I’ve been on the flip side of this “opportunity”. Scotland. 2014. My first experience driving on the left side of the road. I was supposed to get a cute little Fiat like this (except the steering wheel would have been on the right, of course):
The rental agency informed me that they didn’t have one of those available right now so they had oh so kindly upgraded me to a Ford Focus:
Yeah thanks a shitload. With that little Fiat, who cares what side’s got the steering wheel? It would have been practically like driving a motorcycle. But now it feels like I’ve got 30 feet of Big Car off to my unfamiliar left and at risk of going off the road, you know?
I had a similar experience renting a car in Nashville. They assigned me a Dodge Avenger, which admittedly is a pretty cool-looking car.
But the panels between the rear-side windows and the rear window are HUGE. I had gigantic blind spots and every time I backed up it was terrifying, and even when changing lanes I was nervous. These days with backup cameras as a standard feature, that shouldn’t be as big of a deal, but this was probably 2008-2010. Such things weren’t around yet.
I got around okay but I never felt comfortable in that thing.
I’ve had similar try and be done to me. They try to upsell me from whatever class I rented to all of the higher levels, only wanting half the difference in price or whatever. I stick to it, and say no, I just want the compact. Then they say they’re out of the compact. “I don’t care what you give me, but I already pre-paid for the compact, and I’m not paying anymore.” Finally I end up in a much nicer car for the original price.
I don’t rent cars very often, so the fact that it’s happened to me multiple times suggests that it is pretty common.
Other times it is the opposite, and they don’t seem to care what I drive away in. “We’re out of compacts, so just take anything on the lot.” Of course those are the times when all that’s left are full size SUVs, and gas is $4.50/gallon.
I had two guys - must have been about 23 or so - show up to check in one night. They were active duty military -Air Force, I think; they wanted to know how far we were from Davis-Monthan AFB - and told me they got the last car at the rental car agency. A minivan! Before I could say anything they both broke out into huge grins and told me it was awesome! They loved everything about it.
I drive a minivan as my work vehicle and it is pretty awesome in its way. I have most of the seats folded down and it gives me a gigantic cargo space to haul equipment, and the vehicle itself drives pretty much like a car. The seats are also very adjustable and ergonomic.
Parking it can be a challenge at times, but otherwise it’s a pretty useful vehicle.
My car insurance company paid for a rental for me. They arranged all the details, and I got a ride to the car rental place.
There was a paperwork mixup and they did not have my car. I was pissed off. My ride was gone and I wanted a car. I ended up with a full sized van. It was like driving a bus.
The airport you flew into was in Arlington County too if you flew into DCA. Or Loudon County if you flew into IAD. Unless you flew to a military base, in which case I’d love to hear more.
Middle son and his new bride got caught up in the Southwest holiday cancellations but had to get back to Texas (Dallas) to then drive to their new jobs out east. Called around, and Enterprise had a car available! We drive them to the edge of the inner city location with its suspiciously empty parking lot.
They are third in line for any vehicle that might be turned in. Aside: eldest son worked for Enterprise for a bit in college. Per him, this is not uncommon, but this is not (always) Enterprises fault. Their lying reservation system says someone is supposed to be returning a vehicle, but for some reason they don’t. His assumption (and mine) is that there is somewhere around 0 to minus 5% slop in their system (much like Southwest, actually) and any break down/late return fucks the whole thing up.
At any rate, we ended up at another Enterprise location, where amazingly 5 mini-vans were returned 3 days early by FedEx (which had been using them for overflow holiday delivery). They were third in line, and got on their way only a couple of hours late.
My fight with Thrifty over a bogus $45 “detail charge” for cleaning a supposedly “super dirty” rental car I returned to them (it wasn’t) has ended with them grudgingly refunding the charge to my credit card. Apparently, mentioning my intention to file complaints with the FTC (which oversees car rental scams such as this) and the consumer protection division at the state attorney general’s office was a persuasive factor.
A general “beware” to potential car renters about such charges. Others besides Thrifty (and its parent company, Hertz) may be employing this sleazy tactic to boost profits.
I gather this is not the norm these days? Back when I did a lot of flying and renting in the 2000s, it was normal for me to get an upgrade when the compact (which is what I always reserved) was not available. This happened a lot — like half the time. And, yes, at SFO I once got a Mustang in lieu of a Ford Focus or whatever the cheapo option was.
In the early 80s I went a year and a half without a car. I lived walking distance to everywhere, including a bus stop. I would rent a car every other month, and had a friend who worked at the car place where I got my rentals.
She would always write up my reservation as a very specific cheap car that she knew they would not have. When I arrived to pick up my car, I always got a free upgrade. I was always nervous about the grift, but we were never caught.
Consistent with my experience as well. Best experience was when we got a Jeep Wrangler in Honolulu.
But my company automatically books a mid-size (which is bizarrely a Toyota Corolla, which at a car dealer is a compact). At BWI in 23 instances I was upgraded 18 times. Mostly to a Malibu or Impala, but once an Audi sedan.
Back when my car was new, the manufacturer would give out loaners or rentals when doing warranty work. I specifically scheduled some warranty paint work for a time we would be flying out of town, so I wouldn’t miss my own car.
After dropping off my car I went over to the rental place to pickup the loaner. I told the agent I was going to the airport the next day, and asked if I could drop the car off there, and then get another one when I returned from my trip. They said yes, I can always drop a car off at the airport, they love that, but even talking with the manager, and making a call to the airport manager they couldn’t figure out how to get me a new car on my return and have it still paid for by somebody else.
I appreciated them taking the time to investigate, and it was worth the trouble for the potential of avoiding $100 in airport parking. I did really enjoy the irony of having a corporation that can’t paint cars right the first time pay for a perfectly good rental car to be parked for a week a block away from the main airport rental location.
TL;DR: Made Elon Musk pay for a week of renting a car which I just left at the airport.
My wife and I were on vacation some years ago driving across South Dakota to visit the Black Hills when our car’s air conditioning failed. Luckily it wasn’t beastly hot that day, but it was supposed to be hot for our trip back home - so for my wife’s comfort we had the car go in to get the AC fixed in Rapid City. Of course we still wanted transportation to get around instead of sitting in our hotel room the entire next day, so the dealership directed us to a rental place they used.
Turned out the only vehicle they had available was a 15-passenger van, basically a mini-bus. Of course we took it …
We joked the next day that we should have turned ourselves into a tour company and hired out our bus to tourists while we provided running commentary on the sights of Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.
As a native Californian, I found it weird, too. It was odd when driving across country to cross more than two states a day. When I visited friends in Little Rhody, it was really discombobulating.
It was there as arranged, but I had a very bad moment on the plane – which was 2 hours behind schedule and would land later than the pickup time I’d arranged for the car – once they let us use our phones and join the WiFi network etc, I logged in to the rental site and opted to modify the reservation, hoping I could select a later pickup time. Web site tells me “that reservation has already been cancelled”
Couple of vacations ago I’d reserved a particular specialty car for a particular specialty occasion. This was a full week’s rental and not cheap. Naturally the flight was 2 hours late and there were … issues with the wi-fi & the rental agency’s website so I could not update the reservation from the plane.
I get to the rental agency counter and tell them “Sorry I’m late. Flight was delayed. Your website wasn’t working and I waited on hold for 30 minutes at your call center unanswered; finally had to hang up when the flight departed.”
They say “We rented your specialty car to somebody else; we thought you were a no-show so we nuked your reservation. And oh yeah, our company website has been a failing mess all day and the call center is totally jammed as a result. Sux to be you.”
I was … displeased. So they gave me what they had left for the same rate. Which turned out to be a better snazzier car. It wasn’t the convertible I’d reserved, but it turned out the weather was a bit cooler than planned and the convertible top would not have gotten much use anyhow.
I got lucky that all’s well that ends well, but being late for a reservation seems to be a red flag for rental agencies.
Thank goodness neither you nor I had to worry about the agency closing for the night before our delayed arrival.
