Car Rental While Traveling

[mb]

i've had good/bad experiences in various places.

france, years ago: i rented a car for a few days from hertz or someone. then i was sick. i called them (which was difficult to figure out how do, especially since it was a french premium rate number and i had an american cell phone) and said ' i need to hold on to the car a few more days'. they were like 'non, you must return the car on time'. i was too sick to argue, but OK enough to drive 90 minutes there and rent from someone else.

morocco, a few weeks before france (and where i probably picked up whatever); called a bunch of rental car places and said ' i want to rent a car today'. 'how much are you willing to pay'. i picked one at semi random and probably offered too much. they guy said he'd pick me up. hours later, i call him 'wtf are you coming'. eventually he did, losing me hours of daylight. we drove half way to the airport, he pulled over, had me sign some random paperwork, took a copy of my credit card, and sent me off. the car didn't always run right, but his other option was one w/o air conditioning, like a moroccan would prefer. no thanks, i took the vapor-locking-dacia-logan.

end of the trip, i called him to say i was close by, he said he was tracking my location with the gps (which i knew about anyway), he pulled over behind me and i was on my way.

that was the only credit card transaction i even COULD have used on that trip, and also the only one which REQURIED a card. i have no clue what he'd have done with a debit card or cash, i'm sure there were other options.


i'm sure many on this board have far more interesting car rental stories than that.

[Tarkan]

Thought you guys were whining much about nothing until I flew into Phoenix this weekend. Half an hour to catch the rental car shuttle. Half an hour in line at the Dollar rental counter, and then an hour and twenty minutes in line outside waiting for a fucking car. Should have just taken a fucking uber.

[Kurt]

Thought you guys were whining much about nothing until I flew into Phoenix this weekend. Half an hour to catch the rental car shuttle. Half an hour in line at the Dollar rental counter, and then an hour and twenty minutes in line outside waiting for a fucking car. Should have just taken a fucking uber.

Phoenix would be a bitch of a place to be Uber Reliant. You were pretty much screwed the moment you landed.

My next rental will hopefully be Hereklion in Crete in the early fall...so I am hoping my "Europe is easy" claim holds true. At least I will be able to rent a manual.

[snaark]

On another note, I am always astonished how awful it is to fly in the USA. I have never missed a plane or lost my bags anywhere else in the world, but it seems to happen every time I go to the USA.

[Kurt]

On another note, I am always astonished how awful it is to fly in the USA. I have never missed a plane or lost my bags anywhere else in the world, but it seems to happen every time I go to the USA.

I've had airlines lose my bags twice here which is not that bad considering how many years I have been flying but most people echo your observation especially on indirect flights.

[ROB]

Lost my bags in Japan once. They had them out to me on the next flight.

[Kurt]

I have been renting cars so often this year. Got a Citroen C1 1.0 liter in Crete last year. Cost like 35 Euro per day. Kinda plasticky but not bad. Not fast at all but could park anywhere.

Rented a new Prius for 1 month in Florida in January. I really liked it and it did not seem Brick-like like other Prius I have driven, but cost about 3500 for 27 days which is "USA Good" and Florida does not have weird and crappy rental lines.

Rented a Ford Escape in February to drive my friend and his kid to LaCrosse tournaments. The thing was a wobbly butthole of a car. Cost like $800 for 3 days as well. Sucked.

Paid through the Fucking nose to Rent an Audi Q7 so I could shuttle non-driving New Yorkers up to a vacation. I think it was about $700 per day. I am just gonna buy a used van for a week if I ever have to do that shit again. The thing was pretty fast though but not $700 per day fast.

Two weeks ago I rented a real basic ass Nissan. It was about $800 for 3 days and had a decent trunk and an older USB connection so I could listen to music. I liked it better than the Audi but still cost a relative fortune.

So far in the USA this year I have not had to wait in line a crazy amount of time to pay through the nose. So that is a slight improvement.

[Darcy]

Rental cars are thee best off-road vehicles.

Lately getting tagged often with damage that wasn't me. Company can't get me on a flight from Winnipeg to Thompson so I rent a car and drive the 8 hours, over 1/2 of it on gravel, boss is in Thompson checking out this new contract and takes my car as soon as I arrive. Last I see it before I head off into the wiles on a helo is one of the medics driving it. I start getting calls from the rental company a week later. Every couple days going on three months, more aggressive each time, I explain... company rental, but my name is on it. I try to change the name to the company travel guy but doesn't work. About 5 months of this the car finally gets returned with a missing bumper and the company wants my SMS report... they take forever to pay it and I continually get aggressive phone calls, but eventually it ends... until the next time I rent a company vehicle. Been with these cats two years and I have an extremely bad reputation with a couple of rental companies now.

Turkey was awesome for rentals, but Romania was the best, upgraded to a very high end Mercedes....

[Kurt]

The main Romanian roads are awesome too. Between Brasov and Bucharest in 2003 was much better than any US interstate in 2003. When I was there 10 years earlier only the Ceausescu routes were decent.
I had a Lada but a good Merc would have flown on those roads.

[Darcy]

The main Romanian roads are awesome too. Between Brasov and Bucharest in 2003 was much better than any US interstate in 2003. When I was there 10 years earlier only the Ceausescu routes were decent.
I had a Lada but a good Merc would have flown on those roads.

YES!!! I ran that Brasov to Bucharest route waaaaay too fast in the Mercedes (can't recall the model but it was big, powerful and bad-ass, local Romanian manager got it for me through a friend at the rental company as I was manager on the helicopter foreign-content end), actually passed an ambulance with its lights going, the entire time wondering why no cops were pulling me over. Drove all over Carpathians in some freaking cold weather. Romania had the worst winter storm on record that year. I recall everyone being heavily connected. I actually got to fly the President around, got a photo with him.... Traian Băsescu. Damn, I look like a kid! I had a photo of him sleeping on the helo but can't find it

[dogtanian]

Had a similar experience in Denver.

Front desk woman jacked it up from a couple of hundred to well over a thousand with upgrades and whatnot. Between every up-sell she made sure I knew that she was a veteran mom.

When I finally looked at the number on the card machine and pressed the red button, she got very angry, and told me that I'd be liable to be arrested if I drove [the car I actually booked] out of the car park without her tire upgrade (she knew i was going to snowmass).

Ended-up with the car [price] that I wanted, and.... low-and-behold... no snow on the roads.