MyE28.com

I rented a Chrysler 200 and a Hyundai elantra recently. Other than squirrelly steering, I liked the Hyundai best. I kept banging my head on the 200's low roof line. Both were plenty powerful enough.

I have rented many cars over the last years. Mainly using them when out of town on business for a week or so. I have driven many cars I did not like for various reasons. I was quite satisfied with the Mini cooper. The car was under powered but it met my needs perfectly from a business perspective. It was very easy to get bags in and out with the hatch back, the interior seemed comfortable and quite roomy actually and it was easy to park because of its over all size compared to some of the other rentals Ive had. I was impressed in terms of utility and comfort.

stuartinmn wrote:I had a rental Versa last week, and I didn't think it was all that bad. The seats were comfortable enough for a 200 mile round trip for me, and the radio worked fine - I didn't need any more from a vehicle that's basically an appliance. The one thing that was unusual is it was black...I can't remember the last time I had a rental car that was anything besides silver.

I noticed when I dropped it off at the end of the day that the Hertz store had a Fiat 500 in their fleet, the woman at the counter said they just got it in. Next time I'll try to get that one, just to see what it's like to drive.

Careful of those Hertz Fiat rentals. You might end up liking it so much you buy one, like I did. '13 Abarth - it's the 500 cranked up to 11.

rlomba8204 wrote:My wife's prior law firm used to represent American Honda regionally, and from her experience representing them I know that Honda will not sell cars to rental companies. (And if dealers were caught engaged in such sales, their allocations would be reduced, often two cars for every one sold.) And, each time I read one of these threads I am reminded of the wisdom of this decision. Rentals are always or at least often going to be the worst examples of a car -- both in terms of model and previous use / abuse. So while I believe what's been posted, I would tell those that would be considering one of the reviewed models here that he or she should base the decision on driving a new one equipped as you would purchase it from the dealer. If you are a serious buyer, there will be no issue with you even keeping a representative loaner overnight. That is a better way to go. Relying on impressions from rentals is potentially misleading. Also bear in mind that a car like a Nissan Versa can probably be had brand new for $15k or so, maybe less. I know Nissan sells one new car for $9999. That's not a lot of money for a new car, and you have to bear in mind that a lot of families really just need affordable transportation. I am not saying that either of these cars would be my first choice, but it is a big world out there and people's needs differ.

This thing about Honda not selling to rental companies is a load of bunk. Hertz has thousands of Hondas, Accords, Civics, Pilots, and Odysseys. Every major airport has them. So if Honda isn't selling them, and they are punishing their dealers for selling them, then where do they come from? Fall off the back of the transport truck?

As to what gets rented - this is not the '90s. The rentals are the exact same cars you would buy on a dealer's lot. I'm President's Circle with Hertz so I get a little nicer than average cars due to their upgrade policy, but I have had the latest Altima, Camry, and Accord in the past two months. Along with loaded Regal Turbos, Volvo S60s, and even an F30 3-series. Also a MB C250 and GLK. Waay better than the dreck I used to get stuck with 15 years ago when the Detroit big three owned the rental big three. I've been a road warrior for almost 20 years now with three different employers. They are keeping cars longer these days - I got a Taurus Limited with 55K on it in Atlanta recently. It was just like new though.

Glad I didn't have to finish my trip in that Jeep Cherokee.
It took a good three tries to get it into D or R, and feel confident
enough to move the right foot to the right pedal.

The last two cars I have rented have been Subarus (Legacy and Outback). I have grown to like them, they are better than a Camry and I like it better than my Fusion. The CVT in these cars seems to work well...

I recently rented a 5 ton ford dump truck from A Tool Shed in Campell CA. It was a 2005 I think and a total steam pile due to lack of maintenance mostly. The funny part though was was when I returned it the guy jumped up into the cab to check the milege and oddly instantly feel asleep. Then I alerted the other employeee and said "hay is that guy all right?" Then at that point the dude jumped up and disappeared around the corner. Pfst ?

A 2012 VW Passat this year for vacation.

This car was so close to being good and it was so awful. I could fill a book with the number of times I mentally screamed I hate this f'ing car. It reminded me of a GM car, albeit better, a collection of parts more than a car. Plus arrogance in deciding you really don't know what you want, they do. I get it's built to a price, but most all the bad things were things that would have been cheap or free in design, and no cost in production. If done right I could imagine buying this car new. But not on a bet the way it is.

The good.

• A large car on the inside, basketball player sized backseat with a huge trunk.
  Good gas mileage, always over 30, averaged 32
  Good stereo, no bass, but good mid and high with excellent definition and clarity. Very good AM tuner, something that's missing in most of today's cars.
  Seats are odd, they're never comfortable, but at the end of a 500 mile day I'm no more uncomfortable than when I left.
  Rated at 170HP, I would put it more 160-162. At 3200 pounds it should be able to keep up with an E12 but it doesn't. Transmission (slushbox) is better than most I've driven lately, it's a 6 speed with less than ideal ratios but at least it doesn’t constantly cycle on hills like so many cars I've driven.

The bad.

• Can't lock the car without the key, and honking the horn. No interior manual locks, it's all electric and by the car, not the door.
  The engineers decided you shouldn't be the one to determine when to lock the doors, it locks them automatically whenever you get above a certain speed, ~12MPH or so. With no deadband, so if you don't like all the auto activity and decide to unlock them like I do, you can end up doing it at least a couple of times a second, seemingly without a change in speed. It's just madness in stop and go traffic. Leave me alone, don't do things for/to me.
  Heater/A-C. A/C works well, but regardless if it's on A/C or fresh air the blower speed often self adjusts when in the manual mode and not to what I want. It does it both on a startup and after driving a while, manual mode is semi auto and who knows what full auto is. Defrost was terrible, it was blowing a lot of air, but not defrosting the windshield much in a summer thunderstorm in the desert.
  A trip computer with most of the usual functions, temps, MPG average and instant, speed average and instant, but no way to reset it I could find. It does seem to reset each day and start over. Also trip odo is only available when stopped or on startup.
  Accelerator pedal is touchy, impossible to modulate at low speeds, light load, you end up constantly going on/off, on/off. With what I'm sure is drive by wire it's just not done well.
  Cruise is odd, it will often downshift a gear or two going up just a very modest grade.
  Soft suspension/good ride. Not the best comprimise, but tolerable
  Huge trunk hinges carve almost a foot into the trunk when you close it.

I rented a 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 crew cab RWD for a recent trip from OK to SoCal & back. It was a fairly new addition to the local AVIS fleet. 1800 miles. Cloth interior but had all the bells & whistles & technology do-dads. Very comfortable seats and a ton of room in the back seats. Really no complaints on the ride, handling & comfort.

Only quirk was the cruise control. Flat stretches, no problem. On moderate up hills, the throttle would kick in and match set speed. Downhills was quirky. Throttle would not modulate set speed. Found myself at 15 mph plus at times over speed limit.

The biggest suprise was the mpg for the trip. The engine was a V6 which had an unexpected amount of power. Average mpg for the Interstate portion of the trip was 22.8 mpg with my speed averaging 80 mph.

I actually ended up buying a 2013 fiesta. And I test drove a lot of econoboxes. Not the best mpg out there, but it's way more fun to drive and the interior feels nice.

I think most modern econoboxes can't hold a stick to an 80's luxury car.

Mike W. wrote: Can't lock the car without the key, and honking the horn. No interior manual locks, it's all electric and by the car, not the door.

I rented a Jetta last weekend from Alamo and I had this same issue. The horn honking drove me nuts and I did notice there were no physical door locks inside. Once I tried locking the doors with the driver door open by pushing the lock button next to the power window switches, hoping to avoid the horn, but of course it wouldn't allow it because it's smarter than me. I might lock my keys inside.

The car had pretty good power and I could hear some turbo whirring when I got on it. The transmission shifted pretty nicely, too. I certainly liked it a lot more than the other crap I've rented.

Did you use the media plug in jack for the radio in front of the shifter? I always bring a cable with me now on rental car trips for the aux in jack. I use it to plug into the headphone jack on my iphone and play tunes since not a lot of cars have Bluetooth music streaming yet (at least not rental cars). When I would plug in and start the Jetta, it took seriously like 2 minutes to start playing music. The radio screen kept saying "initializing media outlet". WTF

Last weekend for a wedding in eastern shore of Maryland I rented a Buick Regal. It was interesting. Serious competition for a Toyota Avalon IMO. It did everything well and bored me to tears. Good power, surprisingly quiet and refined, good road holding, suspension not jittery or wallowy (i.e., far better than most GMs and on par with a more expensive version of the Cruze that impressed me recently). What was weird was just how isolating it was. The steering wheel could have been a joystick. No feedback at all, no road vibration, no chassis vibration, nothing. No sense of tire grip. You just had to trust it. For most people who don't think about driving as anything other than pointing a car where you want it to go, this is a very good car.

Things I didn't like: seats were typical GM: wide, flat, made for fat people. I found them horribly uncomfortable at first, but they were at least firm enough to not give me lower back pain. The car has a voice activation system that is ridiculously awful. Maybe it learns and adapts, but from the get-go it was really tough to use and I gave up trying quickly. Other than those two things, it was a very competent mid/ large sedan. The kind of thing I could comfortably recommend to a boring friend who doesn't like cars.

-tammer

Tammer in Philly wrote:Last weekend for a wedding in eastern shore of Maryland I rented a Buick Regal. It was interesting. Serious competition for a Toyota Avalon IMO...
-tammer

Funny, I've always considered the Avalon a Toyota Buick. I admit I've never driven one, but styling, Toyota's reputation for not building drivers cars, it just seemed like a natural. I guess it's come full circle, Toyota built a better Buick, so now Buick is competing back.

Mike W. wrote:

Tammer in Philly wrote:Last weekend for a wedding in eastern shore of Maryland I rented a Buick Regal. It was interesting. Serious competition for a Toyota Avalon IMO...
-tammer

Funny, I've always considered the Avalon a Toyota Buick. I admit I've never driven one, but styling, Toyota's reputation for not building drivers cars, it just seemed like a natural. I guess it's come full circle, Toyota built a better Buick, so now Buick is competing back.

That's exactly what I meant. For many years the Avalon was the best Buick one could buy. I haven't seen whatever the current Avalon or equivalent is, but given my last experience in modern Toyota products I would not be surprised if this Buick was better. Numb and boring, but very good at its intended role of being numb and boring.

Hired this little puppy for a drive from Pisa to Siena on the back roads. The turbo diesel was suprisingly quick and handled very nicely on the twisties. I used the paddles for the ''fun" portion of the drive. Seats fit like a glove and at 6'3", I had a lot of room in the cockpit. I'd consider owning one.

Nice. I like the rentals one can get in Europe. I had a pretty nice Fiat small people mover (NOT a Multipla - Chroma, I think) for a drive down the Amalfi coast from Sorrento. Held 4 in comfort and handled very competently on tiny, twisty cliffside roads.

Lately in the US (all 4-day work rentals):
--Chevy Cruze base model. Holy shit, so horrible, especially compared to the LT or LTZ model I recently reviewed very favorably in this same thread. Zero power, transmission gearing so widely spaced that there was really uneven acceleration, suspension both harsh and floaty, interior made of recycled 20-oz bottles. Awful.

--Dodge Avenger. Boring, unrefined, awful sounds, crappy build quality.

--Mazda 3. Quite nice. Much better transmission, can't fool it into selecting the wrong gear by playing with throttle position, responsive. Not powerful, but moves well enough. Far better suspension to the Cruze, on par or slightly better than the Cruze LTZ. Better steering feel than all of the GM models I've driven recently, including the Lacrosse above.

Had a 201? Santa Fe for a Friday and a Monday. It had less than 30K miles and drove worse than my 130 K mile Transit Connect.work van. K Rhodes, I had a 500 for a couple weeks . It demanded full attention whilst bopping around SEMA and the Cape. I felt very vulnerable driving it. Little 4 banger was pretty zippy, even with the the AT. I drove just like I drive the TC. Cruising at 5-10 above and stomping the pedal and holding down until reaching desired speed. I just got a new TC work van. A gen 2 with a lower silhouette and 16 " tires 205 I think. It has GPS to make me paranoid, and my boss gets occasional nasty grams from the GPS folks. I have slowed down sorta. The new van handles very well on the larger tires. Better mirrors and a back up beeper that cuts off the radio when you get too close to stuff. Great little van,

I just finished driving a rental car for about a week and thought I'd bring this thread back up from the depths in case anyone else has a rental car experience to share, and also just for fun.

The car we rented was a Citröen C4 Cactus. Probably not something that will be in stateside rental fleets, but if you happen to be renting in Europe, the dad-gum things are everywhere. After spending a week with the car, I felt like I got to know it pretty well, and although it was a decently ok car, I can say with some degree of certainty that I'll never own one. Can't say I'll go out of my way to rent one again either.

Ours had the 1.2L 3-cylinder gas engine with a 5-speed manual. I read that they are rated at about 100hp, and although I'd say that isn't nearly enough, the people in the EU who are calling the shots on engine displacement these days seem to think that's plenty. It does ok once you get up to speed, but getting there obviously requires some patience. The weather was cool last week, so we didn't see the air conditioner in use much, but I'd bet it would have a tough time keeping up with freeway traffic running the AC in warm weather. The suspension was a bit on the soft side too; lots of wallowing in turns, and with my son in the back seat, lots of bumps that felt like we bottomed out. The car definitely isn't made for autocrossing.

Ours came to us in a shade of purple that I probably wouldn't have asked for, but like the rest of the car, wasn't terrible; just ok.



The exterior has what they call "Airbump" panels on the sides that are supposed to protect it from door dings in parking lots, and I guess they did the job because there was zero damage on the thing when we picked it up with about 35,000 kilometers on it, and none incurred while we had it. They aren't the most handsome accoutrements I've seen on a car, but they kinda grow on you. The interior was actually pretty decent. Decent amount of legroom & headroom front & back, although my youngest son complained about riding in the back seat. But at 6'3"/250lbs, he complains about pretty much every back seat he rides in. The seats were ok for the driving that we did, but my back wasn't happy with the driver's seat after about an hour drive. I wouldn't want to take it much farther than that. The driver's seat adjusts up/down, forward/back, and the seatback tilts; the passenger seat lacks the up/down adjustment. And my wife's back was none too happy with the passenger seat.



The radio, HVAC, navigation, and pretty much everything else was controlled by the screen in the middle of the dash. When we picked the car up, it was set to speak Estonian. Not sure if the people who used it before us were from Estonia, or did that as a prank, but getting it to speak English took some doing. The manual in the glovebox was in Dutch (we rented it at Schiphol Airport outside Amsterdam) so it wasn't much help, and the system itself isn't terribly intuitive. But I finally figured it out, and it worked pretty much ok, but there were a couple functions I couldn't figure out, like just searching for a landmark. It seemed to always want a nearby city. One strange thing was that the voice for navigation has a volume control that's separate from everything else; at the default setting the voice just boomed over the speakers in the car, even when the music was set to a moderate level! That took a little doing to figure out as well. There was no Bluetooth capability for the stereo, but there was a single USB jack, and the system played well with an iPhone.

One disappointment in the interior was the lack of cupholders; only one for the front seats and one in the back. Must've been taking cues from 1980's German engineers.

So, all in all, it was ok. Definitely not even Super.

We had a rental C-class Benz a few weeks ago, and it had one of those engines that turned off/restarted every time you were at a red light or stop sign. I don't think I could live with that on a regular basis, and wonder how much fuel it really saves? And, what's a starter replacement cost?

Citröen C4 Cactus

Ah, the car that comes with built-in​ door dings.

Thank God for those crazy French; nobody else would have thought to do this.

dcains wrote:We had a rental C-class Benz a few weeks ago, and it had one of those engines that turned off/restarted every time you were at a red light or stop sign. I don't think I could live with that on a regular basis, and wonder how much fuel it really saves? And, what's a starter replacement cost?

Presumably it's an upgraded starter. I know I drove hybrids at work for almost 10 years, they do much the same thing if not more and starters were never a problem. So automakers can make them last if they want to.

dcains wrote:We had a rental C-class Benz a few weeks ago, and it had one of those engines that turned off/restarted every time you were at a red light or stop sign. I don't think I could live with that on a regular basis, and wonder how much fuel it really saves? And, what's a starter replacement cost?

Most all our fleet vehicles do that, Mercedes and Fords. On the manuals it only shuts the engine off when you put it in neutral and let out the clutch at a stoplight, then starts it again when you push in the clutch (and it yells at you if you put it into gear before you push in the clutch.) It only does it when the engine is up to operating temp, and doesn't do it often in the winter. Thankfully there's a button on the dash to disable it; I usually push that right away when I climb in the driver's seat.

One of the cool things that helps that feature to work in Germany (at least on manuals) is that the stoplights give you a heads-up before they turn green; when the red light is about to change, the yellow light comes on for a half-second before it goes to green. Just enough time to push in the clutch and put it into gear. The engine starts, and off you go. That's another thing that would be nice to see adopted in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqOcw6XeOeg

I currently have a new Corolla as a weekly rental. I kind of like it. It took me a bit to turn off the electronic nannies...and it can't be done for the cruise control - begins to back you off when you are aprox. 20 car lengths away from the car in front of you which makes it crap on any interstate highway. Other than that, it handles pretty well for what it is and is zippy...if buzzy for 140hp. I like driving narrow tired cars that take a little effort to wring out (the reason stock 2002s are so much fun). No sunroof. Lots of headroom. Good sound system - at least good enough for me. Wouldn't buy one, but it doesn't insult me to drive it. Also has gotten almost 30mpg so far in mixed driving. Biggest news - didn't suck worse than I thought.

A couple of weeks ago, my local Enterprise thought they were doing me a favor by upgrading me to a Challenger. Six cyl., but spicy. Horrible visibility. Banged my head several times getting in and out. Not sure I understand the concept behind a long two door car. Add heavy to that and it was not my favorite. Was solidly built, I'll give it that.

If forced into the choice, I would take the Corolla.

Working for Volvo now and in Sweden for 2 wks. Got a company beater at the airport and to my surprise was a manual trans v40 diesel. Pretty fun and the seats are like Recaros.

Still trying to find the Swedish Bikini Team.

I guess I should post a review, since I asked and no one could (or would. Ha!) state whether an F30 3er 6-speed manual would be as good as an F10 5er 8-speed slushbox....

When I got to the airport, I rented an F30 320d Touring because that was the ONLY car with a manual (and I had 4 reservations). It was very frustrating, as even in large airports in Germany, there are no manuals in the premium class. If I wasn't going to have some passengers on this trip, I definitely would have gotten a 2er or something like that. The 3er felt terrible, and I mean TERRIBLE. I got to a rest stop on the highway, realized I was driving on worn-out M&S winter tires, and turned around and returned it. The thing that surprised me most is that after 10k km, the car felt sloppy and worn out. I have never felt a 3er being cheap, but this thing felt awful.

I then took an F10 520d. It also had snow tires (lesson learned: travel to Germany before Easter, and you will be on snow tires). But it felt refined and significantly closer to a BMW. The steering is way lighter than I am used to, certainly compared to my cars, but by the time I got to my happy place (photo to follow), I had gotten used to the car's dynamics. Unfortunately, it had an 8-speed slushbox. I would use "D" when I was in traffic, as the start/stop would engage, and the fuel consumption was very low (I averaged 50mpg!!!), but I did not like the lack of control of the technology; either it was off or it was on and constantly annoying. I usually left it in sport mode. And manual mode was a joke because it would shift on its own, up, long before getting anywhere near redline, and it wouldn't downshift if it felt it couldn't. Very lame.

But the cruise control was super awesome... BEST cruise control I have ever had on any vehicle. Granular to within 1km/hour. That was slick. And it had a two-step switch, which would either move by 1 km/hour, or jump by 10 km/hour, up OR down. It was completely accurate, and very helpful to stop me from getting photo-radar tickets (I got a FEW in my first days of this trip; they're just arriving on my credit card). If there was a way to retrofit it into my current cars, I would totally do that upgrade.

And another thing I loved was the ability to post the speed limit right in my dashboard. 99.9% of the time it was accurate to within a few meters. This was a VERY cool feature of the OBD. I hear it's available here in the USA, but I cannot imagine it being accurate with the haphazard and arbitrary speed enforcement here in the USA. But I loved that feature. Very slick.

Was it a BMW? It was a buzzy, plastic 4-banger turbo diesel (with exhaust notes possibly broadcast artificially via stereo), mated to a slushbox. Perhaps I would have felt differently with a manual, but I understand BMW will no longer mate that 2.0d to a manual; in the new G10, the 8-speed automatic is the only transmission that will be sold with that engine. Meh. Sure, I had a blast with the car in my happy place (yes, I said, photo to follow). It performed admirably and was absolutely trouble-free in 4000km, but I was really glad to get back into my E39 when I got home. That says a lot more about the car, car design, BMW, their direction, etc. than it does about me. I think BMW is only putting quality into their M-cars now. Sad.