As car enthusiasts, we love an opportunity to slide behind the wheel of something different. However, experiencing new cars can be hard. Unless you work in the auto industry or intentionally drive a horribly unreliable German car as a gambit to snag seat time in dealership loaner vehicles, rental fleets are likely your best chance of getting behind the wheel of new stuff.
An inarguable truth about rental car roulette is that sometimes you win and other times you don’t. For every free upgrade, there’s a neglected Nissan Altima just waiting to proclaim that it’s seen tens of thousands of hard miles.
The last actual rental car I was in was a Volkswagen Jetta, and you know what? It was great. Apple CarPlay connected instantaneously, noise on the highway was remarkably low, the seats were all-day comfortable, the trunk swallowed all our luggage, and the fuel bill was microscopic. It was objectively a great car for a whirlwind trip to Calgary, and it felt like it punched far above its weight class.
So, what was your last rental car, and how was it? Whether you were a lucky duck in a muscle car or left the airport with a pre-dented Buick Encore, we’d love to know about your latest rental car experience in the comments below.
(Photo credits: Volkswagen)
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I don’t care if that Jetta is the greatest car ever, it looks like a cheap knockoff Ford Fusion from ten years ago.
I think the last rental car I actually drove was a Toyota CH-R a number of years ago now (work travel still hasn’t come back in full since covid, sadly). The interior felt nicer than your average rental-spec Kia (which I have had a number of too), but I wasn’t a fan of the way it drove. Two problems, one of which was arguably my fault:
The worst part of 1 is that I had a choice of two vehicles at the Hertz lot when I got there: The CH-R or a Tahoe. I took the CH-R because I was planning to drive a fair amount and didn’t want to pay for gas in a Tahoe, but the Tahoe would definitely have made the rainy/slushy/snowy drive into the mountains more pleasant and gas wouldn’t have cost that much more over a couple of days.
(and if this sounds familiar, it’s probably because I’ve told this story multiple other times here and on the old site)
I rented a Polaris Slingshot so that my son and i could drive the Tail of the Dragon this past week in something decently fun while on a college tour vacation. The Slingshot was terrible compared to his NC Miata. The motor was raspy and slow to rev. The brakes were so bad they were scary and yet engine braking was not happening much with the low weight of the vehicle. The tires were all different brands of cheap chinese tire, which meant that keeping the rear wheel from slipping was not easy. The rest of it was cheap plastic like from an amusement park ride. I honestly have no idea why people buy these. That being said, it was fun for 4 hours to experience a great road in something other then our family vehicle. We both wished we had his Miata within about 100 feet of driving the slingshot.
I like to live life a little dangerous with Turo. Last summer I went to a friend’s wedding in Texas and as it was a gathering of Fiat fam, I grabbed a cheap and cheerful Fiat 500 Pop. Aside from being a couple years newer (2014 iirc) it was a twin to my first 500 so I was ready to go down memory lane. Only I had a 2012 Pop back in 2013. With 8000 miles. This one was nearing a decade old with about 100k on the clock. The brakes were not fantastic, every panel was dinged, it definitely needed engine mounts and the transmission had completely lost the plot. I quietly sent the owner a message outside of the Turo system informing him of the state of the car after the rental was finished. Last “official” rental car I had was a Nissan Altima about 7 years ago. It was a Nissan Altima.
> the transmission had completely lost the plot.
That’s funny.
Probably nothing a good service couldn’t fix, plus the poor thing probably hadn’t seen a consistent driving style in ages, so it was all sorts of confused
Last rental car was a dealer loaner 2016 or so Lincoln MKZ. Nice car with lots of goodies. The 2.0T was torquey and fun to buzz around with. Quiet, comfortable ride.
I don’t rent cars often so most of my rentals are Penske box trucks or Menards pickups. The Penskes I think were all Internationals and decent to drive. The last one was incredibly slow, though. It was hard to drive it freeway speeds.
The Menard-mobiles were low-trim Dodge/Rams. I can see why people like pickups. Great visibility, reasonably peppy unloaded and so much cargo space.
If I’m not wrong, it was a Nissan Kicks. It was Ok, a reasonably comfortable device to bring the dog and us to the beach, to do monthly shopping, and go to the restaurants where walking or Uber are not feasible. Perhaps it was a Nissan Rogue Sport, which was the same but slightly bigger and less agile, and worst mpg.
Boring as fuck, both of them, but rather competent vehicles I could live with.
I haven’t rented a car in a while. The last time I was at the rental counter, they hit me with the “manager’s special” spiel. I didn’t know better and happily forked over an additional $5 a day to upgrade from a compact to a V6 New Edge Mustang convertible in my favorite color, yellow!
I had a great time driving it around. The only problem I had was when I ran over what turned out to be a wad of plastic sheeting that wrapped itself around the driveshaft, causing a horrific vibration. I managed to cut it off, but it was EXTREMELY difficult to get to, since the jack was missing.
Anyway, I drove it around Texas for a couple days, and even ended up driving it in my grandmother’s funeral procession. My family all gave me crap for not putting the top down on the way to the cemetery, but I insisted on observing proper decorum.
I bet a yellow mustang blended in to the funeral procession
A yellow Mustang CONVERTIBLE! Totally blended.
Last rental was a brand new Wrangler while in Banff. I was kinda expecting to hate it – it would get used most driving Calgary to Banff and back – but I actually kinda loved it. My wife has always wanted one, and now I’m hoping that she gets one. It was naturally great on the backroads around the trails, but was also much better on the highway than I expected it would be. WAY better than a 4Runner I test drove a couple years ago.
About a month prior, I had a SsangYong Korando From Sixt…which was way too big for the roads I was driving in Ireland. It was ok. Took a while to figure out what it was. It had no discernible badging, just a couple logos.
I can’t remember which of the last two was the last (not counting the 300S I got while my Mazda was getting recalled), so I’ll do them both.
Mini Cooper. This was in about 2014-15. I am 6 foot 3 and over 300 pounds. It was a hoot. It made me giggle. I want one.
2014-ish Escape Titanium. Just a great small SUV to drive, if you ignore that it drinks way more premium gas than it should. Handled great, peppy, comfortable. I seriously considered buying one as a result.
CX-5 in rental spec: Top trim with the base engine.
Took it on a work trip from Ottawa to Burlington & back.
Drove great, classic Mazda handling and the radar cruise and whatnot functioned great until it iced over.
But the SEATS. My god, if I ever sit in CX5 seats again it’ll be too soon. I couldn’t feel my backside after that drive. Concrete is more forgiving.
Last summer it was a 2018 Subaru Forester Limited with Maine plates (of course). Had 63K miles and was remarkably fine. A little loud on the highway, but overall not bad. The starter motor sounded like the Start-Stop system had it doing overtime for the past 5 years, but old grindy kept cranking.
Last Thanksgiving it was a 2023 Dodge Charger GT (the look of a V8 with a V6). Full size and good enough all around. The infotainment system was better than I expected for a car that was designed way back. One tire was a little low compared to the other 3 (35 psi compared to 45 psi) at the time we picked it up and later it got much lower. Enterprise national help desk wanted me to drive it 1.5 hours back to where I rented it with a mostly flat tire. Called the local rental location and they said take it over to Kyle at that tire shop on main. Tell him Steve sent you. Small town networking got the tire patched in 45 mins.
Rented a compact car at the local mall-based Avis/Budget outlet. Lately, it’s been a crap shoot as to what I’ll get when I order a “compact”. Once, they gave me a Dodge Challenger. Another time it was a nearly-ruined Hyundai Venue that shook badly at speeds over 55 mph. This time I was lucky – it was a new-ish Kia Forte – which turned out to be a pleasant long-distance highway cruiser, with great MPG, as I drove several days from NC to Pittsburgh, and then on to North Madison,OH to view the full eclipse on the shore of Lake Erie.
A brand new Mazda 3 sedan for a week ending with literally 2 days ago. Took a trip to Nashville TN to see some friends.
It was surprisingly unremarkable. To be fair, it is a REALLY nice looking car, and feels like it’s firmly in the luxury bracket, but it’s at the expense of a completely detached driving experience. I used to own its admittedly much dumber looking predecessor 2 generations ago – a 2011 sedan. Mine was a manual, with a torquey but unsophisticated 2.5L 4 banger under the hood. I remember it was reasonably quick and handled okay. So I expected at least that from the newer, lower-slung, and better appointed version I got. It’s definitely not that.
Half the time when I was leaving I accidentally left the car on. Couldn’t grasp the push to start button – I think you need to either hold it down, or press it twice to properly turn the car off…
Anyway, with that said, it’s a nice car, I’m just used to simpler ones. I recently parted with a 2008 honda fit, which I crashed. And now drive a 2012 golf TDI with a manual – both of which are considerably more mechanical than the newer offerings on the market today…
A Chrysler Pacifica, it handled the 7+ hour road trip to and from Indy just fine, was probably overkill for me plus two bags, but it was the same price as the compact, and probably much more comfortable than the Nissan I would have had instead.
Volvo XC60 Recharge for a week. Very nice interior, and great ride quality. Didn’t have the opportunity to charge it with a plug-in charger, so the “recharge” part was weird — it never seemed to build up that much of a charge. It was pretty quick when necessary, but I wouldn’t want to corner hard in it. Nice to open the roof shade once we actually figured out that it had a glass roof.
It had Google Maps built in, with a split display where the instrument cluster behind the steering wheel had the very local map view, with the global map view on the tablet-sized display in the center of the console. This was fantastic for navigating unfamiliar roads.
After my car accident last year, I was in a rental Kia Forte for a few weeks. I found that interesting because my previous car (before the one in the accident) had been a Forte. So it was like going back in time, except in an automatic.
It was annoying. It had CarPlay but it wasn’t wireless, so I couldn’t be bothered. The key fob was gigantic, but maybe that’s a rental thing. The visibility was very poor, and I found myself constantly leaning during curves, to try and see around the A-pillars.
I came to realize that it was only the manual transmission which had made my previous Forte bearable.
KL series Jeep Cherokee, with the 4-cylinder engine. Apparently bought from a used car dealer in New Jersey by Hertz, after they unwisely dumped too much of their fleet during the pandemic. It was… adequate.
I flew into Burbank but my flight was delayed, so when I arrived the rental counter was closed. I guess I’ve only used rental cars during business hours or from huge airports with 24 hour desks, so it never occurred to me to call ahead because of the delay. We could see a hotel across the street so we ran through the pouring rain and got a room. I bolted awake at 4am thinking that there is a chance our car reservation would be cancelled, then thought “nah…we’ll only be 3 or 4 WORKING hours later than the reservation, well within cancellation guidelines”. But on the off-chance I sprinted back across the street the second the desk opened. First in line, the agent said “Sir, your reservation is cancelled. The cheapest I can offer you is $350/day for a pickup truck”. She realized how stupid this was, so got on the internet herself (my phone picked this day to die) and went to Expedia and found me basically what I had originally reserved for just a couple dollars more. Perfect, I’ll get a Corolla (or similar) for under a hundred bucks. Then she said that she’d go ahead and upgrade me to a Chrysler 300, because in her words “they’re GLORIOUS”. Ok, whatever. I appreciated all of the extra help she’d given me and I didn’t want to look an upgrade in the mouth, so I took the 300 even though I would have preferred the Corolla. I get the keys and drive maybe a quarter mile to breakfast. Upon leaving the restaurant I realize the fob is barely working because of a bad battery. But I’m close, so I go back to the desk. Same agent says she has extra batteries, but they’re locked in the manager’s desk drawer and he’s not due in for another four hours. Super. But someone just dropped off another Chrysler 300 and she’d swap that one for mine. Ok, this is working out. I get the key, walk to the car, and while on paper it was an even swap, this one looks like crap. Like the previous renters had been coal miners and actually used it to haul coal. Perhaps rather than use fingertips to press buttons they’d used their pickaxe. But I’m so far behind schedule I’m not going back to that counter, so I drove away in that filthy 300, creaks and rattles be damned.
I recently went to a friend’s wedding and was given a mid-level trim of the Hyundai Venue (glad I had the one with the bigger wheels, as the base model looks so derpy with small ones). It was…fine. Stoked about the sunroof and wireless Carplay, but other than that, it was meh.
+ Fuel economy was good. I think I averaged 30+ mpg. Carplay was wireless. Sunroof! Manual hand brake (for reasons).
-The engine/CVT pairing is not incredible. Not a ton of room in the back.
As for past rental cars, I had a run of F-150’s for some reason. I think between ’16-19 I had 5 of these trucks, with almost every engine configuration they offered. The best engine was the 2.7 Ecoboost. Felt real perky for the unladen truck, and I would choose that if I wanted a Ford. Best truck was the King Ranch that they gave me as they had run out of normal cars (HEATED AND COOLED MESSAGING SEATS!).
Another interesting rental was a Mini Countryman. Awful due to no Carplay at the time, but all the Mini quirks are fun to play with.
2023 chevy Tahoe. Loaded. Got surprisingly good gas mileage. About 20 in 99% highway mileage. We needed room for 4 passengers and a good bit of cargo. It was great but we could have used the extra size of the suburban we reserved but wasn’t available. Was very comfortable to ride in. I won’t say it was fun to cross the mountains from Asheville towards Nashville in it as the driver but it was solid.
It was a Camry, and it was a Camry
I had an A3 in Colorado to head into the mountains. Chose it over the available 330i because I thought it had AWD and it was supposed to snow. Now I know that not all A3s have AWD. It was nice enough, but I was still happy to return to my MkV GTI.
Toyota Corolla.
The good: Excellent fuel economy. Decent highway cruiser. Android Auto was very handy.
The not so good: Infuriating throttle response (Due to Eco mode?) in which the throttle resists application and you either turtle away from a stoplight or have to mash it good to get decent acceleration (i.e. just to stay with traffic). Adaptive cruise not intuitive to set versus plain old cruise control, which is distracting when you don’t want to take your eyes off the unfamiliar road.
The verdict: Toyota builds another NPC-mobile. This is what the people want.
Most rental cars fall into this zone. Unless there’s something really notable about them, they fade into the background. I’ll do a quick summary of the rental cars that still stand out in my mind years later below:
I got a Mazda CX-30 as a free upgrade from the Camry I booked.
Highs: great ride/handling balance, decent economy, roomy enough inside, semi-interesting styling.
lows: it was slow-ish, I’d have to get the turbo. While roomy, its somewhat claustrophobic because of the low roof and narrow windows.
8/10, would rent again.
Both times I’ve been to Puerto Rico with my wife, we rented Jeep Wranglers. All due respect to Jeep lovers, but I cannot fathom having one as a daily driver. The only thing it excelled at was dealing with PR’s rather horrible roads (especially when the pavement ended near my favorite beach). Fuel economy in a flying brick was understandably abysmal, but the steering feel and acceleration were much worse.
Ford Rangers are everywhere down there, but I couldn’t find one to rent. Perhaps next time.
Two months ago, a Chevy Malibu. It felt like I was driving a discount subcompact. High revving gutless engine, unrefined ride, and driving it felt incredibly cramped despite its size.