Don't Buy Rental Cars!!

My wifes used 06 Toyota Sienna turned out to be a former rental(yes I knew when we bought). It came with a 100k mile warranty,as a certified pre-owned car,and knock on wood it has been great so far. It has a couple of broken air vent adjusters on the dash,but the rest of the car is fine,and we got a good deal on it,so I have no complaints. With the was she drives I think the 10years will be up before we hit the 100k miles. I would have never bought a rental in the past,but this deal made sense(maybe not to you guys) at the time,and so far after 1.5 years of ownership it has been rock solid.

I think you're probably ok with a minivan

My first speeding ticket was in a rental car.

I thought I was all cool taking a loaded Navigator off roading in Sedona, AZ while on vacation until I saw a rental Impala thrashing down the trail in the other direction LOL.

it might be that I am bitter that I am getting gouged this week.

$85.00 a day in (Kia Rio) Minneapolis this week.......

Me: "why am I being gouged?"
Guy in tie: "Republican Convention" Me: "So I gotta pay?" Guy in tie: "yep, sorry"

When a buddy complained that his late 1970's, rental Buick ( new then ,, in the late 70s...) when he complained that it would Never spin the tires.... I took the wheel.

And tried to prove that any car could if abused enough.

Once again, I was wrong when after a full throttle neutral slam sent the U joint flying.

Note: do not mix massive ammounts of alcohol in a cheap rental car

I took the California Rally School in a rental. Had to wash the mud off the roof before returning it though. Didn't seem to bother the car one bit.

Then there's this little thing. I don't even know what it is, but it got a bit of a workout.

Whoops.

Toyota Corolla/Geo Prism

pete240z wrote: it might be that I am bitter that I am getting gouged this week. $85.00 a day in (Kia Rio) Minneapolis this week....... Me: "why am I being gouged?" Guy in tie: "Republican Convention" Me: "So I gotta pay?" Guy in tie: "yep, sorry"

I'd have looked for another agency. it worked for my brother and me. several years ago we went to phoenix during some major basketball tourney. nobody had any cars, and those that did were all $75+ a day. we finally found an enterprise that had a vehicle to rent, it was a durango that had a window price of about $100 bucks a day or so. we got them to "give" it to us for $50 a day.

fiat22turbo wrote: Toyota Corolla/Geo Prism

Close
Chevrolet Prizm.

many years ago, i got a geo metro from a dealer brand new. I beat the crap out of the car, I jumped parking barriers, I did neutral drops (had to spin the wheels somehow) I went "off-roading" with it. I then returned it to the dealer and said I didn't like the car and they could have it back. they got stuck with it back, and it cost me nothing but the gas I put in

I rented a Durango in Colorado last year, and some dimwit backed into me, smashing the driver's door in about eight inches. The officer was very kind to not ticket me for the expired insurance card in the glovebox (he scolded me, even though he knew it was a rental). I returned the wreck, chewed out the manager, and he returned with a replacement 2007 Suburban LTZ with 400 miles on the odo.

We took it off-roading around Colorado Springs that night. It was covered in mud. like a good 4WD vehicle should be. We washed it before returning it the next morning.

I just spend an entire day (and 250 miles) in an Aveo. It was the "nicer" LT version 4 door with power windows.

Nothing has reminded me more of a '86 Ford Escort automatic. With the ac on, the auto trans labored up hills. At 7k miles, the whole car buzzed and shook at idle, in drive, with the ac on.

It did return 31 mpg in spirited driving on mostly two lane roads. I will say, it has been a long time since i used that much throttle. Full floor buries at every start would keep you up with traffic.

First rental was a PT Cruiser after my 97 Trans Am got trashed by a plethora of other cars on I-75. It had a bad knock when I got it, and the knock got worse as I drove it.

Living in Gainesville at the time there were plenty of dirt roads and such to have fun with the car. My friends and I would fly down some of the dirt roads, pull the e-brake and just slidddddeeee. Also took it mudding. We actually fixed the knock and found out what was causing it. It was damn near 2 quarts low on oil. Someone thought the PT Cruisers only took 2 whole quarts because it's only a 2.4L, why would it take more than that in oil?

Second rental I had was a Grand Prix, it was supposed to be an Audi A4, but it had broken down (what a surprise!). My current Trans Am was getting new shocks, springs, and subframe connectors put in. There was an autox event that weekend so I took the Grand Prix.

What a freakin' moose, but it did do pretty well. I hit the foot pedal e-brake a couple times to try and slide the thing around the wagon wheel a little bit faster but i could never get the e-brake to disengage!

once rented a new chevy cav(2000 or 2001) for a job interview. In a 150 mile round trip drive, I was able to get it to give me 15mpg. I used the throttle like a light switch to maintain speed on the highway. full on.. full off full on full off..

I didn't like that car, and I felt like a dork pulling up to Honda R&D with a chev product.

I was in the airport one day when I saw three guys walking through the terminal, each with a sway bar and a helmet bag. I just had to ask. It turned out there were about six or eight guys that lived in different parts of the country that came up with their own time trial series. Periodically they would all meet at a track event and rent the same econobox car. The only mod they could do to the car was changing the sway bar for better handling. Who ever got the fastest time time would win. A few months later they'd meet at another track and do it again. They all wanted to race a every track in the country and they figured this was the most economical way to do it.

ignorant wrote: once rented a new chevy cav(2000 or 2001) for a job interview. In a 150 mile round trip drive, I was able to get it to give me 15mpg. I used the throttle like a light switch to maintain speed on the highway. full on.. full off full on full off..

Not that it was a rental, but I had a guy show up for a job interview in a several-year-old Cavalier ragtop with:

GO TOPLESS

$0 down!

...across the windshield in white and yellow paint. Not a great idea to park such a thing directly in front of the storefront office where you're applying for a job.

Duke wrote:

ignorant wrote: once rented a new chevy cav(2000 or 2001) for a job interview. In a 150 mile round trip drive, I was able to get it to give me 15mpg. I used the throttle like a light switch to maintain speed on the highway. full on.. full off full on full off..

Not that it was a rental, but I had a guy show up for a job interview in a several-year-old Cavalier ragtop with: GO TOPLESS $0 down! ...across the windshield in white and yellow paint. Not a great idea to park such a thing directly in front of the storefront office where you're applying for a job.

thats funny.

Holed the oil pan in our rental Ford Edge at Rally Defi while recce'ing 5 days ago. Flat towed it from the middle of butt-F nowhere to a town in the middle of butt-F nowhere as the insurance is void if used on gravel roads. Poured some oil into the motor so it would have that "natural" look to parking it with some oil still in the motor and pouring onto the ground. Removed recce stickers.

Apparently everyone behind us could tell the rock we hit by the big puddle of oil surrounding it

HiTempguy wrote: Holed the oil pan in our rental Ford Edge at Rally Defi while recce'ing 5 days ago. Flat towed it from the middle of butt-F nowhere to a town in the middle of butt-F nowhere as the insurance is void if used on gravel roads. Poured some oil into the motor so it would have that "natural" look to parking it with some oil still in the motor and pouring onto the ground. Removed recce stickers. Apparently everyone behind us could tell the rock we hit by the big puddle of oil surrounding it

what hole? oh, THAT hole..

hahahahah!

what hole? oh, THAT hole.. hahahahah!

Do you think it would end up being a big deal since we left the muffler cement/tin patch on the oil pan? Nawwwwwwww

i probably have treated a rental car in the worst way lol...auto x...was going to take it to the track and spray it...but there is more just watch the vid :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5VWdRuceBI

enjoy

-kurt

I was 18 and rented a corolla, well I took it on a 3000 mile round trip to maine from DC. Well farms and corollas in reverse are lots of fun, and the ditches kind of surprise you from behind!!!

I rented a corolla. When I first got the thing all I coluld do was bitch about the bad handeling. When I took it to the local autoX I found the front tires were about 10 PSI low! adding some extra pressure up front really turned things around.

I got within 0.1 seconds of beating my friend in his "new to him" GTO (2005).

Normally, he is a good driver, as in I can't get anywhere near his time. He must have been having a bad day.

Being the good friend that I am, there is no way in hell I am going to let him live it down.

Redline in 5th on the autobahn. Then again, every single rental in Germany has probably done that.

Incidently a Ford Fusion 1.4 (Euro - it's one of those tall mini-hatchbacks over here) tops out at around 190 and really doesn't like it, while an Opel Astra 1.6 can handily crest 210 and is still rock solid.

I also used a rental to haul several bags of stinky compost to the dump a while back, but who hasn't done that?

J

Wait who rents cars for a job interview? For the interview for my current job I parked the AE92 right outside the front door (IIRC it was covered with those suspicious wispy swept-back splashmarks at the time).

Right now my still mud-covered Sammy is parked in plain view of the lunch room window. At least the indicators are back on today. If they don't like my old cars well too bad for them