Seems like I always have issues with car rentals. Last time I didn’t fill it up properly when I returned it and went over a toll bridge unexpectedly. Both times I paid more than I otherwise would have had I paid better attention or had I been better informed of the rules.
This time I got a mid-size car via HotWire. They don’t tell you exactly what you are renting or even who you are renting from until you have already accepted and paid (no refunds) for the car.
As soon as I picked up the car at Hertz I thought that it was a little small but I’m no expert, I don’t drive smaller cars and for all I knew it was the mid-size car I paid for. It was a Chevy Sonic which is classified as a compact as best I can tell.
Keep in mind…this car was paid for and no refunds was made quite clear. I didn’t walk up to the counter to shop for and negotiate the terms of a car rental. They were obligated to give me what I had already paid for.
Thursday night I went to their website and sent a complaint email… I haven’t heard anything back yet.
When I dropped the car off Sunday, I had enough time to talk to the manager who was real nice about it but said he couldn’t issue any kind of refund if he had wanted to since I didn’t pay them anything there at the counter. He did give me a 10% off certificate for my next rental but that has little value to me and I’d like to be compensated for their failure on this rental.
I have never found the bargain/brokering/special deal services worth dealing with, in the end. Especially when it’s a pig-in-a-poke, closed, no-recourse deal like yours.
Here’s my car-renting secret: Check Dollar and Enterprise at your rental destination, and be sure to check all the way through to the final price. One of them will be in the bottom 10% of the price spectrum, no further need to shop. The other will be mid to upper tier.
HOWEVER… it’s gotten increasingly common for the pricing to be very deceptive. After I booked a car for a recent trip, I got a followup from Southwest for a super-special-wonder deal from Hertz, I think it was. The stated price was just a bit below what I’d booked, so I followed through… and that was before all taxes and fees, which added more than $40 to the total. (My original was something like $163 for three days; the offer was $159; the total on the latter was over $200. Some special deal.)
I doubt you’ll see any satisfaction through Hertz. They provided with Hotwire had paid them for - they’re going to refer you back to the people that you paid. I’ve had no experience with Hotwire, but personally I’d chalk this up to “Buyer Beware” and never do business with them again.
Just to be clear (because I’m not) your complaint is that you asked for a midsized and got a compact, correct?
I’d call Hotwire and complain. Beforehand I’d find the difference between the two vehicles and ask for a bit more (another 20-30 dollars).
Looking online, Edmunds and CarAndDriver call it SubCompact. Talk nicely, tell them there was ‘a mistake at Hertz and you got the wrong car. I assumed I’d get a Malibu or Impala or at least a Cruze, but this car was really small’ and see where that gets you. If nothing, then email them and include Edmunds/CarAndDriver/Wiki links classifying it as SubCompact.
After that, dispute the charge with your credit card and you’ll probably get the whole thing back. You might even just do that after you talk to them on the phone.
It’s quite likely that Hertz had a bunch of subcompacts on the lot and few mid-size, so figuring it was a Hotwire deal, they tried tossing you into a sub to see if yo’d complain. That’s happened to me more than once (reserved a full-size and they tried to give me an Altima), and that was going through the rental company directly. So yeah, try to find the cost difference between a sub and a mid-size for that location & comparable dates, tell Hotwire you didn’t get the car you reserved and request they refund the difference.
I’ve had the reverse happen more often - book a midsize, get there, have them try to upsell me to a full-size, luxury, specialty, whatever… and when I decline, it turns out that’s the only vehicle available. I’ve driven one or two very luxe vehicles (in the Continental mode) for a base rental amount. Got a convertible Mustang GT once, too.
In my experience, the car rental places’ sizing scheme is about one notch off the one the rest of the automotive world uses. They don’t have a “subcompact” range, so if you opt for “compact” you’re going to get something like a Fiesta, a Versa, a Spark or something else that most people would call a subcompact. Then what are normally called compacts like the Focus, Civic, Sentra, and the Sonic get called mid-sized, while things like the Accord, Altima, Malibu, etc get called “full-size.” Some extra epithet like “premium” or “special” gets made up for cars that normally would be called full-size like the Crown Vic or Impala.
In defense of the rental companies, I think it’s really more just that cars have been getting bigger and bigger within their segments than those sneaky rental companies trying to rent smaller cars. Try parking a 2014 Civic next to a 1994 Civic sometime and consider that both were called compacts when they were first sold. There are EPA size classes now that are supposed to standardize these things, but the marketing department often has other ideas.
What I have found works well to get an upgrade is at the counter when they start to list the available cars just smile and say “four wheels and a radio”
If the rental agent has had a run of super picky " I can’t drive that because_______"
They will gladly upgrade you for being nice.
I recently had a charge on my credit card that was significantly different than the one on the rental agreement. I both sent it in to the company (Avis) AND disputed it through my credit card.
The credit card refunded right away, and in the meantime Avis finally kicked in their refund, so the credit card company reversed the reversal. In the end, it all worked out, so I would suggest something similar.
Just for kicks, I did that (I don’t care either way, I was just curious)
1994 Civic Sedan EX 173 long, 51.7 High
2014 Civic Sedan EX 179.4 long, 56.5 High.
It is bigger, not a whole lot, but it 5 to 6 inches in longer and higher, the wheel base is about 2 inches longer on the 2014 model as well. The only thing I’d point out, though, is that the 2014 Civic looks very small with that sqautty hood. I drove a 2012(?) Civic Coupe for a few years and while it’s perfectly roomy inside, it looks like a tiny car from the outside. The older models didn’t look that small.
I don’t understand why you didn’t say something as soon as you saw the car they gave you.
That would have been the time to handle the situation, not after you accepted the car used and returned it.
I don’t think disputing the charge is the proper thing to do in the OP’s situation. The OP accepted and used the lower tier car. Ideally he/she should have brought it up with Hertz at the time of pickup. The best course of action at this point is to take it up with Hotwire but I’d wager that they have themselves pretty well covered in their fine print and at most will only offer a token compensation similar to what was received from Hertz. Honestly, I’d chalk this one up to experience.
In my experience, Hertz doesn’t even look at its own reservations when giving you a car. The last time I was there, having booked online in advance, they were asking me what I’d booked and then told me the price was about twice what I’d been quoted online.
I whipped out my phone, showed him the confirmation email with the quote price and he gave it to me (and a discount), but I had to ask. I get the impression that the desk guy has quite a bit of leeway with the price.
[QUOTE=Amateur Barbarian]
I’ve had the reverse happen more often - book a midsize, get there, have them try to upsell me to a full-size, luxury, specialty, whatever… and when I decline, it turns out that’s the only vehicle available. I’ve driven one or two very luxe vehicles (in the Continental mode) for a base rental amount. Got a convertible Mustang GT once, too.
[/QUOTE]
I get that routinely too. They take for granted that anyone who wants a small car will take a bigger car for the same rate without complaint, so they don’t put too much effort into keeping an ample supply of small cars around. Not upgrading is like buying a lottery ticket for a bigger car that pays of 50% of the time.
Well, on the other hand, a few years back I needed to rent a pickup truck to move some furniture. The local Ford dealer took my reservation, but when I got there, all they had left was an F-250 with a 460… which got about 7 MPG. The guy was so embarrassed that he told me not to worry about the gas level - just don’t bring it back dead empty. I drove about a 150-mile loop, which took most of the tank. I’d have been pissed if I’d had to put some 25 gallons in on top of the rental…
Looking at theHertz website, it appears they class the Chevy Malibu and Impala (along with the four-door Nissan Altima) as “full-size”; the two-door Altima as “standard”; Toyota Corolla as “intermediate”; Ford Focus as “compact”; and Kia Rio as “economy.”
In a world where a Corolla is considered “intermediate” anything is possible. And the Sonic interior measures juuuuuuust a little bigger than a Focus and juuuuuuust a little smaller than a Corolla. So, who knows.
They’re completely arbitrary. Here are the EPA classifications:
Minicompact Under 85 cubic feet
Subcompact 85 to 99 cubic feet
Compact 100 to 109 cubic feet
Midsize 110 to 119 cubic feet
Large 120 or more cubic feet
Based on the EPA, the Corolla, Focus and Sonic all class as “subcompact.” Even the Malibu barely makes it into the “compact” class.
