Holiday Car Hire. How did you do?

[Adenauer]

Sebastian Tombs said:

I had a Camaro V6 in SF which was crap, and despite its size had so little boot space that suitcases had to live on the back seat when the roof was down, and it handled like a boat.

We had another car hired to drive down the PCH so we asked for a Mustang which swallowed the cases with roof down, cornered really well and even with the Ecoboost was fast enough and was great to drive.

Same, we had the Camaro two years ago and whilst definitely a pretty car, I found the performance crap and the boot space with the roof down, isn't.

Had the Mustang in January this year and absolutely loved it.

[David Beer]

Adenauer said:

Same, we had the Camaro two years ago and whilst definitely a pretty car, I found the performance crap and the boot space with the roof down, isn't.

Had the Mustang in January this year and absolutely loved it.

Had this for 28 days this June. Arranged a camaro or mustang convertible, didn’t care about engine but pleased it was the V8 !

[OMITN]

Going on hols in a week's time. Will be driving something "midsize", but it's the Cote d'Azur, so nothing bigger required. We're a family of 3, so pretty much anything will do.

Let's have a think:

2016 - Lake Como - Fiat 500. Lived la dolce vita in it for a few days, though the offset pedals gave me a really bad back.
2016 - Florida - fullsize SUV - could choose any, so we took the Ford Expedition. Was a laugh down dirt tracks in the Everglades.
2017 - Croatia - hired two cars (separately) for a couple of days each: Golf was great. Up! was less so.
2018 - New York to Canada and back - fullsize SUV - was given a Nissan Armada. 5.6L V8 with 390bhp. Got stopped speeding in Maine..!

[The Leaper]

A couple of years ago I booked an automatic BMW 1 Series to pick up at Pisa Airport. When I got there I was told I had been upgraded and would be getting a Citroen Cactus. I considered this to be a downgrade! Anyway, once I discovered that the villa we had hired was 4km down a dirt track I was rather glad we had the Citroen after all.

And the Citroen was absolutely filthy on pick up, both inside and out. I assume it had been used on similar roads as I experienced and that it was an instant turnaround for the car.

Good on you Avis!

R.

[Martyn76]

Had this last year in Florida, was either this or a BMW X3...was great, loads of room, OnStar assistance, pokey enough (2.3l 4 I think), kids loved the individual chairs in the back.

[rossub]

4,000 miles over 3 weeks in the US suffered in this thing. Toyota 4Runner, 4 litre V6 270bhp..... but 2 1/4 tonnes.

Great off road when it was needed, but hard work on it.

It would have just pissed me off if I worked out the mpg.

[surveyor]

I hire quite a lot from hertz in Dublin and had a grumble a few months ago that my one class upgrade never happens. Been a bit better since,

Last week intermediate hire became a Hyundai Tuscan (surprisingly ok)
Ford Focus became Mercedes B class. Focus would have been better.
BMW X3 became err BMW X3.
Nothing memory/ before that... booking a Mondeo out of Dublin guarantees that it won’t be a mondeo.

[ghost83]

Standard suv at Orlando international airport last may (2018)

When I got
In the parking garage there was nothing that took my fancy then I saw this rolling down looking awesome and it pulled in 2 spaces down so I dragged the family and cases out of the basic Tiguan and dived in this jeep! So much room we fit 4 American tourister cases in with ease as well as 4 lots of hand luggage and a double buggy! Air con seats sat nav and panoramic roof! Was absolutely fantastic

[Sheepshanks]

You ‘lucked out’ getting a car from a different state rather than the more basic Orlando rental version. Happened to us one year with a Dodge Durango from Georgia - had a V8 and was AWD. Snag was we did a lot of miles that trip - it showed 11mpg on the dash.

I’ve seen negative comments on a Disney forum about the rental Tiguans - it’s the Mexican built longer version (Allspace here) but sounds like it might a ‘rental special’ very basic version.

[CardinalBlue]

Spent last week in Tenerife, and my hire car was an Astra. Not the most exciting of cars, but was impressed to see it only had 28km on the clock!

[tribalsurfer]

silverthorn2151 said:

And I'll be following you for recommendations and advice. ??

Just to give you an update, through canadianaffair I have rented a Suburban through Avis for 10 days £700. Reading other forums they seem to suggest they stock the LT spec which is pretty loaded.

Got it mid August, so will let you know experience when I get back.

[anonymous-user]

Not too well in Spain this month but 7 seaters are hard to come by at sensible money.....


Did better in Vegas in November

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 30th July 16:12

[Jaybmw]

Driving detroit to dallas in October over 10/12 days.. any way of avoiding one way fees ? Also who's best to use? Or am I best just rocking up at a desk ? Not bothered on what type as it's only 2 of us

[schmalex]

We had a Renault Kadjar in Menorca. It was surprisingly good

[PHuzzy]

David Beer said:

I booked a convertible for a month this June, had to be either a mustang or Camaro, gave me a mustang gt convertible, $1800

I've just come back from 3 weeks in Germany, the hire car was a 1.0 3 cylinder piece of st C4 cactus.

Price... €1700!

I was tempted to drive it into a wall to see if I could get something better from them.

[silverthorn2151]

Currently in Skiathos enjoying, at €300 for 6 days, a beaten up Suzuki Jimmy that has done 52000 hard KM on this small island.

Bloody marvellous though. Essential kit on some of the 'roads' out here.

[soxboy]

Just booked 3 days hire car in Ibiza at the end of August, €29 - will post how bad it is when I get there!

[ghost83]

Sheepshanks said:

You ‘lucked out’ getting a car from a different state rather than the more basic Orlando rental version. Happened to us one year with a Dodge Durango from Georgia - had a V8 and was AWD. Snag was we did a lot of miles that trip - it showed 11mpg on the dash.

I’ve seen negative comments on a Disney forum about the rental Tiguans - it’s the Mexican built longer version (Allspace here) but sounds like it might a ‘rental special’ very basic version.

Yeah the tiguans were very basic didn’t even have leather! And we were struggling to fit our cases in, was literally the right time right place it was just such an easy car to love! I’m surprised they’re not more popular over here if I’m honest

[ThunderSpook]

Currently in Florida and had booked a RR Velar. They upgraded me to a Merc GLS 450. Not sure if that’s strictly an upgrade, but size wise you could fit a small detached house in the boot! Drives fairly well considering the size of the thing, and being a Merc it hasn’t broken down

[cb31]

Just got back from Italy, asked for a compact car as was driving through a lot of ancient towns. Got a Fiat Panda that had done 11k miles. Quite chuffed as they seem to have a good reputation, didn't last long though. No idea what engine it was but very underpowered, 1st gear up any decent hill. Engine screaming when doing 120kph, really uncomfortable, huge A-pillar blind spots, switchgear and media unintuitive, rattly even though nearly new. Basically rubbish, although no doubt they are cheap to buy and it was handy due to the small size. 4 hours at 110kph though is a killer.