Travel annoyances- the car rental Hell

The rental car's I have had was after an accident waiting to get mine back from the body shop. Maybe with the insurance setting it up is different.

Only once did I rent a car for vacation that I picked up at the local airport for a week. My then car was older & we weren't comfortable leaving the area with it. My experience was almost like that, but I ended up with a bigger car at the lower rate I had been quoted. So I guess I lucked out.
 
On the whole, we had great experiences with dozens of car rentals. We usually reserve lower priced cars, and many times we were given free upgrades because what we had reserved was no longer available. Here are some of the few mishaps we did have:
-- We recently returned a Hertz rental car, and I made sure to obtain in writing that we returned it undamaged and with a full tank. Then there was a $80 funny charge on our credit card. Calling, I was told it was for filling up the car. When I stated I have in writing that we returned the car with a full tank, then they quickly reversed the charge.
-- Somewhere, having driven only 10 miles, the gas tank was already 1/4 empty, LOL.
-- Likewise, we had reserved an AVIS car and were given a car where the driver's door didn't open. After some haggling, they gave us a better car.
-- At one airport our reserved car was unavailable, so they wanted to give us a limo. No way, uses too much gas and difficult to park. After some arguing, we got a perfect deal,
-- We carry only 3rd party insurance at home and are self-insured for the rest that usually would cover rental cars. I only had once a minor accident with a rental car, so VISA paid for the damage to the rental car.
-- When we once returned a mobile home, another family was crying. Their travel agent had told them to rent a mobile home upon arrival, but none was available. I felt sorry for them because their dream vacation was in ruins.
-- Perhaps I don't remember everything. But for sure, we never had a really bad experience.
 
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The car rental companies are more than making up for the slow Covid travel times when folks weren’t travelling. My DD has paid a small fortune for her last three rentals here. The companies are short of cars to even rent out; there were few for them to buy to replace their fleets. The customers are making up for it.
 
911 said:
I liked that episode. My only complaint with rental cars is how expensive they have become. I used to get a 4 day rental in Florida for about $100. Now it's all but twice that much.
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Yes, I have noticed how expensive car rentals have become. Like everything else. prices have really gone up the past 2-3 years.
 
I've rented cars a lot during my military travels and only had a couple of small
inconveniences.
Companies we rented from always fixed any problems.

Car rental to me, fills a niche and provides a service when you need transportation.
I will admit I rented a high-end performance car once just as a kind of a test drive.
It was a fun weekend, drove about a 100 miles and flew down the hiway with the top down.

I just checked prices and found they are not that far out of line.
I'm glad there are still enough companies so cars are still easy to come by, if the need arises.
 
I rented a Penske truck once to take some equipment from one state to another state and return the truck back to Penske in that state. I think they charged the government over $300 to drop the truck off at a different state. I thought that was kind of exorbitant.
 
I reserved a full size SUV in Denver for a week through Budget and when I picked it up at the airport, I was told they dudn’t have my vehicle so I could either take the next size down and get a refund or they would upgrade me to a full size luxury car at no extra charge, but I needed an SUV for hauling some boxes. The smaller SUV was too small, but I took it anyway and made everything fit.
 
I have rented cars in Europe and here in Canada from "Enterprise." I always got my insurance from CAA, took my own GPS and I have to admit that I never had any trouble at all.

As for renting "from the other guys" I can't help you there. Guess I'm an "Enterprise" sort of guy!
 
The rental agent will never be that pretty or charming. The opposite, abrupt and brief. I have rented cars from all the
companies multiple times and they always have a car, but maybe not the one you want. They often upgrade the car
at no extra charge. They never run out of cars-- but there's a lack of agents and never answer the phone!
In Miami I got a Ford Mustang convertible just for asking, no extra fee, but it was noisy.
 
The worst for me was picking up a car in Idaho Falls, ID to drive from there to Boise in the winter. The Snake River Valley frequently has inversions w low hanging fog banks at cold temps, like 10F. The idiots had filled the washer fluid reservoir w plain water so it was a pretty miserable, slow trip as the water would freeze instantly on the windshield. The defroster just couldn't keep up. Fortunately for them and me it was a one way so I didn't get to complain to the party responsible.
 
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After I first got married we didn't have a car. If we went out of town to see relatives, we went to a place called "Rent a Wreck" which rented serviceable older cars. Nothing fancy, clean, they didn't pick you up or give a pedicure, but they were on the bus route.
 
I’m flying down to Florida on Monday and coming home on Tuesday. I rented a pickup truck for the day for $56. If I would have rented a Chevy Malibu, it was only $10 less.
 

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