental spec, but it does have nav etc.

National Executive Selection was the same as standard Emerald Aisle - a sea of Nissans and basic Hyundais, some fleet grade trucks (including Toyotas), some Challengers, and most interesting, at least a couple cars that were apparently bought on the used car market - the 2020 F150 next to the Jeep had leather and side window vent deflectors, both never seen on a normal rental. There was also a Passat with a Roger Jobs sticker on it - the VW dealer in Bellingham.





I had a "luxury" reservation, and true to the example car for the class, was offered my choice of 2 Chrysler 300s - amazed these are still in the fleet. I spotted a new Grand Cherokee, was offered it at $45/day, I laughed. The BMWs were all RWD (I want AWD with possible upcoming snow), and the basic MB and Audis were likely also $45/day upgrades, but I wasn't willing to spend. Very stingy on upgrades, as I have executive elite status - actually makes me want to try Hertz again. If it does snow, I guess the Jeep should be OK in it.

Michaell

@fintail - you're set if snowmaggedon hits the SeaTac area.

fintail

That's why I chose it, going back on Monday, chance of it getting messy between now and then.

Michaell said:

@fintail - you're set if snowmaggedon hits the SeaTac area.

sda

fintail said:

That's why I chose it, going back on Monday, chance of it getting messy between now and then.

Michaell said:

@fintail - you're set if snowmaggedon hits the SeaTac area.

It may be fun to drive something so opposite in character than your car.

Michaell

sda said:

fintail said:

That's why I chose it, going back on Monday, chance of it getting messy between now and then.

Michaell said:

@fintail - you're set if snowmaggedon hits the SeaTac area.

It may be fun to drive something so opposite in character than your car.

When I was travelling regularly, that's what I was looking for in a rental.

Of course, at the time (mid to late 90's), there wasn't a lot of diversity on the rental lot. Lots of GM iron, mostly.

kyfdx

We are renting from National, next week. At our local airport (CVG).
Round-trip to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

$277 for a week. All taxes/fees included.

sda

kyfdx said:

We are renting from National, next week. At our local airport (CVG).
Round-trip to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

$277 for a week. All taxes/fees included.

Sounds like a fun trip! It’ll cost you more to park at the airport than the cost to fly!

kyfdx

sda said:

kyfdx said:

We are renting from National, next week. At our local airport (CVG).
Round-trip to the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.

$277 for a week. All taxes/fees included.

Sounds like a fun trip! It’ll cost you more to park at the airport than the cost to fly!

I'm only 16 miles from the airport. We won't have to park there. Driving to Dallas, and back.

Why are we driving? $1500 R/T airfare, P/P, with Univ of Cincinnati being in the Cotton Bowl.

The day they announced, I could have snagged airfare for $900 p/p, but even that is cost prohibitive, and I wasn't sure I'd get tickets (but, I did!)

sda

My bad, my mind went to airline tickets not car rental. Time to refresh my coffee. Sounds like a fun trip.

fintail

Yep, it's an experience. Already have an error message, about the stop/start not working, but that's irrelevant to me. One quirk is that it doesn't idle in gear and move well in reverse, which makes backing out of my mom's long driveway (when the turnaround area is blocked) is difficult at night, as the reverse lights hinder the backup camera. I wish mine was $277, nothing at seatac was that cheap, my rate for the week was around 500 I think after taxes and fees, and that was a bargain for the location.

sda said:

fintail said:

That's why I chose it, going back on Monday, chance of it getting messy between now and then.

Michaell said:

@fintail - you're set if snowmaggedon hits the SeaTac area.

It may be fun to drive something so opposite in character than your car.

fintail

Found this in the glove box of the Jeep (in a search for an ice scraper, as we got snow here last night):

Sandman6472

That "added mark-up fee" is just ridiculous to be honest but seems many dealers have tacked them onto their vehicles. Saw $5K & $10K fees at Mini Cooper and $3995 over at Toyota. One Corolla had this fee added and they wanted just over $30K for it...a base Corolla LE which is absurd! As much as I want to get a new Corolla Cross, ain't no way I'm paying any $3995 added mark-up fee for that privilege...ain't no way in h-ll! And just wondering what's going to happen once this chip shortage is over and we go back to normal times? Are invoice prices a thing of the past with MSRP being the bottom line now? Will the art of negotiating have ended and we go back to all of us paying one price? Just don't know and guessing we'll just have to wait & see.
Very happy that we both don't need to make any move right now but feel sorry for those folks who do, be it either their choice or those who have been involved in an accident & really have no choice. Leasing is something we've never been able to do but currently, I'm able to do that when I do replace my current vehicle. One of my co-workers leases and loves it for all the reasons folks do. Last year, his Hyundai sales lady, same one I had with my Tucson, called him & was able to get him into a new 2021 unit of the same vehicle with the same payment & no money changing hands. It was a no-brainer to do it, which he did, and this was all before the chip situation happened, so he's quite happy. Now, my other co-worker likes to buy and loves Toyota so he was able to get into a 2019 CPO Rave4 XLE with around 16K for the low low $20's, again right before the chip situation. SO I'm hearing from both sides about what to do next time. Thinking of leasing to be honest, as I like to be in warranty and not have to deal with any vehicular issues. Swapping vehicles every 3 years sounds wonderful but since we've never done it, just not sure what to do.
And then the EV vehicle issue is something I'm thinking about. All I'd need is a range of maybe 250 or better since I don't drive that much each week. Maybe 50 miles if I'm really lucky but probably closer to 35 miles or so. Betting we could even hold off on retro-fitting the garage since I do drive so little. And since we'd also have a regular vehicle in the garage also, range anxiety wouldn't be an issue. And there are plenty of places with regular chargers in our area, so that cold also be an option for charging once or twice a week. So lots of options for me to think about these next many months until we get back to some normalacy!

ab348

Sandy, if you're driving 35-50 miles a week leasing makes zero sense. You would be paying close to a new car payment each month for very few miles, and at the end of 36 months or so you give the car back and are left with nothing except the option to buy it outright at what may or may not be a fair price.

ab348

Michaell said:

@fintail - you're set if snowmaggedon hits the SeaTac area.

fintail said:

That's why I chose it, going back on Monday, chance of it getting messy between now and then.

Watching the NFL on Fox from Seattle, I see a decent snowfall happening there right now.

kyfdx

@fintail No chance of that. Seems to me they can hardly give them away (Gladiators)

fintail

I am out on the coast. Maybe 3" last night, snowing now and probably a couple more for this evening - a big snowfall for being this close to the ocean. Should be a fun drive to the airport in the morning, hopefully won't need 4 low

ab348 said:

Michaell said:

@fintail - you're set if snowmaggedon hits the SeaTac area.

fintail said:

That's why I chose it, going back on Monday, chance of it getting messy between now and then.

Watching the NFL on Fox from Seattle, I see a decent snowfall happening there right now.

kyfdx

Weird weather. Cincinnati hit a record high temp for Christmas Day, this year: 69 F !!

texases

Same thing in Dallas, record at about 80.

kyfdx

texases said:

Same thing in Dallas, record at about 80.

I'll be there on Thursday!

fintail

It's 14F in Spokane right now. More unusually, it's 25F out on the coast at my mom's place, where many locations received 6"+ of snow - very unusual. Quite a drive back to Seatac this morning, numerous spun out/abandoned/crashed cars, a couple of traffic stoppages etc. Finished off the rental with the nearby gas station both having no credit card connectivity and only PUG for gasoline. The Gladiator was a trooper though, had it in 4WD for the entire trip back, didn't miss a beat. My mom wanted a ride to my sister's house in Puyallup, so she got to experience it too (not the easiest ingress/egress for not tall woman in her 70s) , and we got to take a little detour. Averaged maybe 35 mph on the trip due to traffic stoppages - there was a several mile backup on 167 and something happening on 5 around Kent (I exited there).

fintail

Fun rental car update - received my final invoice from National, as I booked a luxury car and chose a lower category from the aisle they charged me the lower rate, saved me around $100 - I won't complain about that. They also recorded me as having driven 38 miles during the rental, when it was maybe closer to 500 miles in reality.

kyfdx

Picked up the rental for our trip to Dallas.
Emerald Aisle at National. At least 30 to choose from.
The only sedan bigger than a Corolla was a Malibu.
Most of the crossovers were the subcompacts, but they had one each of RAV4, CX-5 and Escape. Picked the RAV4. XLE AWD.
No idea if it has CarPlay or NAV (doubtful). But, can use the phone for that.

It’s bright blue. Not the Tacoma color, but the flat one. BMW calls it Laguna Seca Blue

Won’t lose it in a parking lot.

Michaell

kyfdx said:

Picked up the rental for our trip to Dallas.
Emerald Aisle at National. At least 30 to choose from.
The only sedan bigger than a Corolla was a Malibu.
Most of the crossovers were the subcompacts, but they had one each of RAV4, CX-5 and Escape. Picked the RAV4. XLE AWD.
No idea if it has CarPlay or NAV (doubtful). But, can use the phone for that.

It’s bright blue. Not the Tacoma color, but the flat one. BMW calls it Laguna Seca Blue

Won’t lose it in a parking lot.

Good deal. Safe drive!

Michaell

My sister was in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago for her son's wrestling tournament, and had a RAV4. She liked it well enough, but not enough to buy one.

kyfdx

Michaell said:

My sister was in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago for her son's wrestling tournament, and had a RAV4. She liked it well enough, but not enough to buy one.

Yeah... I drove it home (16 miles). It'll be okay. The Kona (smaller vehicle) we had this summer was pretty nice, but it was the turbo. None of the Konas at CVG were turbo. Also, pretty tiny space underneath the cover in the hatch. We wanted something big enough to hide our luggage. Otherwise, something smaller would have been better (1600 mile R/T) for gas mileage.