Rental Car Reviews

Rental cars. They seem to always answer the age-old question, "How bad could it be?" They are a great litmus test to see how low a manufacturer is willing to go.

I thought that it would be nice to have a central thread to find our collective rental car woes (or surprises). I have had three rentals in the last month, with a fourth coming later today.

VW Jetta: How the mighty have fallen. This was a great disappointment. It was so anemic, struggling to find the right gear. If LEGO is the gold standard for toy polymers and interior quality metaphors, the Jetta's interior wouldn't even be Mega Bloks.

Toyota Camry: I was pleasantly surprised. The Camry accelerated into traffic comfortably, was so easy to parallel park, and had a comfortable interior. With this rental, I get why so many people like the Camry: it has perfected vanilla. That's not a criticism, because a lot of people like vanilla.

Chevrolet Cruze: I lucked out and chose a car with 3 miles on the clock. With 20 miles on the clock, it was happily navigating curvy Mullholland Drive. It wasn't powerful, but it felt a lot less anemic than the Jetta I drove. This was an LT I think, so it was well-appointed with steering wheel controls and a nice stereo. The cloth seats were also quite nice. My only criticism (for a rental) was that the footwell seems quite small; my right leg was resting against the center console the whole time. I'm not that big of a guy. Interior plastics weren't great (with the characteristic rubbery feel), but they weren't horrible, either. Well done, Chevy.

IMO, rental car reviews are worthless. I've rented identical models within weeks of each other, and had completely different opinions of them. Often the cars are so badly beat up, or abused, they're poor representation of what the car can, or should be.

In reply to Zomby Woof:

These reviews are not intended to be measures of a manufacturers or model's potential. Anecdotes that they may be, they are experiences of one specific vehicle, not a swath of all hundreds of thousands of vehicles within a year's production. Leave that to Consumer Reports.

2013 Camaro convertible V6 sucked the big one

2014 Impala didn't drive far but surprisingly good, nice car with excellent ride

I had my choice of several fine Domestic sedans this week in San Fran, but since I was traveling with my Daughter, I wound up with a Beetle. (She thought is was "cute") It was a stripper model, but surprisingly peppy. (Remember, I drive a Rondo so mopeds seem peppy to me) No Bluetooth which sucked, but I kinda dug the squashed bug look.

Nissan Altima= superisingly quick autocrosser

Chevy Malibu = E36 M3

Chevy Impala = Nice car, nice to drive what it is but horrendous visibility. If the old impala was like driving a boat, this is like sitting in a boat. Glad it had blind spot monitors and a backup camera!

This afternoon, I decided to go against my preconceptions and choose a Chrysler 200. This one has about 25,000 miles on the clock. So far, it is just fine, no overwhelming problems that I can see. The switchgear does feel a bit chintzier than the Cruze's, though.

I think my favorite rental car was the time I somehow got a Grand Prix with the 3800SC in it. That's all I'm legally allowed to say about the matter.

Few times I had Corvette Hertz editions back in 2009 or 2010. If you change gear manually, they were fast. Otherwise, they are just big yellow noisy cars that I hide from my coworkers.

I loved the last impala I had. Only complaint is fwd, which I'm not a fan of. That car really ate up the miles.

Last month, I had a 2013 MINI Cooper rental for 2 weeks. Even setting aside the absolutely horrific 6-speed automatic, 2 weeks with a Cooper was enough to make me certain that I never want to own a MINI anything.

Get the Fusion with EcoBoost. Hertz has em. They also have the non EcoBoost one and the Hertz rep won't know the difference so good luck. I was VERY impressed with the EcoBoost.

Had a Dodge Charger a few weeks ago, v6/auto of course. While I still can't get over the looks and how large it is, I was genuinely surprised by the ride and the ergonomics. It was quiet, comfortable, had more controls for the radio/computer on the wheel than I'm used to (front AND back), carried 4 adults with ease, and returned decent highway MPG as well. I never tried to push it in corners or anything like that, it's clearly not what it was designed to do.

Rented a Chevy Aveo once - not by choice, I used Hotwire for a cheap last minute deal, and that's what they oferred me (Hotwire only reveals the company after your made the booking). Uuurrrgggghhhh. Never again. Soul-less is too generous a description.

4-cylinder 2012 Mazda 6. It was appalling. I thought newer models were supposed to be better than the model they replaced? Not this one.

V8 Camaro convertible in Florida was very nice. Lovely exhaust note when you gave it the boot. V6 Camaro in southern Oregon was fun, and lots nicer to drive than the V6 Mustang I had there some time later on the same roads. I tried, but just couldn't like the Mustang.

Jeep Patriot (2 weeks ago). It was horrendous. Cheap plastic everywhere, too small so that you smack your head every time on the rear tailgate. I think the Patriot was once described as the most un-Jeep Jeep that Jeep has ever made. Very apt description.

Mitchell wrote: Toyota Camry: I was pleasantly surprised. The Camry accelerated into traffic comfortably, was so easy to parallel park, and had a comfortable interior. With this rental, I get why so many people like the Camry: it has perfected vanilla. That's not a criticism, because a lot of people like vanilla. Chevrolet Cruze: I lucked out and chose a car with 3 miles on the clock. With 20 miles on the clock, it was happily navigating curvy Mullholland Drive. It wasn't powerful, but it felt a lot less anemic than the Jetta I drove. This was an LT I think, so it was well-appointed with steering wheel controls and a nice stereo. The cloth seats were also quite nice. My only criticism (for a rental) was that the footwell seems quite small; my right leg was resting against the center console the whole time. I'm not that big of a guy. Interior plastics weren't great (with the characteristic rubbery feel), but they weren't horrible, either. Well done, Chevy.

I'll echo those sentiments about the Camry, and have very similar thoughts about the Malibu I had recently. The Malibu wasn't anything really special, but it was well-equipped for a rental. I've also come to the conclusion that I really don't like touch screens in cars.

V6 Mustang, Premium Package - The automatic transmission ruins what would otherwise be a great car. I loved the feeling I had driving the Mustang - even with the auto and V6, it still made me happy. I think I'd love this car with a V8 and a stick.

VW Touareg - very vanilla, just seemed like an indistinct medium SUV. The radio controls were slow to respond - another reason why I don't like touch screens for radio/HVAC/nav. Having been in some recent Hyundais/Toyotas - I don't understand why you'd pay extra for the Touareg.

I'm about to write one about the brand-new (500 miles) Chevy Sonic that I had for the last 10 days in Hawaii...

I had the Camry last week and was pleasantly surprised. It had enough power to drive comfortably in highway traffic and negotiated turns fine. The vanilla description above is great, the car was very good at just being a regular car.

A new GMC Yukon was almost undrivable to me. I regularly drive a longbed 5000 pound truck but asking the Yukon to turn or stop it felt completely overloaded with only two people in it. A ton of buttons to distract yourself with and alright visibility. I now watch out for these on the road.

We still talk about how bad the Chevy Aveo was in Colorado a few years ago. My wife was amazed that they still produced cars that cheaply and with crank windows. It did still make it to the top of Pike Peak with 4 people in it. We won the high brake temp score on the way down though.

Wife got an SRX a couple weeks ago now wants that instead of her 328xi. She loved it, and hated the rental they gave her on the next trip up north which was a mopar 300

I generally come away impressed with Hyundai rentals. (I've had a couple Velosters and whatever the cheap bottom end small car is, and an elantra) I was a bit underwelmed by a New Beetle. I didn't like the Fiat 500 at all, but alot of that had to do with all the snow I had to drive it in. I thought the Chrysler 200 was hilariously funny...in a bad, I can't believe they still make cars that drive like they did in the 80's sorta way (is there a reason that the team who designed the front suspension didn't talk with the team that designed the rear suspension? The two ends of the car most of the time did things on their own schedules like they were not attached to the same car), Nissan Versa was uneventful and got me where I needed to go. That's my summary for the past few months. I forget which car had the worst traction control I've ever encountered, but it basically seemed designed to not let you move from a standstill if the road was even a little bit wet.

Had a rental Ram 1500 quad cab w/ the hemi and 8sp auto last month. It made awesome sounds, moved pretty good, and had no problem keeping me very entertained for the week I had it. . . That is all I will say

Mustang V6 auto, Like driving a warm turd. For a large car the interior is tiny. The suspension is softer than my sofa, Steering is vague, brakes are adequate, power is barely adequate for the heavy full size car that the mustang has become.

I put 900 miles on a 2014 Hyundai Sonata taking the family to Disney and back and was pretty impressed. Very roomy, even with car seats and luggage. I still wouldn't rate it over a Honda Accord or Kia Optima, but it was good enough for me to be interested to see how the new 2015 model drives.

I also put about 400 miles on a Chevrolet Captiva crossover. It got pretty good gas mileage for a cute-ute, and the packaging made it pretty practical for a small family, but there was not a single memorable or impressive aspect to the car. The compact crossover class is extremely competitive - I can't imagine how Chevy thought this could compete.

Had a VW Passat for a week and drove it all the way up the East Coast. Did everything asked of it, interior wasn't bad, but just wasn't very impressed with the suspension and acceleration overall. This one had around 20k miles and was a New York car, so maybe not the best example, but was underwhelmed (other options were Malibu and something similar, so guess I didn't miss out on much either way).

A couple of weeks ago, I had to fly down to Fort Myers, FL for my uncle's funeral. I rented a 2013 Nissan Maxima from Hertz for a few days. It had 28k and change on the clock.

Some notes from my experience:

-I have never driven a CVT-equipped car before. I have been in a Rogue before with a 4 cylinder and felt the annoyance of the CVT, but I never actually drove a car equipped with one. I have read and heard over and over that they are terrible and feel like you are driving a rubber band or a slingshot, so I went into it with low expectations. While there was a little bit of bounciness, the 290ish HP 3.5L V6 pretty much ran the show. It was smooth and powerful like all of the VG/VQ motors that predated it. The transmission kept the car in it's power band most of the time. Color me surprised.

-Speaking of power, this car was quick for a big sedan. Mashing the pedal was fun. To my surprise, it handled really well, had great steering feel, and stopped well. I used to have a '89 Maxima SE, and my parents still have a '96 Maxima GLE. This car felt like a bigger, more powerful version of those cars. It also helped that the car was white, and both my parents' and mine were white. The turning radius was excellent for such a big car.

-The interior was decent. This car had a rental-spec cloth interior and no seat heaters (why would a car in FL need them?). I liked the seats and the driving position better than the ones in my daily driver 2012 Mazda 3 S Touring. The steering wheel felt better than mine too; very chunky and grippy. The gauges were clear and legible, and the driver info center in the middle of the gauge cluster was pretty basic but informative. The dash looked and felt rubbery, with the audio system sticking out like a plastic shrouded tumor, but I've seen worse. The stereo system was average at best. There was a lot of rear seat and trunk space, both of which came in handy.

-One gripe I had with the car was the Bluetooth interface. I cannot understand why a car would have Bluetooth integration and leave out the Bluetooth streaming audio function. My Mazda has it (as well as my wife's 2010 Mazda 3 i, a more basic model from 4 years ago), and this $34k+ Nissan does not have it. Dumb.

-It's definitely not the prettiest car on the road, but I've seen worse. The front end is average looking, but I did like the side profile and the wide hips. The rear looked boring. At least it doesn't look like the current gen Altima with it's melted poo front fenders and haphazardly applied chrome bits.

-Gas mileage was not great. I averaged about 22mpg in mixed driving, and other than a couple times getting on the highway, I was very light on the pedal. It also drinks premium, so this is not a cost effective commuter car if you drive a lot.

The Verdict:

Overall, I liked the car, and I didn't think I would. I am a huge critic of Nissan as of late, as I was a big fan of theirs back in the day and I feel they have lost their way stylistically and performance-wise. But... this car really felt like a bigger, faster (and uglier) version of my old '89 Maxima SE, which was one of my favorite cars.

Would I buy one? No. Here's why:

I drive a lot, and 22mpg drinking premium with practically no "spirited driving" doesn't sound like a good time for me or my wallet, so no, I wouldn't. Also, the price gets in the way. These cars new are in cheap 3-series BMW territory, and cars like the Dodge Charger R/T can be had cheaper and have more room, more power, and might possibly get better gas mileage. Hell, even the V6 Charger with some options would be a better value. And at that price, most of the other choices have better features, too. Also, if you can get over the sheer ugliness of the Altima, it's pretty much the same car for less money. I don't understand why Nissan still builds the car at all.

The Maxima is a nice car, but it's not for me as a daily driver. I would definitely rent again, and I recommend it if you want something with space and power.

Bumping my own thread because it seems unnecessary to make a new one.

I'm on my ninth rental this year between work and personal travel, and the last few have been pretty decent.

I vacationed to FL last week, and picked up a rental from a single terminal regional airport. I reserved a midsize SUV, because it was the cheapest option, and expected the worst. What did I get? 2016 Infiniti QX70. Super comfortable, and surprisingly stable for an SUV. A nice V6 with an auto that didn't get in the way. Good materials and switchgear inside, and the infotainment system did everything I expected. Definitely among my favorite rentals.

For today's rental, I could have had a new Mustang, but it Wasn't what drew my eye. What did I choose instead? Chrysler 300C. Couch on wheels. Mobile office. Hurtling bank vault. The interior is strangely small and long, and the seats not as plush as I would have liked, but the seats are vented, the stereo is great, and the engine and transmission work excellently together. I haven't bothered looking whether it's the V6 or V8, but it has more than enough grunt as it is equipped. I look forward to the many miles I will rack up over the next week.

Only complaint? As a casually-dressed twenty-something dude of medium height, the car looks awfully serious for me. Especially since I daily a Miata, the happiest car in the world. Contrast is fun.