Let’s face it. Renting a car can be an overall unpleasant experience. Paying an often obscene amount of money for use of a car that in one way or another can’t compare to your own ride. If you rent one on vacation, it’s even more unsettling, having to get used to both a different car, and different roads you’ve never navigated.
Though I am under the age of 25, therefore unable to legally rent a car with the possible exception of Zipcar, I have accompanied my mom on many trips to Enterprise, among other agencies over the course of my life.
Some of our rental car experiences have been bad because of customer service, and the gimmicks they play to try to squeeze as much cash out of you as possible. “No I don’t want to pay more for your extra insurance! I have my own insurance that covers me fine!” “I don’t need to pay double for a full tank of gas either!”
But most often, it is the car itself. Regardless the size of vehicle you rent, more than likely it’s the most primitively-equipped base model, with hard bottomed seats, upholstered in “easy to clean” cloth that’s rougher than sandpaper. Despite this, the car is rarely completely clean on the inside. I usually am able to find some trace of the previous renter. The oddest one of these traces I’ve ever encountered were footprints on the inside of the windshield.
Among the most miserable rental cars I’ve had the misfortune of riding in on multiple occasions, has been the Chevrolet Impala. From it’s floaty ride and unsupportive seats to its rubbermaid-grade interior, reeking of horrible plastic smell, it is the epitome of the rental car.
Now the worst rental car experience I’ve had was at the Norfolk, VA airport in 2008. Choosing Dollar Rental because it was the cheapest, we had reserved a “Dodge Charger or similar”. As soon as my mom turned down Dollar’s extra insurance, the service rep who lacked any basic customer service skills became even more snippy, and slammed down the keys to a Kia Optima on the counter. I immediately spoke up, telling her that an Optima was not in the same size class as a Charger, but she angrily retorted, “This is all we have”. Frustrated, my mom and I made our way down to the garage, and were more than shocked at the state of the car we were given. The taillight was busted, covered over in red tape, the fake chrome on the grille was peeling off in multiple places, and there were numerous scratches all over the exterior. Not wanting to be accused of doing all the damage, we went back up to get our money back (we had to deal with the same woman at Dollar), and went over to Enterprise where we got brand new Pontiac G6 instead.
So tell me, what was your worst rental car or rental car experience?
2002 Chrysler Sebring convertible (Enterprise): self-evidently, the least fun you can have in a convertible.
Runner-up: 2007 Mercury Grand Marquis, an involuntary upgrade at Dollar. Not the ideal car to drive down the famous serpentine block of Lombard Street, S.F., for driver or passengers; one tends to slide around a lot.
Being who I was in the rental car business meant I always got the best, most expensive ride available. Usually it was roped off and waiting for me.
But now and then they would screw up.
Worse car was probably the Impala they put me in back in Buffalo. Chevrolets make me very sad, because they suck. Maybe, it was the Sebring – no, the Impala, definitely.
I also hated the Cobalt a yahoo put me in back in Atlanta. Atlanta wasn’t happy with them when they found out I ended up in it. Once in Dallas, the temperatures were in the triple digits and they had my right car, but in the wrong color. I took the black Lincoln instead, then I had them get the right color Lincoln and switch them out while I was at my hotel. I don’t do black cars in Dallas on hot days, dammit!
Now, I believed it was good for me to experience what the average rental car customer experienced. But after years of being put into brand new cars that waited for me wherever I flew, in my preferred colors of exterior, (white only, please – everyone knew that), I got spoiled for the best.
Yeah – that Impala. Should have had that guy fired. But he was new and didn’t know who I was.
Who exactly did you think you were a gift from God? I have reprimanded many employees for behaving like that.
Not a gift from god-more like a visit from the IRS. It was from my computer to the Executive Office. So I got the best and told them how good their best was. I was always fair and I had to have proven to all depending upon me that I was fair. My surprise visits were always stressful to those unable to deliver a high quality rental car product to our customers.
I realize this is a two yea rold thread I’m sorry. GM had a long history of making poor products. Only very recently did that change. I had a Cobalt and it was pretty much the end of GM for me. Needed a smaller car with good mpg. I’m in a Sonic now… not only was it better than anything GM made before in the entry-level but aside from maybe the Rio/Fiesta it was most most solid car I drove in that segment. So GM used to make me sad… but I know their new cars are much improved. Chrysler is just a mess… still.
WARNING, MAY BE LONG!!’
+1 for Enterprise
#1: 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 – It was the summer of 2003, and I was heading to the Enterprise to pick up the Saturn Vue that I booked. Then the lady at the counter told me that I was upgraded to a Dodge Ram. I was going from NY with my family to Miami to visit family. Everything was smooth until we stopped at a hotel in North Carolina. When I went to bring the truck to the front the next morning, I was starled to find a crack, about 3 inches long, in the dash! I hid it with some paperwork and told my wife. By the time we arrived in Florida, the knob on the heater fell off ( I hit it with my knee ), and the crack was so big that he guy at the toll booth pointed it out! When we got back to NY a week later, I told Enterprise about the problems, and the charged me $700, even for some dings and dents that were there beforehand!
#2: 1999 Cadillac Catera – I was renting this one to go on a biusness trip from NY to CT. At first, I was like ” Ooh, a Cadillac!”. But, oh the state it was in! All hubcaps were either cracked or scratched. The front passenger mirror was cracked, and the door handle,on the rear driver’s side door was missing! I asked if they had anything else, but they said they only had a Dodge Caravan Cargo Van. So, I took the Catera, only for he rear bumper to fall off as I left the parking lot!!! HERTZ!!! Luckily I only had it for 3 days!!!
# 3: 2010 Acura ZDX – Since my ’05 Honda CR-V was in the shop, I rented this one to visit my father in a hospital in PA. Dang, that car was ugly!!! Locals were pointing and laughing at it! One even came up to me and said ” If I were you, I’d burn this thing to the ground!”
Best Rentals: 2011 Dodge Charger, 2006 Chevrolet Impala SS, 2002 Ford Mustang Convertible
Where to start, where to start…. My family and I have so much horrible rental experiences!!!
#1- 1996 Plymouth Breeze. This might not have been such a bad car if I didn’t have to drive it from South Carolina to New York. The 2.0 liter engine was screaming up every mountain pass just to make the grade and the seats made my lower back want to cry.
#2- 2007 Kia Rio. Someone hit my brand new Rabbit while parked, and to add insult to injury I was forced to drive a beat-up base Rio for two weeks while it was being (poorly) fixed.
Best two were an ’05 Mazda 3 and a ’13 Charger I rented recently in LA.
About 2008 or 2009 we rented a Saturn Aura. I had always kind of liked their styling before then. However, living in one for a day-long trip was no picnic. There were trim pieces broken and falling off inside, and it was quite uncomfortable. Mrs. JPC did not enjoy driving it at all. I spent the day working out of my briefcase in the back seat and it was not a pleasant place to spend a day.
From another standpoint, there was the time my father took the family to Disney World in 1972. It was Dad, stepmom, my sister and me. Stepmom thought it would be fun to rent one of those new Ford Pintos. Damnation, trying to pack up a family of four in that thing was just very unpleasant. My sister and I (about ages 11 and 13) were holding a bunch of luggage on our laps in the back seat. The next stop on that trip resulted in a rental Plymouth Fury III, so Dad learned his lesson.
#1 – Tie between a 1999 Nissan Sentra and a 1998 Kia Sephia. Both were utter crapboxes, but the Kia was actually a lot more fun to drive.
#2 – Under “not the car’s fault,” in 1998 a friend rented a “Fullsize/Minivan” from Enteprise to help me move back from California to New Mexico. When we arrived to pick up the vehicle we’d cramming my worldly belongings into over the next three days and 2,100 miles, the counter guy cheerfully told us “we’ve upgraded you to a Sebring convertible!” Turned out that was all they had.
Surprisingly, we made it work… and we were even able to lower the top.
BTW, Brendan, I was 23 years old when I rented the Sentra and Sephia. At least back then, Enterprise allowed younger people to rent their cars, although the fact it was for an insurance repair on my Saturn SL2 (and that I worked at the dealership that owned the body shop) may have had something to do with that.
I rented an SL2 from Enterprise when I was 21, they just tacked on a extra $10 a day fee. The fee varied based on location, but back then all Enterprise locations seemed to allow it. When I returned the car they actually forgot to charge me the fee!
I had an insurance rental thru enterprise before I was 25. The guy was going to put me in a Volvo, but it was considered a “luxury” car and they couldn’t rent that to someone under 25, so they stuck me in a Toyota Corolla with absolutely no options instead.
I rented a 98/99 Kia Sephia. Had around 1500 miles on it. Total chitbox. Blew the upper radiator hose. Had to have the rental agency tow it away.
I recently rented a 2012 Chevrolet Malibu, as an 85 year old lady rear-ended my ’02 Mustang GT ‘vert. She was driving a ’93 (STICK SHIFT!) Honda Civic.
Not only was the interior just as bad as my mother’s ’08 Impala SS, but it drove like a floppy sponge & the beltline on the car is so damn high, you can’t stick your arm out of the window like a true ‘Murican.
On top of it, Enterprise gives me two keys attached to a steel cable, so they can’t be separated. What’s the point of that?!
The keys attached to each other that you can’t disconnect is so they don’t loose the second one and so they can (over)charge you for replacing not one but two if you loose them. Makes for a nice extra $100 or more profit if you loose them.
By the way, it’s LOSE not LOOSE. 🙂
Makes for a big lump of keys to put in your pocket though (had this on a USA trip recently, they don’t do it here in Aus), also of course point #1 is kind of moot really!
1999 Volkswagen Sedan (a/k/a original Beetle) in Mexico in 2000. Made me feel like a local, but not in a good way.
2008 Avenger SE.
I don’t think the car had any swaybars. The shocks and springs creaked like they were 8 years old. Engine felt like it made 104 hp. HVAC was weak.
Fuel economy was okay.
2004 Chevy Malibu. Plastic fantastic interior, and an utterly shitty ride.
I haven’t had any bad ones recently.
I do remember as a kid – 1976 – driving from Orlando (disney world) to Miami to visit my father’s aunt and uncle – we rented an orange Vega wagon – the temp gauge went all the way into the red – resulting in my father turning off the AC – a miserable, miserable car and trip.
Back in 1975, Dad, Mom, my brother and me went to Disney. My mom got a white ’71 Vega wagon from a friend. The thing basically fell apart halfway through the trip when we hit a pothole, swerved, and slammed into the curb. The tire blew, and peices of the engine fell out, like the muffler. Dad had it towed to a garage in Virginia, and so we rented a Chevette and continued on our merry way. When Moms friend heard the news, she went and got a new Datsun on the spot!!!
1980 new Ford Fairmont and 81 a Datsun 710 both POS.Datsun severly underpowered and Ford had seats needing a visit to chiropracter after rental.
Back when I was 3, my dad rented a late 60’s (1968, I think) Subaru 360. It had almost no options, had no glove compartment, no fuel gauge, only a speedometer and a tiny box to put your stuff in. We actually celebrated the day Dad got his ’65 Ford Galaxie 500 back!
The worst rental car I have had in recent memory was a Chrysler Sebring Touring. I rented it for a road trip to the Rockies, as my Fit was not exactly a great road-trip car.
I should have taken the Fit. The Sebring had the infamous 2.7 litre V-6 and it was gutless. The transmission was horrid. The handling was floppy to the extreme and keeping a line in a curve was a challenge.
By far the worst part was the driver’s seat. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get comfortable in it and had really bad lower back pain.
The Sebring was an awful car, just badly engineered. I haven’t had one since.
But, and this is a BIG BUT…What really amazes me is how good cars are today. Some are better than others but the rentals I get aren’t bad at all, even the American stuff now gives a good account. The only cars I really don’t like are Korean. The Kia Rio I had recently was not good, the cowl was way to high and the materials in the car crappy. The Sonata I had not long ago also had el-cheapo materials and it crashed and bobbed on every bump of any size.
I’ll only consider cars I’ve rented in the last five years or so. It’s not really fair to compare faded memories of cars rented 20 years ago to recent rentals.
“The worst rental car I have had in recent memory was a Chrysler Sebring Touring.”
+1.
I rented a Sebring sedan in late 2009. It was by far the worst modern car I’ve driven.
Jeremy Clarkson declared the Sebring Convertible to be the worst car ever, and summed it up as “you get the feeling the people that designed it could have done a decent car, but couldn’t be bothered”. That’s pretty much how I feel about the sedan. I rented a Sebring convertible as well and while it was just as bad as the sedan in most respects, it earned a few points for having a top that went down on a nice day.
“What really amazes me is how good cars are today.”
+Another.
I haven’t seen the likes of the Sebring since circa 2011, it really seems like there are no horrid cars these days.
I had a 2013 Malibu last week, and put about 1000 km on it. Although this car has been widely criticized, I didn’t think it was bad at all. The car seemed to be made of decent materials, and was screwed together well. It wasn’t the most involving thing to drive, but it was comfortable and got surprisingly decent highway mileage. It also had a number of features that would have been found on premium cars not long ago – dual zone autotemp, sunroof, infotainment with large touch screen, bluetooth, satellite radio, etc.
It also seems like brands like Honda and Volkswagen that were rarely in the rental fleets not long ago are much more common rentals these days.
My favourite rental cars of the past few years: Cadillac CTS, and 2011 and up Jeep Grand Cherokees.
Your Korean car experience reminds me of something interesting. I rented a Sedona in California around 2009 or 2010, that was a 2007 or 8 model. I hated it. I was driving a 200K mile 96 Honda Odyssey at the time. I liked the drivetrain, but that was it. Awful bright gold color and tan interior. I called the van what GM would have built if GM had ever figured out how to build a halfway competent minivan. Then, a couple of years later I rented another one (a 2010 or 2011). That was a white car with gray interior. As I drove it, I tried to remember why I hated the first one so much. My normal ride was a 99 Chrysler minivan with 200K miles. The second Kia lacked a lot of features of my Chrysler, but seemed a very good (though not great) driving experience. Then in 2012 I test drove a 2013 Sedona and liked it enough to buy it after the Chrysler ate its transmission. I have been trying to figure out if it was an improvement in the cars or if it was just an acclimatization process. I think it was the second.
My workplace gave me a Montego(sadly not a Mercury but the British Leyland abomination).The electric window jammed open and the windy ride gave me a stiff neck,it was horrible and plasticky inside.Runner up was an automatic Nissan Micra as my usual rented Fiesta was being cleaned as the previous driver had blown chunks in it.There should be a law preventing the manufacture of small automatics,what a gutless POS.It also had a nasty weave at 65 to 70 mph.Best rental was a Fiesta,plenty room if I put the seat back and I can even wear my hair up.As a kid Dad rented a large Ford wagon on a family holiday to California in 1966 when I was 9 which really impressed me.
I spent a lot of time in the 66 Ford wagon my Dad drove for 3 years. There was a lot to like about those.
Found a ’71 Ford wagon on the local Craigslist yesterday…..
Well, lessee, I’ve rented dozens of crappy little cars over the past ten years or so. Worst overall to drive was a 2002 or so bread-loaf Ford Escort. I’ve had a few Dodge Calibers that were pretty bad as well.
The engine seized on a Sebring rented from Dollar in Houston about 17 miles into my rental one time. Replacement was a PT Cruiser, so I’m not sure I was that much better off.
Dollar and Enterprise have usually been the worst at trying to upsell gas, insurance, LDW, etc., but I normally just refuse everything and let them repeat themselves three or four times if they really think that’s going to sway me. Enterprise was especially hilarious because the company I work for rented from them as well. If it was a company rental: “Sign here, and here’s the keys, sir”. Personal rental at the same agency with the same staff: 15-minute spiel concerning all the dire things that were going to happen to me if I didn’t accept all the extra crap.
A special level of Hell is reserved for rental agents who claim ‘upgrades’ that really amount to “we couldn’t give these away otherwise”. Examples: a Sebring convertible in the dead of a Pennsylvania winter, or a rear-drive Charger equipped with summer tires on the day of an ice storm.
And, like some others here, I am constantly amazed at how often I get smelly rentals. Are people routinely hauling livestock in them, or what?
None of them. I am usually so thrilled to be driving something different (and new) that I didn’t pay much attention to the cars faults.
In 1997, I think it was, this is the car they tried to rent to my brother ( notice rear axle )
The worst I ever got wasn’t the car per-se but the lame rental company. Apparently the ran it through the car wash with the RF window down ~1/4″ which soaked the carpet on that side of the car. When pulling out onto the road from the airport I could hear the wind noise and noticed that window was down, rolled it up and the noise went away. However later when my wife picked her purse and feet up off the floor the soaked carpet was apparent. Then when we got on the freeway it was pulling to the right and that side seemed really soft. Pulling off at the next gas station revealed that there was about 15psi in the RF tire. When we got back I gave them hell and all they would do was take a few dollars off.
1987 Ford Taurus from Hertz at LAX. I was in a hurry and had a long drive (270 miles into the Sierra), so I just jumped in and got on the 405. By the time I got to Mulholland, I knew I was taking it back….cigarette smoke (in a no-smoking car), the radio sounded like someone had blown all the speakers and it pulled to the left, not during braking, but constantly.
I ate the extra half-hour (ah, those were the days), went back to Hertz and got an ’88 Volvo 740. Which wound up being one of the best rentals I’ve had.
My family got stuck with Pontiac Sunfires several times…though I was too young to drive them.
Believe me, you didn’t miss anything.
No other recent automobile says “I park this car on my front lawn” like a Pontiac Sunfire.
We had a brand new Pontiac Sunfire – somewhere around 2002 or so while our Chrysler Neon was in the shop. Had it a month and I celebrated the day we got our little Neon back. It was such a dull, soul sucking horror.
2005 Chevy cavalier/cobalt.
Black rough edge plastic interior. Roll down windows. Ashtray smell. Whiney engine. I pity someone who owns such a car
I used to own one. The steering shaft broke at 8,000 miles. The clutch started chattering at 14,000 miles (and I’ve made Type 1 Beetle clutches last longer than the motor). The black plastic outside trim faded within a year. It drove like an appliance in the curves and wasn’t even worth a damn as a road trip car on the interstate. It’s the last non-CC chevy I will ever own.
Saturn Ion. Business trip rental. Engine was pathetic and the valvetrain made a heck of a racket. Hated the instrument pod in the middle of the dashboard, especially at night.
Chrysler Sebring sedan (I think). We flew out west to go tent camping in the Rockies. Car only had a keyhole to unlock the driver’s door, not the passenger door. Especially annoying for camping because we were constantly going into the car for something. Designers must have assumed that everyone would order keyless entry system, which this did not have. Also, could not manually shift the transmission down into 2nd gear for engine braking assist when descending steep roads inside the park, so I had to ride the brakes all the time.
2005 Opel sedan (Vectra? Astra?) turbodiesel, 5-speed stick. Honeymoon in Germany. I stalled the car 3 times before I drove out of the parking lot, and several more times in the first day we had it. It made me look like an amateur, even though I had just spent a week driving a Ford Mondeo turbodiesel w/ 5-speed stick (and didn’t stall it a single time). The Opel was unusually gutless for a diesel, and I couldn’t get used to the clutch feel.
RE: the Sebring, a special section of Hell must be reserved for whoever decided on the “D-3-L” gear selector on most Chrysler automatics.
+1 on the Vectra! my parents got stuck with the Vauxhall derivative when they came to visit me. They hate GM cars anyway, and this was a 2.0 petrol in base trim- think a euro version of a ’71 bel air. Worse, somebody dinged the door and they got stuck with a £500 bill for the repair because they thought they got the full insurance package but apparently it didn’t go through.
For me, it was last year’s holiday when I got a Panther. Lovely car, and everything I thought it would be, but the rental counter guy said ‘oops, we don’t have your Grand Marquis, so we’ll put you in a Town Car.’ I thought this was a free upgrade, but when I got home, I saw my bill was for an extra $430. When I called (long distance back to the states) the lady said ‘well we don’t just give away town cars, you know’. Thanks Bu*get Rent a Car. Nobody in my family or friendship circle will use you again, and hopefully nobody here will either. I mean, how different is a de-contented Town Car from a Granny???
2006 Chevy Uplander in Los Angeles as an upgrade… What the hell was that piece of car that had lousy fuel economy, didn’t run fast and got your travel mates miles away from you unable to sustain a conversation.
2005 Opel Combo for a horrible work trip from Barcelona to Andorra… A delivery van up the mountains was not a good idea. We had better used a simple Opel Corsa 🙁
#1. Toyota Yaris. This is the absolute worst rental car I’ve ever had. Being left eye dominant, the speedometer was in the worst possible position, dead center of the dash between the driver and the passenger. I had to turn my head to see how fast I was going. There was no power. I rented a Daewoo Lanos with more power once. The gas gauge was a bunch of stupid electronic bars instead of a nice dial. Never could figure out how much gas a bar meant. Basically, it felt like a tin box on tiny wheels compared to the PT Cruiser I had at the time (and was in the shop due to an accident).
#2. Geo Metro. This was a late 1990s 3-door model. It wasn’t too bad, but the driver’s seat felt like it had been broken in more than a bit too much. Thank goodness I only had it for a few hours.
Jeez, I’m hurt.
You just described, in order, a car I just sold after 80,000 cheap miles; and a car that turned out to be my favorite beater. Bought it in Western New York…it was a Montana car, still had Montana title; covered with red dust but no rust. Got six years out of it, until the three-pot burned out (failed EGR valve; that was a problem with those).
Wish I could get a new Metro. Since I can’t; I bought a new Yaris.
At my age, car needs and car fantasies are aimed at distinctly different vehicles.
2007 Chrysler Sebring Convertible… Absolute strippo, with smoked in interior and curbed hubcaps. My dad and I thought it would be fun to have a convertible for a weekend, and we decided to put the top down as soon as we got it out of the parking garage, excited for the sunny day. Well, the top only went went down halfway, and a 30 minute (!) inspection by the rental people of this 60,000 mile heap claimed it was broken and they could get us a “similar” Ford Mustang basic coupe! Also nasty and smoked in, we ended up getting a much nicer Mustang at the Hertz next door.
#1 – 1995 Chevrolet Lumina, in Los Angeles back in 1996, with 31K on the clock. The sound of the motor in that thing had me expecting a rod to come blasting out of the engine block at any moment. Real beater that one was. Great stereo though. However, it was the last time I ever rented from Avis. Tired of their high-mileage cars they throw out to folks coming in late in the day.
#2 – 1996 Ford Contour, local rental in 1996 with maybe 8k. What a miserable little car that was. A/C that couldnt keep up with 80 degree temperatures, and an engine that couldn’t keep up with anything. A week of driving hell.
#3 – 2011 Buick Regal, in Los Angeles in 2011 with 3k miles. My lord, where to begin. Seats that couldn’t be adjusted to any comfortable position, and just an awkward feel to everything. Radio took me 20 minutes to figure out how to get it off the local rap station. 4 cyl engine that made lots of noise but not much power, and not that great on gas either. Everything about that car is awkward really, even getting in and out of it was a chore… then I saw the ‘Made in Germany’ sticker on the door sill. Figures, it’s an Opel in disguise.
Best cars I’ve rented:
A Canadian model 2012 Impala. I like these cars in general and usually specify them when making reservations. Despite the vague steering (which i find in most modern front drive cars these days), it was a great car that got decent mileage, unoffensive interior (black/black combo is nice), and that thing was markedly quicker than any other Impala I’ve driven. Wish i popped the hood to see what resided underneath. Felt like a V8.
2009 Pontiac G6 GT – local rental for a few days. I still say GM made a huge error by discontinuing Pontiac and keeping Buick. That little car was fantastic, and quite possibly the fastest rental car i’ve ever driven. A rocketship that had me well over the speed limit on many occasions. Seats were decent, handling was excellent, everything was pleasing about that car, even it’s looks. The only negative i could think of was the fuel economy, but that was more from my lead foot than anything.
2011 Dodge Challenger V6 – took a bit of getting used to, but that car turned out to be quite fun to throw around on the hilly roads of Southern California. Good seats, good dash layout, even decent power for a V6. And we couldn’t stop anywhere without somebody coming up and asking about it. If I didn’t live in the snow belt, I’d consider buying one in fact, just from that 10 day rental experience.
A friend (in fact, the same one I mentioned in my earlier comment who helped me move back from California in a 1998 Sebring convertible) had a 2013 Challenger rental during his visit back home a few months back.
“Seriously, you have to drive this – yeah, I know it’s a Mopar – I mean it, drive it!”
Holy cow, was that car a lot of fun. I understand the appeal now, even with “only” 305 hp from the Pentastar V6.
+1 on the Challenger.
I was heading to upstate New York on business from northern New Jersey and asked the counter person at Enterprise if they had anything “cool” to drive. After offering a Camry (really???) and a Passat – both of which I turned down – they offered me a Challenger with the V6. I jumped on it. What a great car – smooth, comfortable, and plenty quick with the V6.
The last 20 or 30 miles of my trip went through 2-lane, mostly empty back-roads, and I was surprised to see how easy the car was to drive at 50 – 60 mph on the these narrow roads – with no drama.
It’s really a shame that Chrysler doesn’t have a manual transmission that would bolt onto the V6. (I know, I know, we’re talking about very limited appeal in an already small market.)
I don’t know if it’s just here, or what, but Enterprise and Hertz almost never give you bad rentals. If they do, it’s either a defect in the car or they are preparing it for its last drive. Budget, on the other hand, SUCKS. They gave me a ZDX to drive to Philedelphia in! C’mon, really??? Locals be like
Pretty much any GM product I’ve been saddled with – I actively avoid them now. I’ve built plastic models that felt higher quality…
I had a Ford Focus rental in Georgia last year that handled okay, but had ZERO visibility out the rear and the indecisive 6-speed automatic was always about two gears behind where I was at any given moment. The graphics on the dash LCD display were also hugely distracting.
The Mustang convertible we rented on Kaua’i earlier this year was a disappointment, too. Cheap, cheap, cheap, and horrid ergonomics.
OTOH, I had an Audi A2 in Germany last year which was actually pretty nice (once I figured out how to change the navi to talk to me in “British” English). I planned my two site visits in such a way that I had a nice autobahn leg between Dortmund and Mannheim – the car started running out of breath around 150kph, unfortunately.
I know a late-model Toyota Corolla is almost too easy of a target, but I’ll go with the 2008 Corolla I drove from the Northwest Arkansas Airport down to Fort Smith and back. Having to constantly correct the steering wheel (zero on-center feel), with a barrage of 18-wheelers zooming past me down the mountain on I-540, made for the most tiring and terrifying hour-and-a-half drive of my life.
I had a 2009 Toyota Corolla rental that I thought was great. The key was the two consecutive 2009 Ford Focus rentals that immediately preceded it.
Was upgraded to chev aveo on a recent trip. The guy said that with a straight face. Next morning I asked him for instructions ref the separating tires and he upgraded to a Buick verano. We drove 2100 miles around Maine NS and NB. Aveo was a POS but Buick was great.
Upgraded TO an Aveo? What did you reserve, a wheelbarrow?!
We reserved a Kia Rio “or other fine car” from Hertz for a driving vacation in Canada. Past experience tells me they are economical and drive well. I would have been happy with a wheelbarrow compared to the chevy. It took a while to get the lump-lump-lump of separating tires out of my mind. The kid really did not want to change me out but I put my very best blank old man stare on and asked him who he wanted me to call when they blew. Next stop wat a 700 mile Buick. Turned out fine.
If they were trying to charge more for an Aveo, they should have been horsewhipped.
Those…THINGS…made the Yugo look refined. Wanna know why GM landed where it did? Look at the thinking, that led GM to buy the Aveo/Kalos and its manufacturer; and then try to market both.
I had an Aveo in England years ago that was pretty terrible as a car, and it also had lost a wheel weight or something because one front wheel was way out of balance – unlike Michael Hagerty’s story at the time I decided going back to change it wasn’t worth the hassle as we wouldn’t be covering many miles on the motorway.
More recently had a Chrysler 200 – surely nobody but rental companies buy these? The driving contrast to a Focus we had later was pretty extreme. The last car we had, a Corolla, had more minor body damage than I’ve seen on a rental car before.
+1 on damaged rentals
My friend rented a Focus (2008), since his 2006 Corolla was in the shop.
The thing had less options than a donkey, no interior door handle for the passenger, and the bumper was attached with duct tape painted blue(the color of the car)! When he told me Budget always gave him cars like this, I told him to return that piece of junk and go to Enterprise or Hertz. Sure enough, the next day, he came back with a 2009 Dodge Challenger!
That second picture of a 2008-2011 Ford Focus interior is all-too familiar, as my local Ford store maintains a fleet of clapped out last-generation Foci as warranty loaners. That picture does not do justice to the shoddy cheapness of the interior, which is a shame since the rest of the car actually isn’t bad at all.
Ford used many of the same controls and cheap, hard plastics inside my ’12 Escape, though they seem more appropriate in that vehicle. Having them in a color other than grey/black helps, too.
Ford Tempo (mid 80’s till mid ’90s). The car lacked quality in every aspect. In defense of the car, most rentals are treated as demo derby candidates (what curb, it’s a rental car). As to the rental experience, I rent on a corporate contract with Hertz, gold service, upgrades on most rentals and a very affordable price (if you take the least expensive and get upgrades), no cdw, etc
Jeep Commander, and a Suzuki…. Grand Vitara.
The Jeep was woefully underpowered for even the Vegas strip, and the GV was just… crap.
I can’t believe no one has said Nissan Versa yet, the only car whose primary raison d’etre is to be upsold at rental counters, as it technically qualifies as a larger car than its subcompact roots (in fact, I think it’s even a mid-size dimensionally.) When folks say there are no longer lousy cars, they are forgetting this one. Worse than any ChryCo or Mitsubishi. Gutless, tinny, ugly. And the rental agents pretend they are doing me a favor if they upgrade me into it. No, they don’t pretend; they actually believe it. Car rental folks are clearly not in the least bit into cars.
I agree. i once “upgraded” to a compact and ended up with a friggin Versa. When i got to my hotel i was parked next to a Chevy Aveo 4 door, the car i presumibly upgraded from….and the damn aveo looked bigger than the versa.
My worst rentals car wise were some 94 Ford Tempos which caused massive back pain, fortunately we got Ford Probes on the next few trips which worked better. Condition wise Enterprise gave a me a seriously ratty Ford Escort and a Chrysler Sebring a few years ago.
On the bright side, I had a lot of fun with an Austin Metro in 198686 and a Land Rover Defender 90 in 98 in the UK and my wife loved the Ford F150 crew cab we ended up with in Washington D.C. since she insisted on a vehicle capable of hauling 4 bicycles
When I was in Washington with my parents at the Spokane airport, we were renting a car from Dollar. The sales attendant refused to let my mom’s drivers’ license onto the rental car contract because she has a different last name than my dad. We asked to see the manager, who said the same thing. After a rather loud argument, we went to Avis and got a better deal anyway.
Early 1990’s Cadillac. With less than 5,000 miles on the odometer the power antenna would not go up nor would the driver’s window work. The driver’s seat made my back hurt of days.
Easily the worst: two door Chevrolet Chevette from Avis at Little Rock in 1983. A tractor would have been quicker, quieter, more comfortable, safer, smoother and much more solid. The Chevette was an absolutely crude and scary car.
Second worst: Some year (maybe ’85 or so) Pontiac J2000 (sort of a Cavalier with a different nose) from Avis at Chicago O’Hare. The only rental car to ever leave me stranded, waiting for a replacement Corolla to arrive by tow truck at Dundee, Illinois.
Gad, you remind me that I rented a Chevette once when I went to Connecticut for a friend’s wedding in about 1987 or so. THAT was the worst rental I have ever had. Trying to flog that gutless little car into an east coast interstate entrance ramp was a new kind of exciting to me. Also, the thing had a horrible front wheel shimmy that made the steering wheel vibrate in my hands at any speed over 45. I tried to take it back and replace it but was told that was the last car they had. Yeah, right.
I had forgotten about the “Shove-it” I rented from Hertz on Maui. A Fiesta was reserved, but you know how that goes. It was surprisingly well suited for the third world roads on that island in the 1970’s.
Over the years we’ve gotten some truly execrable minivans on family vacations: Pontiac Montana, Ford Freestar, etc. The worst was actually a dirty, stripper Sienna- yuck.
The best was actually a VW Routan; nicely equipped, with a slightly upgraded interior over its ChryCo donor. Also got a Camaro last year and quite liked it; seemed much more cohesive and modern than the Mustang enthusiasts seem to prefer.
I had a couple of 2007-08-ish Nissan Quests that were my least favorite minivan rentals. The engines were very good at not making real torque so that the tranny would perpetually downshift when you hit any kind of a grade on an interstate highway even at 70 mph. Put 6 people and luggage in it and it would bottom out on any decent bump or dip in the road. Also, they seemed short on room inside. I was surprised at how much I liked an 09 Grand Caravan. It was quite pleasant.
Oh, there was another one that had to be replaced – but fortunately I did not need a car towed out to me at the side of the road. It was from Hertz at Frankfurt airport in February (cold) 1996. They gave me some sort of Renault (in Germany?). Drove through and out of parking garage to find there was no heat, no defrost, no instrument lighting.
Took it back immediately after driving maybe 1 kilometer and fortunately as a substitute for that Renault I got a VW Golf diesel that turned out to be a fine car for what ended up being about a 2,500 km drive around southern Germany.
2006 Saturn Ion, rented from Avis in the SF Bay Area. Wretched little turd, painted appliance white, mismatched plastic wheel covers, and the worst steering I have ever experienced on a car. Actually careened off the road when taking an exit ramp (at normal speed) onto the shoulder (luckily no damage). I think it had electric steering (bad), designed and sourced by GM (worse)–it was like an on/off switch–truly the handling capability from Hell. Plus the thing looked awful, inside and out (especially with the horrible central speedometer and utterly cruddy interior plastics). To top if off, it was a poorly maintained and thoroughly trashed car, even though it was a then current model year.
That rental scene from Plane, Trains and Automobiles is one of my all time favorites.
A 2002 or 2003 Chevrolet 3/4 ton passenger van in about 2010; it was from a local rental company and had only 176,000 miles. It ran like there was no tomorrow but the seat was twisted hard to the right and had no padding left in the lower back support. Thankfully my employer was paying for it, so the discomfort wasn’t on my dime.
Plus, as one who currently has a rental car dolly sitting in the driveway as I type this (with a certain Buick mounted to it), rental equipment is in a completely different (and lower) realm than are rental cars.
I haven’t had a bad rental recently, but in the past, had a horrible 1982 Ford Tempo in Montreal (had they forgotten to install the shocks?) and an equally crappy Ford whatever in Chicago in 1978. Driving this POS on the Dan Ryan was pure torture. Most recent rental was a Chevy Impala in Florida in 2011. No complaints. Quiet, comfortable, fast.
Dodge Caliber. Totally unrefined, ugly, gutless, vile.
A Ford Festiva (Aspire) in Australia in the late 90s.
A hard-riding little buzz box. Doors that felt and sounded like tin cans, and a tachometer needle stuck at 4000rpm with the engine off.
Second worst was a Chevy Lumnia in the mid-90s. Numb and mediocre in every way.
Worst service experience was Thrifty in Salt Lake City recently. Absolute rip-off merchants.
I’ve rented Pintos, Plymouth Reliants and a Ford EXP but the worst was a 1st gen FWD Malibu that was impossible to steer. Traded it for a GrandAm which drove OK but had horrible visibility, not to mention horrible (to me) styling with all that cladding. Surprisingly good was a Ford Escape in Hawaii about 3 years ago, and a Fiat Marea in Italy, which looked like an Italian Corolla but had a supple ride, torquey 1.8 liter engine and handled well. Oh, and it could pull 195 kph indicated on the autostrada. Far better driving experience than the similarly spec’d Corolla we owned at the time.
I should say the most surprisingly decent rental was when I booked an economy car to visit New Orleans and got a v6 Dodge Stratus in 2004. Sure it was plasticky, and I certainly wouldn’t want to own one with the combination of sludge and Ultradrive, but for the price, it was nice. I should say that my car back in the UK at the time was a Lada Riva, so maybe my expectations were just lower back then. The free upgrade from a Kia or whatever it would have been certainly helped too!
The worst is a tie, both some twenty years ago.
One was a Hyundai Pony. Just not that much of a car. Oh, it got around, but it was pretty low buck.
The other was a Buick Regal or Oldsmobile Cutlass, whatever, pretty interchangeable, one of the rear-drive ones from the eighties. Take your eyes off the road for one second to change the radio, and the car simply changed lanes. No feedback, to sense of what it was doing at all. Driving it was like driving a video game car.
Otherwise, all my rentals have been just cars.
Well, there was this one time I got a car in San Francisco.He offered me a free upgrade. I went out, and there, in spot #3 was a new Mustang. Ok, V6, but a Mustang 🙂 Oddly, it had Texas licence plates.
I went without owning a car for several years back when I had a job within walking distance of home. I’d use a Flexcar (now part of Zipcar) for errands from time to time, and I’d go to either Enterprise or Dollar if I was in the mood for a road trip. The worst ever for me was a 2010 Fiat 500 from Enterprise. It was a cute little thing and brand new. I sure was impressed at first, until I had to drive it. It had a three-speed automatic and horrible, deafening engine noise. Just the ultimate penalty box! My ’76 Vega was a better car! The most pleasant surprise was when I rented a 2003 or so Kia Rio. It was a simple, basic car, but pretty fun to drive.
I’ve had mostly positive experiences, but by far the worst was a Dodge Caliber I had for a week in Oahu last march. It was equipped with the HORRIBLE cvt gearbox that would shudder and almost cause the car to stall if I didn’t give it enough throttle when taking off from a stop. It was slow, cramped, ugly, and lousy on gas. Six months prior to that I rented a Nissan Versa for a weeklong trip to the San Juan mountains in Colorado. It was a far superior car in comparison.
Also, Hertz does provide rentals for drivers under 25. There is an additional charge though, usually around the $150-200 mark. I’m only 25 myself and I’ve rented plenty of cars.
At that much of a surcharge, either Zipcar or renting a pickup from U-Haul is probably a better deal for younger people if it’s not insurance or on a business account (better if it’s a refundable deposit).
Now for the view from the other side of the counter. When I was first starting out as a mechanic one of my early jobs was mechanic for a Rent-A-Wreck franchise. The company was a loose franchise arrangement and only just starting out in Western Canada. Standards were minimal and the quality of vehicles varied wildly but all were well used cars, the cheapest of which you could rent for $6.95 a day and 6 cents a mile. If you could put a $100.00 deposit down you were on the road. Insurance was optional at $2.00 a day and normally declined by our clientele. I spent most of my time in the repair bay, but given the shoe string nature of the business I was sometimes called on to work the counter if the 18 year old minimum wage counter girl quit or didn’t show up.
Our target market could charitably be described as “interesting”. we got everybody from good honest folks in dire straights to outright criminals and everything in between. Most were grateful that anyone would rent them a car, so we didn’t get many complaints but we had some interesting problems crop up.
An attempt to move upmarket with newer model cars, namely ex-RCMP cruisers bought at auction, had disastrous results. Renting some of the fastest cars available at the time to people with no money and bad histories, what could go wrong? After a number of wrecked cars and pleas from the local RCMP to stop renting cars they couldn’t catch to armed robbers and drug dealers the fleet was sold to a taxi company. This did bring our little enterprise to the attention of the RCMP, which resulted in a considerable bump in business when the narcotics squad began renting them for stakeouts and undercover work. They often came back damaged or so rank we had to use bleach to clean them but at least the Government of Canada credit card covered all that. The cheapest cars in the fleet were intended only for local use and every now and then one would fail to return to base. Some of the places they turned up abandoned, like small towns in Newfoundland or back alleys in Saskatoon were quite a distance from our burg in BC. Some just vanished forever. If the car was dead or more than a day’s drive away we just wrote it off and moved on.
Repossessions were always fun as well. Some of the people involved were hardened criminals, and others were just plain nuts. I once had to drive a beat up old Maverick through a winter storm at night after grabbing it from a cheap motel 50 or 60 miles from town. It was full of bullet holes and missing a few windows courtesy of an angry husband. Turns out that nice young couple that rented were married after all, just not to each other. Another time I repo’d a car and found a garbage bag full of weed in the trunk. The boss called the guy up and said if he paid his bill he’d get his “luggage” back. He got his money. I still wonder how we didn’t get killed, but in those days dope was pretty much a hippy thing.
People who paid by cheque were frequently kept busy with small talk or whatever worked while I ran to the bank to cash the cheque. Met more than a few going in as I was coming out of that bank. The boss had a real bad-ass buddy who was an ex biker who handled the really tough collections on a 50-50 split. Sometimes it took awhile but we usually got something from bad debts.
One day one of the narcotics officers took me aside and suggested that since I seemed like a decent enough guy, I might want to find another place to work soon. Like tomorrow. I pulled the pin and not long after that the narcs descended on the place. Turns out their interest in the place extended beyond non descript old cars for under cover work after all.
I learned a lot at that job.
I believe you win the thread.
+1
+2!
…can we make it unanimous?
If it isn’t true…it ought to be. Especially how your bosses started buying Mountie cars; then renting to Mountie stakeouts; and finally having the Mounties tip you off to how your boss is gonna be run in, and you might want to walk out first.
You’d think with all the smokey-hats going in and out, he’d keep his “other” business more discreet and more distant.
It’s true. It was his kid, who was in and out all the time but did little work. The cop was on the softball team I played on and promised dire consequences if I said or did anything other than grabbed my tools and split. I suspect he wouldn’t have said anything except we ended up drinking too much at the bar after a game. My sudden departure shortly before this all happened led to the suspicion that I had tipped off the RCMP instead of the other way around. The business survived but the boss was sure I was responsible for all the trouble that followed.
This all took place over 30 years ago and it’s just a funny story now. It did prompt me to try the climate elsewhere though!
What and excellent story! I had completely forgotten about Rent a Wreck and for good reason as I tend to block bad memories. Those cars were complete beaters, often lacking brakes. They’d rent to anybody and on welfare day, the city would awash with this shitheaps screaming around with drunk/stoned welfare warriors, crashing into various things. It actually ate into the scuzbucket clientele on welfare weekend for our taxi company. Sure could tell a few stories about driving a cab on welfare day….
New mechanical safety inspections around 1985 put an end to them.
OMG, you totally win the Best Comment Ever prize for this post! I laughed,I cried, etc, etc…. Thanks!
Dang. I agree about the thread winner. =:-0
“I learned a lot at that job” is a perfectly understated closing line.
Had a buddy who rented a wreck and drove it to Tiajuana. Yeah, it got totaled and he couldnt drive it back across afterwards and had to pay for the car.
Oh! Rent-A-Wreck!!!!
I rented one for a week when I moved to Welland Ontario. It was a Mercury Comet (Maverick clone). It burnt oil, enough to not worry about mosquitoes. It had winter tires, in June. It got me around, it got me to Kitchener and back. I just kept adding oil.
Not a fine car, but it just kept going, as long as I added oil. 🙂
In about 1980, I rented a Chevette which I thought was the most basic car I had ever driven. Sometime later I rented a Dodge Omni which seemed an order of magnitude better in every way. In its ratings, Consumer Reports had recommended the Chevette and specifically recommended against the Omni/Horizon. I never trusted the publication again.
Worst: Jeep Liberty. I would never voluntarily rent a SUV, but it’s what either Dollar or Alamo had when I arrived in Philly. Weirdly gutless, lots of downshifting and struggling to get up minor to moderate hills. Crappy gas mileage. The cheapest looking dash and interior in just about any car I have ever driven. Visibility issues to the sides. At first I couldn’t find the liftgate release so I stashed my luggage in the back seat. My dad found it while I was visiting him, and when we opened the liftgate the first thought that came into my mind was “who or what is in the lower berth?” — the liftover height was that ridiculous.
Very close runner-up: Pontiac G6 base model with no seat height adjustments (FYI, I am a bit vertically challenged). The most visibility-free car I have ever experienced. In a store parking lot I just about creamed a pedestrian hidden by the A-pillar. Driving on the freeway was an exercise in faith-based motoring: you had to PRAY there wasn’t a semi in the lane you wanted to merge into. Let’s not even talk about backing up.
I’m not understanding all the Sebring hate, unless you are talking about the last generation of Sebring. I rented a Sebring convertible about 2001 or maybe ’02 and really enjoyed it. However, Sebrings seemed to get worse everytime Chrysler changed something.
1998-2001 was “Peak Chrysler” in my book.
I’d agree with that timeframe. A 1999 or 2000 Sebring Limited was a damn nice automobile.
“Peak Chrysler” comes around every few years.
Paul did a good series on this a while ago, in which he suggested that “Chrysler’s biography is a nothing less than a roller coaster ride of giddy highs punctuated by disastrous crashes and self mutilation.” (source: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/chryslers-bi-polar-history-part-1/)
Chrysler last hit rock bottom about four years ago, but these days it looks like mother Mopar has gone off her meds and is in her manic phase…
True, but the 1998-2001 timeframe was also the last time Chrysler was really its own car company, beholden to no one but itself and its own (rather impressive) platforms and vehicles. Daimler was in the house by then, but hadn’t really started to exert its influence as far as product.
As history has shown us, it was all downhill after that and only recently has the cliff leveled off somewhat. Today’s Fiasler is putting out some decent product, but I wouldn’t declare the patient healthy yet by a longshot.
P.S. If you want to talk manic Mopar, ask my neighbor how he likes his new Dart. Red Limited, bought it in mid-May, a really sharp car… that he was able to drive about 10 days before the 1.4L basically exploded. Been at the dealer ever since, and he’s driving a rent-a-Focus. Meds are definitely needed.
I have had several Cruz turbos as rentals, which I thought odd, since the 1.8 would obviously be more reliable in a rental. Seems GM is fleeting the 1.4 for CAFE numbers.
These motors cannot last long. The are tiny to begin and to get any decent performance, you have to rev the crap out of them. Modern transmissions and sound isolation makes it hardly noticeable but a look at the tach sees 4000 + RPM like half of the time since it takes that many revs to get the boost up to the point to make any decent power. These cars are not light at all and and I cannot see small displacement turbos in relatively heavy cars as a good long term investment. These cars are simply too heavy.
The 2.0 litre natuarally aspirated four in the Focus is great, by the way, and uses LESS gas than a Cruze turbo.
Canucknucklehead – I tend to agree on the potential danger from using undersized, high-strung turbocharged fours in heavy cars. You can’t find a “compact” car under 3,000 lbs, and both the Dart and (especially) the Cruze are several hundred pounds above that figure.
I talked with my neighbor this morning, and he says the dealer is telling him the turbo threw a vane that in turn destroyed the motor. That doesn’t sound quite right, but regardless, he’s trying to get out of the deal (which unfortunately I don’t think he’ll be able to do.)
Agreed. The problem is that Peak Mopar is always followed by Valley Mopar. When buying new, you never know which part of the cycle you are in. When you buy older ones as I have, you increase your odds of winning.
Crap cars reached a zenith in the 1980’s and the two worst rentals were from that decade, a Fiat Uno, rented in Rome and a Chevy Corsica, out of Washington National, aka Ronald Reagan. The V-6 Chevy had the power of a four, yet guzzled gas like a V-8.
Renting the Fiat was comical. Our flight arrived about siesta time and the rental counter was moving from one part of the airport to another. We didnt hit the road until evening rush hour. At least learning to drive in Los Angeles allowed me to “When in Rome, drive like the Romans do.” That thing filled with water when it rained, could not reach the 135kph speed limit on the Autostrada and it vibrated terribly on the narrowest tires I ever saw on an automobile, 135’s, and I have owned VW’s and a Ford Fiesta.
You must have high standards in 4-cylinder engines. A worn out 3.1 Corsica will lay rubber on dry pavement…with three adults inside.
The 2.8-powered Corsicas were no slouches either.
I had a 94 Beretta Z26 with the improved 3100 and it hauled ass. I was knocking over everything sport compact at least the stock ones. Had a friend in the club had a similar vintage Beretta manual with 4cylinders Quad 4 HO I think it was even faster but sounded like a jet firing up.
Worst: 2007-ish Kia Spectra. Tinny little shitbox that had some sort of problem that resulted in the sound of water rushing behind the center console, like a waterfall. Mentioned it to the rental agent at Enterprise, who just laughed.
Most disappointing: 2012 Jetta. The Enterprise girl acted as if I had won the lottery by getting a Jetta with only 200 miles on it, but I wasn’t impressed by it. I’d been in many Mark IV Jettas and quite liked them, but the Mark VI didn’t do it for me. Had a dead spot in the steering on-center that drove me nuts.
Most surprisingly pleasant: 2012 Dodge Grand Caravan. “Upgraded” to a minivan at LAX Hertz for a one-way rental to Carlsbad. Figured they wanted to get minivans down to Carlsbad for all the Legoland family tourists. I rented it just days after the Jetta mentioned above, and liked it 100x better!
I’m at the point that I absolutely will not upgrade to “full sized” no matter how long the trip until I’m absolutely guaranteed that I will not end up with a Mercury Grand Marquis. The three I’ve had in my life are the most over-rated pieces of crap I’ve ever had to drive. Uncomfortable, floaty, soft, ill-handling . . . and did I mention uncomfortable?
I firmly consider fans of the Panther platform to be delusional. They need to start driving a good car. Say, a base model 1971 Vega . . . . .
A Chrysler Pacifica when my truck died and the local Enterprise wouldn’t have anything smaller until the next day. One day of gas-hogging mediocrity.
Best rentals?
A 2009 Hyundai Sonata for a round trip to Bangor, ME in 2009. First time I’d driven a Hyundai and was very impressed.
A 2013 Chrysler 200 supplied to me back in March after my xB was rear-ended. The seats were somewhat low grade (this was the four speed rental model), but the rest of the car was reasonably impressive. Especially after all the years of hearing the Sebring being slagged.
+1. When visiting family in the midwest in the summer of 2002 I rented a new Lincoln Town Car from Hertz so that we would all be comfortable on some small planned excursions. Much to my surprise the car had no power, no CD player (cassette only), poor handling (driving it in the rain was a nightmare), and, as one OP at the beginning of this thread said about a Panther he rented, passengers slid around in the rear seat as I negotiated even mild curves or freeway onramps. I realized at that point that this was not the same company that built the Lincolns my Dad owned in the 1970s. Couldn’t wait to get home to the Maxima I owned at the time.
Syke, my friend, I am glad there are two of us. I have always despised the Panther. The only decent one I ever had was a 351 Windsor Canadian cop car, which was pretty cool. The others I never liked. They just don’t drive that well. The steering is vague and the handling wallowy on all off them.
You remind me that I still harbor an inexplicable desire for a Pacifica. All of the mechanical goodness of a Chrysler minivan with more car-like comfort. I know this is irrational. But as a longtime Cubs fan, I can do irrational.
My worst rental car story is, instead, a rental truck story. The last time that I moved, I reserved a cube van from Ryder. It was for a Sunday. It involved two moves. In the morning. My freind would be moved from his residence to a large locker in the building that we were both moving to. He could not occupy his apartment until the 15th of the month necessitating this. I would move immediatly into my apartment later. Ariving at Ryder I was told that there were no cube vans available. After a discussion about the meaning of the word reservation, I was given, in it’s stead, a 20 foot box delivery truck with a power lift gate. This was the upgrade of all upgrades. However, after the first move, I went out to start the truck and nothing but relays clicking. I phoned Ryder and (Sunday, remember) two hours later a service truck arrives. After trying everything, he pronounces the starter dead. Our only option is to bump start the truck. He loops a chain around my bumper and his and we bump start the truck. He exits the scene telling me not to turn it off. This episode has put me way behind schedule so that, when I arrive at my soon to be ex third floor flat all of my freinds that I had previosly moved had arrived to help at the proscribed time and the contents of my home were on the front lawn of this house. They had been waiting quite a while and all the time beating off the people that thought that this was the largest lawn sale that they had ever seen. When I arrived, one very persistant man granted me the fact that I was simply moving but, nonetheless, he had to buy my bookcases. Mercifly, the truck held my whole apartment’s contents so I was able to make a clean exit. The rest of the move went, more or less, as planned but for my fear of the running truck being stolen. I left my helpers with the pizza and beer and spent the next hour and a half getting the truck back to Ryder. I have not moved since.
It wasn’t the worst, but the most disappointing was a Chrysler 300 with a V6. I’d been admiring them for years and expected a Mercedes-Benz ride worthy of the car’s styling. What I got was a transmission calibrated for fuel economy on the EPA emissions cycle and nothing else. Each gear was too tall for its purpose and the result was non-existent acceleration until the engine was screaming followed by a drop to deep below the engine’s torque peak. It was painfully miserable to drive. This was before O****a applied his Wile E. Coyote knowledge of science to the CAFE standard, so Chrysler was struggling to meet 27.5 CAFE in 2009, judging by the calibration.
Listing the worst rental car I’ve had would be very difficult. I’ve had dozens and dozens, and most of them have been awful. Corollas from the mid-’90s, when they were supposedly pocket Duesenbergs, were often so tedious to drive and uncomfortable that I left them sitting and found other ways to get around. Third world rental cars might as well have been French. A brand new Ford Econoline in 2008 with 300 miles rattled, thrashed, had a non-functioning power window, wind-roar and flapping doors like one with 100,000 miles. Enterprise issued me a series of rentals that were straight from use on the set of bukkake videos. A Buick Regal caused my mother back problems that lingered for many, many months after less than three hours in the car. A 37-mile Cadillac had splitting seat stitches. An 18-mile Buick Century still required assembly and even then apparently had naught but air in its dampers. A Ford Tempo had a transmission that snapped heads while coming to a stop. Ford Focuses make Corollas feel like small Duesenbergs. A Tercel was given to me with 18 psi in one rear tire and 8 psi in the other. I’m lucky the tire stayed on the rim and I didn’t hit anything when I spun. I had a couple Corsicas one day in 1993 or 1994. I’m embarrassed for choice in picking a worst rental car. I can’t pick one. My best rental was a 2011 Toyota Camry. I see why they sell so well.
1975. 1975 Pinto. Auto tranny. Cruising San Diego looking at the USA after 9 months overseas aboard a warship.
Toking on a doobie with KGB-FM on the radio.
Side street on Point Loma. 25 mph limit. No traffic.
Always wondered what happened if an auto tranny moving forward, engine on, was placed in reverse.
Well. The car stopped quickly. Forward movement and engine both stopped.
Cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Had a hard time starting the engine but it did after several tries.
Engine ran noticeably rougher and strange new noises were present.
Headed back to the rental place and the temperature gauge was climbing.
It was towards the max when I limped into the rental place and commenced complaining.
They offered a refund but I feigned anger and did not want to do any business with them and I stomped off to grab the city bus that had brought me from the Navy base to the rental place.
Maybe that critter is still running somewhere.
I haven’t had a really terrible rental car. The worst was a Nissan Versa because it got uncomfortable after about 30 miles.
I rented a Mazda5 once, that was pretty nice. A Honda Civic was always a good rental. That’s about it.
Heh, now that you mention it, I had a very good rental experience with a Mazda5 as well. Very sprightly for something resembling a minivan. Zoom-zoom indeed.
It’s a shame that Mazdas often get overlooked by the car buying masses. They’re absolutely great cars from a quality and driving experience standpoint. I would love to own a Mazda5, but with the size of my family, there wouldn’t be any room left for groceries!
Ha, I rented a white Honda Civic once. I’ve never felt so anonymous on the road. It was a strange feeling.
I’ve been real lucky – most of the bad luck peeps here have had, I’ve dodged.
But then…for the last twenty years, I’ve been sold on Japanese cars. And I try to ask for one when I rent, or used to rent.
Nissan…Honda…Toyota…doesn’t matter. They’re all solid; they all seem to thrive on rental abuse. No, I never rented a Mitsubushi. Somehow I think that would have been less satisfying.
I did, however, rent one Chevrolet Aveo. That was a deliberate thing; my Metro had messed the bed and had to be dumped somewhere, quick….frame broke. I had been laid off work for four months; and was called back in 72 hours.
I could get an Aveo. I never drove one before; so I rented one. Seemed okay…uber cheap but I expected that from a rebadged Daewoo. But…at speeds over 48, the front end and steering wheel took on a shimmy.
Okay. Out-of-balance tire. I put 75 miles on it, slept on the concept, turned it in (with a word at the counter) and bought mine.
Which had the SAME flippin’ shimmy in it! The thing…wasn’t ENGINEERED for American highway speeds!
And GM brought it over. Just put a Chevrolet bow-tie on it and sent it out.
A 1994 Chevrolet Malibu; it was a competent enough vehicle for point A to B transportation, but the entire car screamed–Generic! I remember it had a generic grey interior and styling was totally uninspiring. When I returned the vehicle to the rental counter and left I could not remember one thing about it that was memorable. Its purpose was simply transportation and nothing more.
…which made it a PERFECT rental!
Maybe that’s a market one of the no-longer-so-Big Three could pursue. The Chevrolet Livery; or the Dodge Agency; or the Ford Rental. Bare-bones; thicker gauge of sheetmetal. Truck suspension – leaf springs recommended.
Guaranteed, always starts. Satisfaction, not so much. Keep the styling the same for 30 years!…like the UPS trucks. Never need to sell year-old ones; just keep swapping in crate engines.
The real question is this: When was the last time a rental car company offered a car with a manual transmission in the US?
I know I read somewhere that the reason they stopped was because people would rent manual cars to learn to drive a manual on and the rental companies got tired of losing money having to replace burned out clutches.
I don’t know if that’s a fact but it’s certainly plausible.
Don’t know the answer, but last one I rented was 30 years ago (1983) in Austin, Tx. my parents arranged for me to rent a Toyota Starlet which had manual transmisson…I loved it (even then, manual transmission was rare among rental cars)…it was $99 for the week I had it.
Of course back then you could also rent “unusual” models like Peugeot (we rented one through Hertz).
I was a “transporter” for a major rental agency during college (basically we returned all the one-way rental cars back to their home location…many people don’t know but rental cars are/were assigned to a specific location, and eventually make their way back, unless they are sold or reassigned to another location)….never drove a manual rental car in the 2 years I did it (and that was back in the ’70s…35 years ago).
I would guess that this is to avoid people renting the cars to “learn” how to drive manual (burning up the clutch, grinding gears, etc.). Maybe they need to get a manual transmission endorsement put on our drivers licenses?
Worst was the Chevy Aveo I had about three years ago. No keyless entry, hand cranked windows, and so small and tippy that it felt legitimately dangerous in a crosswind. It is possible to be too cheap when renting.
Second-worst was the Impala I had in about 2005. Terrible seats and no power to speak of.
Best ever? I rent a lot from National, and sometimes the Emerald Aisle gets you something nice on the company dime. A loaded Chrysler 300 with about 200 miles on it was nice to get into and drive back to the hotel after some long support shifts. Or there was the similarly loaded Durango that I got for a company gathering (about the last thing left in the lot) which was nice for toting around 6 or so colleagues I hadn’t seen in ages. All for $36 a day.
If there’s nothing special in the Aisle, I go with a Sonata. They nearly always have satellite radio, and I’ve had so many that I can hop right in and drive away without thinking about the controls, ergonomics, etc. I just put about 700 miles on one last week on a business trip. Not spectacularly luxurious, just fits like a good pair of sneakers. There was a time when rental companies had the odd Azera, and I had one or two and was very impressed. But then Hyundai and the US market both sort of forgot about the Azera. I keep hoping I’ll find one of these or a Genesis in a rental lot, but it hasn’t happened yet.
We only rent cars when we go to CA to visit my wife’s family. On one occasion our flight arrived at the San Jose airport around 10:30 pm, so the remaining selection was pretty low. We were threatened with a Dodge Caliber, but my wife rejected it because it had crank windows, so we ended up with a Chevy Cobalt instead, which was acceptable. But on a later visit, we were stuck with a Hyundai Accent, which was miserable in every respect.
I just finished reading through this 100+ list of comments and couldn’t believe how often the Sebring was mentioned. I never drove one but that must be one hell of a shitbox.
Depends on the generation. The ones designed during Chrysler’s independent period are fairly good. The Daimler Sebrings are terrible. The 200’s are actually decent cars.
A Chevy Aveo I had last summer. Brought it back next day and upgraded (?) to a Corolla. Which was great.
I also had a GMC Envoy about 8 years ago. I couldn’t believe how ponderous and hard to maintain it was on the road. Made my Trooper look like a slot car.
Had an Impala last week – that was pretty good……
We had a Pontiac Montana SV6 as a rental a few years back while our Mazda MPV was being repaired after some idiot backed into it and damaged it.
It was larger than the MPV, but it was noisy, uncomfortable, and harder on fuel. The check engine light was on, along with the ABS light and various other ailments. The fact that it was 5 years newer than our van didn’t seem to matter.
If that’s the worst one, I guess I’ve been lucky.
2006 Nissan Tiida absolute rubbish uncomfotable numb steering and zero roadholding I thought I was in a JDM shitbox but no it was a local market edition just a seriously bad car, Best rental were the conventional freightliners we used to get as replacement tractor units only C12s but they gear em right.
In 08 I rented a 08 dodge 1500 crew cab to get started on a scrap salvedge deal a friend and I had lucked into. The truck was new with maybe 100km on the clock. We immediataly hooked our equipment trailerto its hitch all the while remembering the counter assistants chants about not being able to thow with an enterprise truck, it had a reciever on it, which in my mind ment it was able tow. Over the course of two weeks I put on some 8500km and worked that thing 16 to 22 hours each day. On the last day one of my friends was eating a donair in the back seat and dropped it on the seat, not wanting to wreck the seat with the very sticky sauce he quickly swept it to the floor. buy the time we got to clean the mess up the sauce spot on the seat was nearly black and very nasty looking, we got what we could out cleaned the interior and checked the underside of the truck to see if their was any damage, the left leaf spring was slightly bent and aluminum wheel had a deep scratch but that was it. The tailgate and around the tail lights where pretty beat up and looked as if the truck was probably five years older than it was. Luckily the red paint was easy to match and we did so with fingernail polish, a little black paint on the reciever and we crossed our fingers and turned it in, I never got a call or a charge from them so we must have done an acceptable amount of damage or an acceptable job at covering it….
Oh my worst rental was a 99 sunfire, for most of the reasons listed above. The most amusing rental was one my uncle had gotten after his nissan quarter ton was t-boned. . It was a 85 pontiac grand prix in that puke green colour with maroon interior. The car was minty clean inside and out and showed about 85k km everything worked including the ac. I bought him a fuzzy purple hat and stuck a yellow feather on it which he refused to wear so I stuck it on the back dash. You would not believe how many thumbs up and honks we got for those two weeks. I forgot to mention this was in 01 or so. I woundered at the time how rent a wreck came to have a mint 85 grand prix that was obviously well loved by it previous owner.
We service a Rent-A-Wreck location. They used to rent mostly off lease LeSabres and Park Avenues. Now they lease mostly Lacrosse, Town Car, and assorted other near luxury vehicles (but not Cadillac, Lexus, etc.) presumably they buy them cheap off lease from the auction and we keep them running well. They have an eclectic clientele mostly locals that need a car temporarily that want something other than the usual airport fare. A 4 year old Town Car with 50K is not a bad experience…
I would take that Grand Prix any day.
It’s been great to hear all of your rental stories! (I have read them all):
As I’ve stated, Impalas are probably my least favorite rental car. Among other bad ones: 2001 Kia Sephia, 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer, 2003 Chrysler Sebring sedan, 2004 Jeep Liberty, 2005 Kia Rio5, 2007 Kia Sedona, 2009 Toyota Corolla, 2009 Ford Focus, and 2010 Sebring sedan.
The best rental I’ve ever experienced was a 2006 Mazda 6. It didn’t feel at all like a rental, and it had really nice suede-like microfiber seats. Some of the other good ones have included: 1998 GMC Jimmy, 1998 Oldsmobile Alero, 2002 Ford Taurus, 2007 Honda Accord, 2008 Pontiac G6 GT, and a 2012 Honda Civic.
Most of the rentals I’ve had here in NZ have been mid-spec cars with the usual power features and a/c. Ford Focuses and Mondeos usually, although there was a lovely black VZ Holden Commodore wagon once. Most were from Avis, all were clean and tidy. The only one I hated was a 2007ish Toyota Corolla hatch in 2008. It was clean and tidy etc, but simply the most horrible car to drive. Noisy, uncomfortable, anti-ergonomic handbrake, rattled and shook over bumps, lousy interior plastics. I tolerated it for a couple of days then returned it and requested something – anything – else. The 2007 Mondeo I got instead was a revelation – smooth, quite and very plush-riding. So the worst rental car I had was due to a horrible (but clean and tidy) car, rather than the experience itself!
Worst was a 05 or so Camry Auto gutless appliance is being nice,
2nd worst was a 10 Vauxhall/Opel Camry sized 6speed diesel in Europe it was thirsty and I continually stalled it.
Best 09 or so Australian Fairlane(last of them)well worth the extra $20 a day over a Horrible Hundy full of Broughamy goodness,
Second favourites various 1litre and 1.3litre 2 and 4wd Suzuki Sierras in Bali etc flat out at 60mph coldest aircon ever no heater great fun ;o)
For me, the absolute WORST rental cars I have ever had were EVERY SINGLE TEMPO/TOPAZ rented at the Grand Rapids airport in the 1990’s. Horrible in every sense of the word. Nothing else is in the same ballpark or even near it!
The worst rental I ever had the misfortune of renting was a 1990 Ford Tempo from Budget at Houston Intercontinential in March , 1990. We had reserved a Toyota Corolla beforehand. Once we got to the counter it was the classic “We don’t have it'” story followed by “How about this Tempo?”. “Okayfine-I can survive one” I thought. We get to the car, a black Tempo covered with dust, overspray, and some sort of tree pitch.. Ihad a bad feeling. I get inside and immediately get a whiff of hot, humid interior odor that smelled like a combination of cat pee and stale Cap’n Crunch. Great-this is gonna be fun. We get in I key in the ignition and the mouse belts (ahh-primitive passive restraints) clatter & wheeze up the pillars, clunking in place. The engine idles like a coffee can full of rocks. Luckily, everything kinda worked-the a/c would puff out the occasional blast of cold air and the car would go when in gear. Gutless as all get-out,handled like a wet sponge, and not very comfortable. Bad car-I think it was assembled on a Friday before quitting time.
Even though I had already commented, after reading all 121 post I have to throw in a few observations on cars people mentioned, that didn’t come to mind at first:
– Chrysler Sebring: I drove a colleague’s rental 4 door (pretty recent, maybe 2010 or even 2011) after she felt, hmm … unqualified to drive. As I recall I drove it for about an hour in the city and freeway. It was a positive experience in pretty much every way. I really liked teh dash layout and controls.
– Chrysler 300 V6: rented one to drive from Chicago to northern Wisconsin after all flights were cancelled due to weather. It was an upgrade – compact rate plus one free day) after Budget failed to open on time and we waited for an hour at the front door. It was a pretty basic version (single tail pipe) but was roomy, comfortable, got 27 mpg (which seemed amazing to me for a “big” American car) and handled snowy roads with aplomb, at least for this California driver used to AWD. Harsh ride on (in?) Chicago potholes.
– Late model Camry (2012): I drove my sister’s rental about 2 miles. Not bad, but really nothing special, and pretty poor control usability (AC, radio), touchy throttle etc. This was a year or two after driving the two Chryslers with nothing but my own cars in-between, but honestly the Chryslers felt nicer.
– 2011 or 2012 Impala, base model, not an LT or LTZ: my most recent rental. Hated it at first, but after driving it quite a few miles in rural Virginia, including Skyline Drive, I grew to appreciate its comfort, roominess, power, and again, fuel economy. Dislikes: PRNDL indicator only on the dash despite having a floor shifter. I know this is how it was (well, on the column actually) in the column shift days, but why put it on the dash with a floor shifter? If the steering wheel isn’t straight when you parked, you can’t see the indicator when it’s blocked by the spokes. Also, I don’t recall how many gear positions it had, but not enough for driving in the mountains with such a tall geared car … I assume it’s a low tech 4 speed but IIRC it had only D, 3 and L positions and no “OD” button, like older 4 speeds had. I don’t drive many automatics … maybe this is common now. The Escape I had on the big island of Hawaii a few years ago had the adaptive trans which downshifted on downgrades; that worked very well.
“Better late than never!” as the old saying goes…
The worst car rental I had by a near infinite order of magnitude was a 1993 HyundaI Sonata.
I received this car after a drunk Greek fellow in a meat truck decided to redesign the exterior of my Toyota Celica. That Toyota got totaled, and between my old Celica and a new Camry I would keep for 240k miles, I wound up with what I then called the “Korean sickness”.
Everything was just plain terrible on this car. Loose steering. Numerous plastic pieces broken and inexplicably stored in the glovebox. Brakes that at times seemed to mere suggestions in the hellish rush that was Atlanta traffic. I remember that I wouldn’t even take it out on mid-day because the A/C would never get cool in the thing. Atlanta in July and August is quite a hard environment on A/C systems and the one in the Sonata simply couldn’t cut it.
About a month later I got tired of dealing with all the issues and found another agency that had a Pontiac Bonneville. Those were great cars when they were new, and although I have rented better vehicles, that one stands out as a penthouse offering compared with the Sonata.
2006-2007 Pontiac Grand Prix with the weed baggie stashed in the center console, got a discount from Enterprise since they obviously didn’t clean the car.
1990 or so Chevy Corsica-huge turd
SO many others its hard to remember all the early 90s sunbirds/chevy cavalier.
Who could ever forget the Kia Rondo that enterprise punished me with calling it a full sized car.
A ’94 Dodge Shadow in 1995, when they were already dropped. I asked for a newer Neon parked in lot and was told “Oh that will cost more it’s a mid size!” Counter staff couldn’t care less that the Neon was the Shadow replacement.
Also, it was at its end of fleet life, stains in interior and scratches. I complained to corporate and got discount coupon mailed, but could only use it in California!
I had a 2004 or so Corolla years ago as a rental after my car was rear-ended that was miserable, not so much because of the car as because it was a base/stripper model – manual locks, manual windows, ect.
The worst vehicles, though, had to be while I was in college and drove vehicles from the school motor pool – I was on the debate team and one of the few people who had taken the test and was allowed to drive school cars/vans. Worst vehicle was a ’93 Caravan with a bad transmission – I was advised to not put it in reverse unless it had been warmed up. And I drove it from Baltimore to Connecticut and back.
The 2012 Corolla I rented last year was a huge disappointment, and tied with the 2012 Beetle for ‘Worst’ -and I was prepared to be Wowed by both.
Great thread! I’m late, but my most disappointing rental was a Charger in Hawaii a few years back. Looked so mean in the parking lot…black…big wheels…until I dropped the 2.7 (yes) V6 into gear and took off. Lame. Never mind the cheap, black hard cave of an interior. And the gunslit windows which impeded the views. Yukk.
If we’re opening the field to most “disappointing” rental cars, for me it would be the nearly-new (less than 10,000 miles) Hyundai Sonata Limited I rented during the 2007 Oshkosh air show.
Having followed Hyundai’s progress in reinventing the Sonata, I was actually pretty excited to get the green-on-tan, V6, sunroof, XM and leather-equipped ride for the drive out of Milwaukee and the long week ahead. That enthusiasm barely lasted past the turnoff from Airport Spur road.
The engine was loud and coarse without delivering the power you’d rightfully expect from 3.3 liters, the transmission jerked on each upshift, and there were rattles throughout — including a disconcerting squeak from the rear window that prompted one of my passengers to later observe that he could push against the upper edge of the glass enough to see sunlight coming through the gap.
Unfairly or not, that left a big impression about the long-term durability of Korean automobiles – one that weighed heavily on my decision to forego buying a new Optima when they came out in 2011.
How true, Enterprise jammed me with a charger to drive 12 hours in. I thought the 12 hours of no suspension and cheap plastic would do me in, until I realized that the cheap sandpaper material they covered the seats with had ground a hole through my clothes and rubbed my skin raw.
I never expected the Malibus and Impalas I rented would be notable or amazing, so I wasn’t disappointed by their office furniture blandness.
The two worst rental cars were thus the two biggest disappointments….Last summer, a Chrysler 300 I had used connections at Enterprise to get for a weekend trip proved to be a claustrophic interior (with gunslit window cave vibe described in the Charger above), terrible visibility backing up, a confusing dash, and just an overall unpleasant experience. I returned it vowing never to rent one again.
The second worst, back in early 2010, was simply a let down/sad because it revealed how far decontenting had gone and that the good days for RWD American landyachts were definitely over for good. Used the same Enterprise connection to get myself a new for 2010 Town Car. At the time I still had my 1987 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham (leather and loaded) as a comparison. With the exception of acceleration (because there’s no car made today that wouldn’t beat a stock 307-powered vehicle onto the freeway) the new Town Car vs. my 23 year old Clark Street Caddy was grossly inferior in build quality, leather quality, sound quality, ride quality, trunk space, visibility, engine noise, where to stop? I never knew firsthand what “decontenting” was until I drove that clearly decontented 2010 Town Car. I’m not sure if Ford had announced they were going to stop production of them at the time, but after I drove that one around for a day, I knew the end was coming soon, announcement or not. When I returned it, I felt wistful, knowing that I had ridden in my last new RWD yacht and that it had come down to what it was by then…for years I had told friends who said “what car would you buy if you had to buy a new car?” “Town Car, it’s the only big luxury car left”…after that weekend I knew even that wasn’t true anymore.
There is de-contenting and Fleet de-contenting and Ford was doing both in spades for the last Panthers starting in 05-06 or so. So you had a Retail, Fleet, and Livery version with the Fleet getting items to make it look good for resale but lacking the same level of sound insulation, sharing bushing and spring rates and all sorts of other cost cutting measures to maximize the profit on the rental car side. The first time Ford announced the end of the Panther was near was in like 05-06 with a kill date of the 08 model year IIRC. It then received at least 3 stays of execution. With each stay of execution there was more de-contenting. At the end the rental car spec versions were nothing more than the taxi spec with low grade leather, carpet, aluminum wheels and the badges from the former top of the line models.
That would be the 2009 Chevy Aveo5 we rented while living in the Berkeley hills. The fact that it was a narrow, tinny crapbox was obvious from appearance. What surprised me was how badly it handled, especially over those sinuous roads. The heavy, wooden-feeling steering juddered over bumps, sagged badly into dips and road crowns, and bleached out to oblivion when the car understeered. I’ve never had less fun driving such a small, light vehicle… though at least we’re now at a stage where that’s the worst of our problems, and not breakdowns.
Runner-up goes to the ’04 Sunfire coupe I rented in which the sun visor overlapped the rear view mirror. Flip it down to block out the sunset, and–clonk–your rearview is now pointed at your lap. Apparently they all did this.
Worst ever: Dodge Caliber. Was staying in Irvine but traveled up and over the toll road to Anaheim Hills every day for two weeks. What a piece of shat. 1, maybe 2 horsepower… 0 torques. What a utter pile of steaming dump.
Best… GMC Acadia. Camping trip to The Gorge (amphitheater in the middle of the Columbia River Gorge, George, WA) in 2012. Comfy, powerful, decent mileage and fit 4 peoples gear for 5 days with room to spare.
I actually liked the last Impala I rented from Enterprise while in Boston. The sheer girth of it made me feel a little safer driving amongst Boston’s lunatic drivers. No offense if you’re from there, I love the historic scenery…and Dunkin Donuts. The worst was, surprisingly, a Volkswagen. While I’d never buy one due to their storied electrical gremlins, I figured a small German car would be fun to drive. Wrong. It looked nice enough, but was scary slow. Maybe having a 5-speed might have made a difference, but my lawn tractor has more pick up than the automatic. It takes real balls to attempt a rush hour freeway entry in one of those things. Second worse rental: ’05 or ’06 Mitsubishi Lancer. It just felt like a tin can. I’d hate to get hit in one. The ’08 Lancer I drove in Puerto Rico on our honeymoon felt much more substantial.
Probably a 2008-ish Ford Focus. It was depressing just to sit in the cabin, surrounded by acres of the most dispiriting light grey plastic and fabrics ever made. In spite of looking comfortably large from the outside, the front passenger area felt like it was from a subcompact, with the console clearly in the way of the driver’s right leg. Topped off by a noisy, wheezy engine.
Second choice would be a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer – the most road noise I’ve ever experienced in any car.
The best would be a mid-2000’s Hyundai Sonata (4 cyl) and a late 2000’s Nissan Versa (hatchback – not sedan).
I have never rented a car at an airport before. I Don’t have a kind of job that causes me to do so, but I have rented 5 times in my life. There is a “neighborhood” Avis location about a 1.5 mile from my house and they seem to keep nice cars, clean, and better pricing than the airport. I rented a Chrysler 200 last year for a week before I got my Subaru and it was quite pleasant and only $181 for the week with tax. I usually request the cheapest and pay online through Avis gives me a discount and I usually end up with a least something better than bare minimum.
I rented a car once at Enterprise when I was 24 so I can be done. My sister and her husband rented a GMC Arcadia from that same location here last year it was like $250/wk and was fine.
A 1985 Chevette. There had to be something seriously wrong with the front suspension, it drove so badly. I tried checking the tire pressure, but it didn’t do any good. I was very afraid of that car.
Biggest Disappointment:
1. 2012 VW Beetle. Less rear view visibility than a Caliber (had to pull out the rear seat head restraints to see anything in the mirror). Uncivilized base engine. Poor (for its class) mileage. Loud. PS: the Caliber got better mileage.
2. 2012 Mazda 6. Thought I’d love it and it was actually ‘meh-minus-five’. Hard plastics, not a good mix of road feel versus harshness; too loud in the cabin.
Badly Wanted to Like It:
2012 Grand Cherokee -pretty, but it was ‘meh’. I still want to like it more than I did.
Liked It More Than I Wanted To:
2011 Chevy HHR (Enterprise was HHR/Caliber HQ) Everything -including the retro interior design- was better than expected. It grew on me and I hated it for that.
Total Surprise:
2012 Kia Sorento I drive an 8-year old BMW 3 series and I actually started pricing Sorentos when I turned that one back in. Interior space, design, materials (on a BASE vehicle) handling, feel -all of it surprised.
No! Get that dang HHR outta my mind. (It’s like a bad song stuck in your head.)
I can’t help but think that the REAL reason some of these cars were so bad to drive is that someone previously rented it and drove the snot out of it. Haven’t we all heard stories of people who deliberately did all kinds of stupid, crazy things to a rental car trying to cause it to break down in order to get another, better car? In at least some cases, perhaps even many cases, the fault lies not so much with the manufacturer, but with other renters. If you own any apartments and rent them out, you know exactly what I am talking about. Essentialy, there are people who show absolutely no respect to someone else’s property. People with or without kids or pets can thoroughly trash a brand-new apartment in under a year. You know, where big bucks have to be put into it to make it liveable when the a-hole renter moves out. And, I’m not even talking about people who are subsidized by the government! Someone who abuses a vehicle instead of merely driving a vehicle can have it nearly ruined in under 1K miles. Wouldn’t you agree?
I’ve rented a bunch of bad over the years from all of the major rental companies and a few of the smaller places too. There are a few that stand out in my mind. One was the Ford Aspire that I rented to drive from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC. That car was just awful. I knew I was renting the lowest cost car back in the day, but it was not good for a six hour ride between the two cities.
Most recently after my father in law passed last year, some friends went with us from Michigan to Tennessee to gather my mother in law’s belongings and move her into a care facility close to us. We rented a Buick LaCrosse. We got a Mercury Grand Marquis. It was a rental spec car, but I thought it would be comfortable. I was wrong, There were four of us in the car, we all took turns driving, which meant we all took turns in every seat of the car. We’re all different sizes and heights, but each of us hated the back seat cushion, as it seemed there was no padding and a bar that ran across the length of the seat halfway between the buttocks and knees of each person. We referred to it as the torture chamber!
You know it’s bad when the cube van we rented to move the MIL’s stuff had more comfortable seats than the Grand Marquis!
It’s not really that the car itself was bad, it performed admirably. The rental experience itself was totally normal. But that back seat! I hurt just thinking about it…
I guess “worst” is subjective to the driver. The worst experience I had wasn’t really with a passenger car, but with a U-Haul moving truck for a cross country move. Bald tires that worried me about their time left in this world from the onset, a valve tick from the beleagered V-8, and it needed to be floored just to accelerate at school bus speeds. Then, 1/3 of the way through the trip, the brake system failed (not all at once, fortunately) and required U-Haul to send a maintenance vehicle to the middle of “badlands” South Dakota…in the summer…to fix it. Overall, a poorly maintained, abused vehicle that wasn’t reliable. Which is ten times worse when all your worldly posessions are in the back.
As for a passenger car, it was “THE LOANER” I got from a Philly area VW dealer when I took my then nearly-new 1999 VW Golf in for yet another “check engine” light issue under warranty. They lent me a purple (I honestly didn’t know they painted them purple) early 90s VW Jetta that reminded me of many people’s “first car” in high school. The kind of car a 16 year old could afford, and then abuses terribly. I felt like a parent getting into their kid’s car for whatever reason and being shocked by the overall condition of it. How did you break the center console like that? Why does the stereo sound like it’s underwater? Why is the driver’s seat listing towards the door, forcing you to lean awkwardly? What is that smell? What is that NOISE? Why won’t it go faster than this? Why does it shake so violently when you stop? Why does it take so LONG to stop? GOD WHY?!
I had it for a day and it was, if nothing else, memorable. At least it didn’t cost me anything…the Golf was fixed under warranty and they didn’t even car about the gas I burned.
After that experience…ANYTHING I got for Enterprise, Hertz, whatever…was awesome. Oh, all you have is a 2008 Kia Rio with wind-up windows? Awesome! Because in the back of my mind, that old VW Jetta lurks, setting the bar so very low for a “rental” car that everything else becomes premium. Heck, the Rio drove straight, had no funny noises, and the A/C worked well during a heat wave in Raleigh, NC. I got where I needed to go and was cool the whole time. The stereo even had a USB input for my flash drive full of MP3s…something my personal car didn’t even have at the time, and it had an MSRP double that of the Rio. Sheesh.
No matter how bad the rental, the nice thing is…it’s a rental. You’ll be getting rid of it soon!
Waaaaaaaayyyyyyy back when… got stuck with what was probably the very first Tempo to arrive in Cleveland. It was a Thrifty rental, for the family ’81 Concord was in the body shop (for the bazilionth time…) Anyhoo, it was the most perfect shade of sh!t brown, that perfectly matched its driving dynamics (or lack thereof). the transmission mysteriously blew up ;D… the rat bastards replaced it with an equally repugnant blue one.
Worst rental car: a Mitsubishi Galant, somewhere around 1990. Only 18,000 miles on the car, but it was a rattletrap, and the tape player had a terrible flutter that made everything sound gargly.
Second-worst rental car: a small Pontiac of some sort, around 2005-2006. No personality whatsoever, hard black plastic all over the door panels; it fairly screamed “RENTAL CAR” and was just plain annoying.
Best rental car: a 2012 Hyundai Sonata. We liked nearly everything about it except the high belt line and the low passenger seat. We liked it well enough to consider buying one, but went for a 2009 Camry Hybrid (lower purchase price, better fuel mileage, plus my partner’s sister affirming Toyota reliability–her ’07 Camry Hybrid with over 120,000 miles and nothing but oil changes).
“These pretzels are making me thirsty”
I’m a bit late on this, but I’ve had a lot of crappy rental cars over the past few years… I could write a book about it, LOL. Anyways, here’s two that I can think of that I’ve had recently, one good and one bad:
Worst Rental Car: 2014 Ford Focus SE Sedan: Needed a car in a hurry while my car was undergoing mechanical repairs for a day. At 6 PM on a Tuesday, the Focus was all my local Avis/Budget location had (this was NOT a corporate location). They also had a Ford Explorer Limited, which I’d have preferred, but they wanted a crazy $120/day for it, so I took the Focus because it wasn’t worth paying $120/day just to rent a car for a single day. The car was nearly 2 years old and had nearly 40k miles on it. It smelled of cigarette smoke inside, and was pretty “bare bones” (had A/C, power windows and locks, a CD player, and Bluetooth, but that was pretty much it). The car had a strange mechanical issue where it would tend to stall out at normal speeds, so much that I was afraid to drive it a far distance… luckily I didn’t have to travel too far that day. Returned it and let Avis/Budget know about the issue, they said they’d “look into it” and “temporarily take the car out of service”, but I saw it on the road the next day, as they’d rented it to someone after me. The plus side: it was only $40 for the rental, though they did charge me 2 days, even though I only had it for 1 day, and wouldn’t refund any money for my inconvenience of having a rental car with mechanical issues.
Best Experience: 2016 GMC Terrain SLT V6 AWD: Took my car into the body shop for minor touch-ups and repairs. Reserved a Chrysler 300 (Premium Car) from my local Enterprise, and they told me I’d have to wait for a car when I got there, as the Chrysler 300 that they had was at the local Firestone getting its oil and filter changed. I chose to return an hour later since I didn’t want to wait in the crowded Enterprise office. When I came back to pick up the 300, a truckload of brand new rental cars had just arrived and was dropping off new rental cars. For my inconvenience, the Enterprise girl said that I could take a brand new GMC Terrain for the same price as the (older) 300. It still had the plastic wrap on the interior and around the window sills, and I was the first person to rent it. I drove it off of the Enterprise lot with a mere 2 miles on the odometer. I’d never been the first person to rent a specific car before, so this was a neat experience. It drove great, and I was sad to return it. The only downside was that, when I first drove it off of the Enterprise lot, the SiriusXM was working on all stations, but the next day when I went to get in it, it said the subscription had expired (Enterprise’s way of charging you extra for luxuries like SiriusXM). I must’ve put 500 miles on it during the week (Monday-Friday) that I had it, and loved it! The girl was surprised at how many miles the Terrain had on it when I returned it. I told her I have a long commute.
That’s the two most memorable experiences I can think of.