Cars We Drive!

it was simply an illustrative example

For the Ferrari / Corvette analogy to be correct the tie should have been used plastic underwear.



HRoi said:

Presumably he got billed for a Corvette, eventually. The quote I got for the California from Hertz was 1500 a day...the Corvette is less than 200/day

Click to expand...

I'm sure they did- if rentors have a lot of stock on hand- they'll almost always upgrade you for nuthin... if they have little on hand you'll pay the premium, no negotiating.

I mentioned this pro tip before but the secret is to reserve a lesser car and then when you show up at the destination airport, ask what kind of upgrades you can have. If you're somewhat flexible, you can rent a luxury car for a fraction of what you would have paid because they'd rather get a bit of extra revenue rather than let the cars sit there.

Of course, you can't go in there thinking you absolutely have to have a specific car, but with a little flexibility, and the understanding that you won't always get to upgrade, you'll usually be able to score something.

I do this everytime I rent with Hertz - always rent the intermediate car and this year I've gotten a CTS, Mustang GT, Corvette, Benz E350 and C300, Boxster and various Explorers and SUV's. Sometimes for $20 a day more than my reservation price. The boxster and corvette were a lot more , but not more than $100 a day over my original rate

Heck, it is a struggle to even get them to agree to guarantee a certain make of car.

I worked for a guy in advertising, and had a very tough time getting someone at LAX to promise the availability of a Ford when I was arranging his travel for a Ford shoot.

But I also understand that all car rentals are essentially open ended contracts.

You could bring that car back in a week or a month...and you could drop it off at any location in the country. Pretty hard to guarantee a certain car will be present at a specific location on a certain date.

otc said:

But I also understand that all car rentals are essentially open ended contracts.

You could bring that car back in a week or a month...and you could drop it off at any location in the country. Pretty hard to guarantee a certain car will be present at a specific location on a certain date.

Click to expand...

Sort of, but not really.

I worker for the Big E a few years ago and each Group owns its set of cars. Thus a car rented in Washington could not be returned to a branch in California. Also, the contracts are only good for 30 days, so even the longest term renters had to come back every 30 days and sign a new contract. This allowed us to keep up on maintenance and also to keep some semblance of control over the car/renter.

As for getting a specific car, well, it's almost impossible. I can't speak for Hertz, but ERAC had cars from just about ever car company that sells in the US. Thus a typical fleet of 100+ cars had a ton of Hyundai's, Chevy's, Toyota's, etc. Having a variety is good, but that means there are less of each car in the fleet mix making it really really hard to get a certain brand. The good managers could make it work, especially if we were used to catering to dealerships that required specific makes, but its not really something an airport manger has much concern about.

Also, HRoi is correct about reserving a cheap car and then upgrading to a more expensive one. The agents at the front desk are incentivized to "upsell" as much as possible. I don't know how everyone does it but when I worked at SeaTac we would get Best Buy gift cards based on our overall performance. So if you walked in with a full size car rez at $50/day and asked about a luxury car upgrade, I'd throw you a deal for an additional $25/day (or something like that, basically whatever you would agree to) even though that luxury car would normally be $100/day. At the time, we had a whole pile of Town Car's that no one ever wanted so we'd basically give them away for peanuts. But it was still worth it for the customer because they'd otherwise be getting a Corolla or Taurus or something crappy.

Also, the damage waiver isn't insurance. I've seen people total cars and walk away without paying a dime (aside from the DW charge). Can't say I'd recommend it for a long rental, because it can really add up, but if you're only renting for a day or two it's not a bad idea to throw it on there assuming its less than $20.

Shot locally... 2.5m+ in exotics, yet still can't park between the lines.

Cary Grant said:

I reserved a full-sized SUV in LA as I needed room for luggage and 6 passengers... they had a RAV 4 waiting for me

Click to expand...

The first time I went to Denver I reserved a midsize SUV from Enterprise through Expedia and expected to get a RAV 4 or a Jeep Liberty or some crap like that. They gave me a newly redesigned (back then) Dodge Durango Limited. Employee let me know they didn't carry any small or midsize SUVs at that location (airport) so the upgrade was free so of course I kept making the same reservation. Everytime I went the same thing happened except twice they were out of Durangos and gave me Escalades.

Rumpelstiltskin said:

The first time I went to Denver I reserved a midsize SUV from Enterprise through Expedia and expected to get a RAV 4 or a Jeep Liberty or some crap like that. They gave me a newly redesigned (back then) Dodge Durango Limited. Employee let me know they didn't carry any small or midsize SUVs at that location (airport) so the upgrade was free so of course I kept making the same reservation. Everytime I went the same thing happened except twice they were out of Durangos and gave me Escalades.

Click to expand...

The fleet mix was always interesting. There's a saying that rental car companies have, "we rent cars so we can sell them." Basically, the group that buys the cars tries to forecast what will sell easily 6-12 months down the road. We'd get everything from 2wd 2-door long box work truck in the middle of December (Hey, we can flip these suckers easy in May!) to the repurposed Avis Camry's (yeah, we bought cars from other rental agencies). Every once in a while you'd see a fully optioned out Corolla or Taurus w/leather, etc and wonder how they expected to sell that thing after its been through the rental ringer.

anyone here drive electric cars? opinion? love/hate? (is there an electric car thread?)

I'm getting a little tired of my MPG's on my E39 M5.

deciding whether to keep and buy a leaf or something comparable or to just sell it and get something else fun and smaller.

The luxo-electric thing cropped up today in a discussion with my father. The allure of ~£0 tax is making him consider, but there is a bit of a lack of options at the A6, 5 Series & E Class level. One of two super-barges and tonnes of compacts, but for someone who does 40,000 miles per year, nothing very attractive.

Didn't merc release an e class diesel hybrid?

They did, and it is the only real contender.

Audi have their A6 hybrid and BMW have a 5 Series, but the trouble is they are only better emissions than a high end petrol engine. If you already have a 2.0TDI, then you're getting better CO2/M than the new hybrid.

They make sense if you're swapping from a 3ltr Petrol engine, but if you already drive diesels (as my father does) then they are no better, but with an extra £10,000 price tag.

The Merc actually gets figures that make it a more economical option, but not by enough to justify another ten thousand.

Are hybrids still exempt from congestion charge, if so then there's a lot of money to be saved right there.