Why do hire car companies never have the vehicle you book?
Discussion
You are doing it wrong...
Ordered a 1.6 estate through work as a hire car and ended up with a brand new 520d M Sport with what seems like a s
t load of option extras I have decide to extend the hire for 6 weeks now...
Edit - This was through thrifty
Ordered a 1.6 estate through work as a hire car and ended up with a brand new 520d M Sport with what seems like a s
t load of option extras I have decide to extend the hire for 6 weeks now... Edit - This was through thrifty
Edited by greggy50 on Friday 29th May 00:01
davamer23 said:
I can't get my head around a 320d being the pinnacle of motoring.
It's not but if I'd wanted that then I'd have booked an F Type, 911 or similar for £300-400 per day. Sadly over 2 weeks hire and 2000 + miles that didn't stack up financially. The 320D is just a nice car to drive (RWD, manual, good engine, proper handbrake, well balanced) which is why I'd hoped I'd booked it - in fact it's the sole reason I booked with Thrifty in the first place, because I've had a 320 from them before and they seemed to have plenty of these for a reasonable cost, whereas other hire companies mostly appeared to have the usual bland Insignia's etc. Sadly this wasn't the case and as a result I've now got to drive 2,000 miles down some of the countries finest A roads in a car resembling a glorified Postman Pat's van, that handles like a hippo running round on a bouncy castle and whose steering is less communicative than the North Korean minister for public affairs!I frequently hire from Hertz at Dublin Airport and 9 times out of 10 get what I've booked. As a Gold Five Star customer I'm supposed to get an upgrade - but that does not seem to happen anywhere..... Still I get to pick up the car in about 30 seconds in Dublin - even better in USA - I generally get an email telling me what stall the car is where the keys are in and waiting.
Enterprise used to piss me off - could never get the same price between the website phone and their car groupings were not made to follow by mere mortals.
Enterprise used to piss me off - could never get the same price between the website phone and their car groupings were not made to follow by mere mortals.
f1nn said:
They're merely giving an example of the class of car...
They're merely giving an overinflated example of the class of car to extend their profits......I always end up with something s
t from hire car companies, I'm sure I suffer the odds more than most. And then they have the cheek to try it on with squeezing extras out of me every time.Personally can't complain about the service I get from the 2 different Enterprise branches I've dealt with. Only ever hired vans, but have always received the size I want. Their site is a little outdated as a small van (for e.g) is listed as a Transit Connect or Astra Van - neither of which are on their fleet anymore. But instead I got a Doblo & Caddy.
I just had to go to France for a week, and booked to collect a car at the airport from Budget/Avis (same company apparently) and my booking said BMW X1 - Small SUV Class... And of course "Or similar".
Well surprise surprise I got the "or similar" which turned out to be a brand new (49kms on the clock) Nissan Qashqai.
I was a little disappointed but after having it for a week I can honestly say I would absolutely buy one. I could not fault it one bit.
It had every toy known to man... Radar cruise control, lane departure, Leather, Nav, Bluetooth, emergency radar braking, speed limiter, automatic parking where it turns the wheel all by itself after looking for a gap, full length glass roof, auto everything such as lights, wipers, folding mirrors, you could change the settings for the steering and suspension... I kept finding new stuff every day.
The engine was brilliant, couldn't tell it was diesel, extremely comfortable, drove brilliant and stupidly economical.
I now realise why they sell so many Qashqai's now.
Well surprise surprise I got the "or similar" which turned out to be a brand new (49kms on the clock) Nissan Qashqai.
I was a little disappointed but after having it for a week I can honestly say I would absolutely buy one. I could not fault it one bit.
It had every toy known to man... Radar cruise control, lane departure, Leather, Nav, Bluetooth, emergency radar braking, speed limiter, automatic parking where it turns the wheel all by itself after looking for a gap, full length glass roof, auto everything such as lights, wipers, folding mirrors, you could change the settings for the steering and suspension... I kept finding new stuff every day.
The engine was brilliant, couldn't tell it was diesel, extremely comfortable, drove brilliant and stupidly economical.
I now realise why they sell so many Qashqai's now.
0a said:
Car hire companies are just ways of the car industry laundering excess new cars that they can't sell quietly into the nearly new or second hand market, with no costs for storage. Which is fine, but it still means you should get something from the class (or better should you agree).
When I worked for Enterprise 15 years ago, our branch profits were expressed in terms of the number of cars on our fleet. Where the monthly profit for the process of actually renting cars and selling insurance might be say £50 per car, we were making £200 per profit on the sales of the old fleet. It was a constant turnover and the demand was so high (from dealers and car supermarkets) that cars were generally sold at only a few months old.With regard to never getting the exact car you ordered, the mantra was 'Sell up, sell waiver, run tight' - meaning rinse as much as you could for upgrades and insurance and try to run as close to 100% occupancy as you could realistically get away with. IIRC 95% was the target.
What has happened to me abroad a few times is being fobbed off with the next class down to the one I wanted.
In Tunisia I booked a Focus with Avis.
He arrived and I asked whether it was a Focus.
"No sir, we only have Astra today"
"It is new car Sir, is better car Sir, is new"
I sign the paperwork and he says he must go as he is late and he tells me where to find the car.
I ask about checking for damage etc.
"No damage Sir; car is new ....I must go colleague waiting outside"
Off he rushes.
I go to look for the Astra and can't find it so I start too look at registration numbers instead and eventually find a scruffy Peugeot 206
In Tunisia I booked a Focus with Avis.
He arrived and I asked whether it was a Focus.
"No sir, we only have Astra today"
"It is new car Sir, is better car Sir, is new"
I sign the paperwork and he says he must go as he is late and he tells me where to find the car.
I ask about checking for damage etc.
"No damage Sir; car is new ....I must go colleague waiting outside"
Off he rushes.
I go to look for the Astra and can't find it so I start too look at registration numbers instead and eventually find a scruffy Peugeot 206
Well in my view its like going to a restaurant where everything on the menu has a label (or similar) next to it. I order the steak, only what arrives at the table when I'm hungry is lamb, with the excuse "sorry but we've had a run on steak tonight so we only have lamb available, but it is a more expensive dish".
Yes lamb is still meat, and its still food - it will fill you up in a purely functional sense but it's missed the point purely why I ordered the steak in the first place. Maybe I just don't like lamb? Well it wouldn't be acceptable would it?
Why can't these hire car companies at least more than 50% of the time have the vehicle you're expecting? The reason I ordered the BMW is that it was the perfect tool for the job (i.e. nice to drive, reasonably quick, fairly compact, looks nice, room for all our work kit, ideal). The Sharan is only one of those things and despite being technically an upgrade in the hire companies eyes, in our eyes it's a massive downgrade. But that's all they had so we could have kicked up a fuss all we liked but it would still have been either take it, or not get to where we needed to be.
Yes lamb is still meat, and its still food - it will fill you up in a purely functional sense but it's missed the point purely why I ordered the steak in the first place. Maybe I just don't like lamb? Well it wouldn't be acceptable would it?
Why can't these hire car companies at least more than 50% of the time have the vehicle you're expecting? The reason I ordered the BMW is that it was the perfect tool for the job (i.e. nice to drive, reasonably quick, fairly compact, looks nice, room for all our work kit, ideal). The Sharan is only one of those things and despite being technically an upgrade in the hire companies eyes, in our eyes it's a massive downgrade. But that's all they had so we could have kicked up a fuss all we liked but it would still have been either take it, or not get to where we needed to be.
Andy20vt said:
Well in my view its like going to a restaurant where everything on the menu has a label (or similar) next to it. I order the steak, only what arrives at the table when I'm hungry is lamb, with the excuse "sorry but we've had a run on steak tonight so we only have lamb available, but it is a more expensive dish".
You're right - but restaurants don't do that, do they?Andy20vt said:
Yes lamb is still meat, and its still food - it will fill you up in a purely functional sense but it's missed the point purely why I ordered the steak in the first place. Maybe I just don't like lamb? Well it wouldn't be acceptable would it?
It would be if they had the (or similar) next to it as you claimed they did.Andy20vt said:
Why can't these hire car companies at least more than 50% of the time have the vehicle you're expecting?
They can - but as others have observed, you'll need to be paying a premium for that - which is fine. I buy cars I like - I don't expect to get much choice when renting, and it seems I'm not alone, so there's no incentive to eat into margins just to satisfy a minority.Andy20vt said:
The reason I ordered the BMW is that it was the perfect tool for the job (i.e. nice to drive, reasonably quick, fairly compact, looks nice
I was with you up to that one, but anyway,Andy20vt said:
, room for all our work kit, ideal). The Sharan is only one of those things and despite being technically an upgrade in the hire companies eyes, in our eyes it's a massive downgrade. But that's all they had so we could have kicked up a fuss all we liked but it would still have been either take it, or not get to where we needed to be.
It's hardly the end of life as we know it, but next time, you need to book a premium service.I quite like the lottery of it, when I was doing frequent US trips I'd make a booking of the second crappest car knowing I'd get upgraded at the airport because they'd run out. As long a I had a booking of something, I was OK
Budget at SFO were actually quite good, for the same money as whatever I'd bought I was upgraded to a Mondeo thing, a Kia Sportage, a Crown Vic, an Explorer or Expedition (forget which but it was huge) and a Jeep. Only once have I ended up with what I hired, which was a Chevrolet Cruze. Very basic, driven at full throttle was quite fun. I did a lot of unnecessary U turns with the traction control off
I've also bought upgrades at the desk, it was about £50 to go from the Cruze (or similar) to a Mustang for a fortnight, only the V6 but was still fun
I quite like jumping in anything and driving it, but it was only me and a colleague who was there half the time, so I had pretty much free reign on where I was going/doing.
Budget at SFO were actually quite good, for the same money as whatever I'd bought I was upgraded to a Mondeo thing, a Kia Sportage, a Crown Vic, an Explorer or Expedition (forget which but it was huge) and a Jeep. Only once have I ended up with what I hired, which was a Chevrolet Cruze. Very basic, driven at full throttle was quite fun. I did a lot of unnecessary U turns with the traction control off
I've also bought upgrades at the desk, it was about £50 to go from the Cruze (or similar) to a Mustang for a fortnight, only the V6 but was still fun
I quite like jumping in anything and driving it, but it was only me and a colleague who was there half the time, so I had pretty much free reign on where I was going/doing.
Edited by andy-xr on Friday 29th May 10:23
It's a lottery alright. Once needed an Estate got sent a Sierra Saloon. "We'll swap it in Glasgow" no they didn't. Needed a S-Max to get to Southampton. Ended up with a Astra 3 door and a 206 Diesel Estate. Let them know what I thought of that one. Return leg was a 5008. No they are not as roomy as an S-MAX. In the states I usually upgrade to a Pony car now. Then had all sorts. Best was a Chrysler Concorde after waiting 30 Mins for a Neon when my In-laws had their car a Sebring saloon in 10 mins.
"Or similar", but in my experience the cars are never all that similar. I seem to win more than I lose though, visited a customer in Belgium, supposed to get a Polo, ended up getting an Opel Cascada (couldn't work out how to lower the roof though). Had a bump last December in my Juke, insurance was supposed to supply something like a 107/C1/Aygo from Enterprise, all they had was a fully kitted out brand new Avensis.
Andy20vt said:
Well in my view its like going to a restaurant where everything on the menu has a label (or similar) next to it. I order the steak, only what arrives at the table when I'm hungry is lamb, with the excuse "sorry but we've had a run on steak tonight so we only have lamb available, but it is a more expensive dish".
Haha, I could just imagine that happening to my girlfriend. She has never eaten lamb, because Lambs are "cute". Eats all other meat though! There'd hell!You could just enjoy yourself and the scenery rather than moaning about the car you've been given. If you'd turned up at a trackday expecting an M3 and had been given the keys to a 320d then fair enough, or if they had given you a Dacia Duster instead of the VW than again, fair enough, but you haven't. They've given you a car which will do the job perfectly well and is probably a nice car to drive anyway.
Sounds a bit first world problem to me.
Sounds a bit first world problem to me.
Its a bit of a surprise first time it happens, but once you work the system out it makes sense in my opinion.
Worked in my favour though. I fairly recently had an accident, car went in for repair. Insurance company asked me very specific questions about what I needed for the hire car, culminating in if I would be happy with a 1.6 petrol focus.
Turn up, focus had turned into an Astra (fair enough), diesel...ok its only a few days. Bloke on the desk tells me its the 1.7 cdti. Meh.
Paperwork done, Jump I the car and head home via a duel carriage, foot hard town the 3rd, and I am very impressed with the rate this thing picks up, I mean genuinely shocked, new cars have really moved on from my 12 year old crapbox!
Parked on my drive, I notice bi-turbo badge
...195bhp! Explains a bit!
Worked in my favour though. I fairly recently had an accident, car went in for repair. Insurance company asked me very specific questions about what I needed for the hire car, culminating in if I would be happy with a 1.6 petrol focus.
Turn up, focus had turned into an Astra (fair enough), diesel...ok its only a few days. Bloke on the desk tells me its the 1.7 cdti. Meh.
Paperwork done, Jump I the car and head home via a duel carriage, foot hard town the 3rd, and I am very impressed with the rate this thing picks up, I mean genuinely shocked, new cars have really moved on from my 12 year old crapbox!
Parked on my drive, I notice bi-turbo badge
...195bhp! Explains a bit!Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff