What's the best holiday hire car you've had?

[MaxA]

The best rental in recent years was probably the massive Ford Falcon XR6 we rented in Australia. It came in bright purple and was instantly christened the Purple Nurple. Just the right car for the job, and would do massive burnouts just getting out of the underground hotel car park in Sydney.

Most rental metal from the US and Europe has been crap, but a couple stand out: the non 4x4 Volvo XC60 (I'm glad I realised in time, although it was far too late to take it back), the Subaru Forester that we used to pull my friends ridiculous Merc E300 out of ditches every 20 minutes, and the new Camaro we rented in San Francisco - it wasn't 300bhp but it was tough. And the classic 'rent a wreck' Ford Escort we rented in Flagstaff Arizona with launch control (if you turned off the a/c, you could release a huge pile of extra hp for an overtake!).

[Kedlestone]

Delivery mileage (3 miles) Jag F-Type R from Thrifty. Technically was not abroad but was hired for a break in the UK. To say I didn't want to give it back was a understanment, brutally fast. Only downside was the sat nav sending us on some very odd roads at times, think we ended up on a farm track at one point..500 miles driven in it.

[fieldy_72]

Hard to pick just one but i'd have to say my favourite would have to be BMW M135i that i've had two of from Thrifty in the UK. There's something about having that much power with a rental car badge on it that shouldn't be legal, especially when it's under £150 for the whole weekend!

My choice has been limited due to being under 30 but here are some of my other favourites

Hertz
Mercedes CLS 350 Shooting Brake
Volvo V40 D4 R Design
Fiesta Ecoboost (Great car)
Jaguar XE


Thrifty
BMW M135i
BMW 330D
VW Golf GTD
Mercedes C250 AMG

In my experience in the UK thrifty by far have the best fleet spec wise, almost all of their BMWs are M Sport and Mercedes AMG line, and they have quite a few M3, M4, M5 and M6 on fleet, even a few i8's and different spec F Types!

[bassett]

Well my one and only hire car last week in sicily was an Opel Mokka 1.6tdi. Some of the best roads I've ever driven including around mount etna and part of the targa florio and I had a lofty, rolly, wheezy 4x4 wannabee vauxhall!

Edited by bassett on Tuesday 28th June 20:51

[Blackbird425]

Kedlestone said:

Delivery mileage (3 miles) Jag F-Type R from Thrifty. Technically was not abroad but was hired for a break in the UK. To say I didn't want to give it back was a understanment, brutally fast. Only downside was the sat nav sending us on some very odd roads at times, think we ended up on a farm track at one point..500 miles driven in it.

How much did that cost?? Unlimited mileage?

[Dave Thornton]

For a once in a lifetime trip from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon it had to be a Mustang. However, it was too great a risk to end up with an "or similar". So I got a 2016 Mustang Gt convertible from Enterprise Exotic - ruby red too. 600 miles for $600 all in. Here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivm1tCwVDWI

[mwyatt82]

Best was an experience from the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt, 650 Euros for a factory tour, 3 days driving and two nights at a wonderful spa in Austria. It was May 2009 so couldn't get an Audi R8 V10 had a bright red V8 carbon side blades, carbon brakes full leather upgrade and B&O sound system. Epic and great at 186mph.

I used to work in Switzerland so always had hire cars from Avis or Hertz. Worst was a Suzuki Splash which I eviscerated over 2 days every gear change involved valve bounce and every cornering manoeuvre was done on the door handles. I did have some odd swaps from my Golf class like a mitsubishi Galant and a V70 estate which were interesting diversions but usually I got pushed up to a 1 series (too small) or a Giulietta multi air Veloce (perfect as my car back in the UK was a Lusso with the same engine).

Since i've moved to the U.S my best hire was actually a commercial vehicle, I needed a pickup to get clobber from Ikea but they ended up giving me a stretch Chevrolet Express Van with a 6 litre V8, which resembled a pringle can on wheels. It had awful all season tyres and could be quite easily provoked and was colossal fun. The rest have been a sea of forgettable humdrum porridge, but it was all just to tide me over before my 5.0 Mustang was built (stick shift had to be ordered for me).

[Colonial]

fieldy_72 said:

Hard to pick just one but i'd have to say my favourite would have to be BMW M135i that i've had two of from Thrifty in the UK. There's something about having that much power with a rental car badge on it that shouldn't be legal, especially when it's under £150 for the whole weekend!

My choice has been limited due to being under 30 but here are some of my other favourites

Hertz
Mercedes CLS 350 Shooting Brake
Volvo V40 D4 R Design
Fiesta Ecoboost (Great car)
Jaguar XE


Thrifty
BMW M135i
BMW 330D
VW Golf GTD
Mercedes C250 AMG

In my experience in the UK thrifty by far have the best fleet spec wise, almost all of their BMWs are M Sport and Mercedes AMG line, and they have quite a few M3, M4, M5 and M6 on fleet, even a few i8's and different spec F Types!

I echo Thrifty as having some of the best choices.

I rented mine through Trafford Park in Manchester, and apart from a few vans, basically everything was M sport BMWs and a few Golf GTIs and Scirrocos.

Like I said earlier, booked a 320i, got an upgrade to a 535i, that needed to go back due to a minor issue (left rear window kept on dropping, not the best in January on a Manchester council estate) and the 520d I got instead was also M sport.

[Yacht Broker]

Well we broke the Ghibli yesterday so now have a Ghibli S Q4 instead. Flappy-paddle-tastic.

Swapped cars in Phoenix and now in San Diego.

Here she is

[Mased]

www.hertzsupercars.com

€2660 euro for 24hrs with a Huracán Spyder in the Italian Alps.
Shame the pound's so weak or I'd be on this like a flash.
Fun website to get ridiculous quotes

[cuda]

Wanted to avoid being the obvious tourist in a Mustang or Camaro so hired this F83 M4 through RelayRides - but after having owned E30, E36, E46 M3's and a CSL, didn't really like it - too many modes and never in the right one...:



Then hired this E93 M3 in Cape Town through Status Luxury Vehicles - much better...:

Edited by cuda on Wednesday 29th June 07:19

[Axionknight]

An automatic Camaro SS is about as good as it has gotten for me - although that was a work related trip to Houston, I had a lot of time off whilst there so plenty of leisure time was available

We have to choose a car from a pre selected list through the companies travel arrangement site so I did that and then phoned Hertz Stateside to upgrade in advance (originally requested a Mustang).

I let the company foot the bill rather than paying the extra myself and nobody said a word apart from my line manager who lived over there who pissed himself when he saw it and asked who was paying - result!

[Shifty Bloke]

Only hired a car twice,

First was a Micra, second was a new shape KA

Preferred the KA, the Micra killed me ankle, couldn't get comfortable

[Basil the 500]

Toured Croatia with a soon to be ex......
She paid - I drove - a brand spanking Polo
Quite literally drove it like I'd stolen it.
1500 miles of ragged under steering rally special stage driving
Returned car with tyres to the canvass - engine making a "strange noise" and a front and rear dent from dead end three point " handbrake" turns gone wrong
Laughed our way round an amazing country - seeing just how much abuse you could give a new car
Unforgivable I know - but up to then had always been an upstanding citizen - expensive divorce had taken my 964 RS so time to let my hair down.....
Not felt a second of guilt....
Re-grown up now

[gpb1]

Hired one of the 40th anniversary Hertz Shelby Mustang 350GT-H back in 2006 in Phoenix. Made a lovely noise and the dash was signed by Carroll Shelby. You could only rent them from airport locations and had to show an airline ticket, which was supposedly to stop locals from renting one and pinching the performance parts off of it.

Edited by gpb1 on Wednesday 29th June 10:54

[silentbrown]

I can see I'm never going to win this thread. This was waiting for me in the allocated bay at JFK on my last trip.

Impressively, all the damage seemed to have been inflicted while attempting to park it in that spot!



However, I've always had a hankering for an original Hertz Mustang: http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/...

Edited by silentbrown on Wednesday 29th June 10:37

[hadd101]

Two trips to Vegas and both times we've got pretty carried away at the hire car desk's.

[Cheapskate]

Don't tell Mr Hertz...

[Sword786]

I concur that the Ghibli is the best car that I have hired so far. I work in the KSA and have a driver because of the insane driving here (28 accidents an hour in my city!). So I get my driving fix by hiring something cool every time I come home for the summer. Pictures do not do this car justice it just is an amazing complete package. Put it in to manual mode with the sport button pressed and it just sounds sublime. AMT based in Leeds have both the diesel and petrol (opted for petrol of course) and they do really good rates on them for longer hires. 19 day hire with a £2.5k deposit and total hire price of £2.5k



I hired this in the autumn when I came back home for a wedding, the XE S supercharged V6 is just insanely fast and is makes great noises too. I got complaints from the passangers in the back that it was cramped however. Avis prestige had just got this and had an offer of £250 for the weekend with unlimited miles which was perfect.



However I have no doubt that these will be trumped by the Gran Cabrio S that im hiring for this years trip . 35 days for £6.75k with 100 miles a day.

[Shakermaker]

Only ever had one hire car on holiday so my answer is both the best and the worst.

Hyundai Getz, which was new at the time, 11 years ago.

Was not a very good car.