I think this discussion doesn’t belong in the “good buy of the day” thread…because we are talking about BAD buys.
So…fire away!
I’ll start.
Is a Kia Forte really a midsize car??
how standing in line for an hour and a half to get the car?
I personally hate it when you rent a car, and the company says “Hyundai Elantra or equivalent” and you get something not as nice.
My midsize rental was supposed to be a Hyundai Elantra or equivalent. I had the choice of Chevy Cruse, or Kia Forte. I mean really…the forte is fine…but I didn’t expect this to be my choice! This is Budget…and I’m a frequent flyer with them.
@Iglooo The only reason I continue to rent with Budget is that I do NOT have to wait on line. My husband uses Avis because he has Avis preferred…again…no waiting on line!
On the way to South Africa, my parents, DH, and I stopped over in England for a couple of days. We rented a car so that we could drive around. The first night we had the car, we got a flat tire and there was no spare in the trunk. Fortunately, we were near our B&B, but it was a problem. We could not get through to anyone on the phone. We finally called the reservation number, because we knew they would answer that line! Long story short, it wasn’t until early the next afternoon that they sent someone out to fix the flat.
That same trip, a pheasant flew into the rear view mirror and damaged it. The company charged my dad for that damage along with the flat tire. Hundreds of dollars. It was Avis. I won’t use them again.
Worst car rental experience was not mine! I was getting our car at Budget/Maui, telling the agent the usual no on gas and insurance and listened how the sales agent next to us was trying to schmooze a European couple into getting a very expensive upgrade - a great “deal” on some limited edition car for $250 a day!!! The couple was there on honeymoon, first time in the US, and they had no idea what was reasonable and what was not. When the husband started to question if that upgrade was worth their hard earned money, the agent began shaming the guy for being a tightwad! Like a honeymoon only happens once in a lifetime, like the guy got the girl and now does not have to shower her with luxuries, etc. I could not believe my ears! I wanted to go there and tell the agent that he was a slimeball, but Mr. stopped me.
BTW… if you don’t buy insurance and gas, they will give you the worst car on the lot.
BB…as a preferred customer, I get to choose any car within a certain area in the lot. This is where all their midsize cars are located. No way for them to know about my insurance or gas purchase…or not…before I choose my car.
I will no longer rent from Enterprise. Returned a car in Philly and they claimed I damaged the roof. (There were visible scratches, but they were over the passenger side which had remained unused.) I typically walk around the car prior to driving it out of the lot, but it was an SUV and I’m short. Didn’t think to check the roof. I did not pay extra – don’t know if my charge card company ended up paying a damage claim.
Now I take pics and make sure I include the roof.
Googled this online at the time and discovered lots of unhappy female Enterprise renters who had similar experiences – some even from the Philly airport office. Felt like a scam.
Rented a car at Newark airport (Budget) to drop our son at school. Midway through our trip while visiting Mystic Seaport car decides (yes it became possessed) it won’t allow us to roll down windows AND AC won’t work. Called roadside service and was told we needed to locate local Budget dealer AND WE needed to arrange exchange.
Ok…so shocking but no dealer wanted to take possessed car and trade it out for a working vehicle…
Finally was able to exchange but agent was rude and acted like we ruined her day…
Did I mention it was in the 90’s with high humidity…really fun…
The excited end was being told we would be charged $100 refueling fee at the exchange dealer because we didn’t stop to refill the quarter tank…we didn’t have time as dealer was closing at 6pm and it was 5:45. We were told take the car now and eat the $100 fee or wait till the next day to get the car…
On the upside I probably sweat out 10 pounds in the possessed car…
NEVER AGAIN BUDGET!
@thumper1 I usually go with National for the same reason. But this time, it was on sale for half the price. Now I know.
“BTW… if you don’t buy insurance and gas, they will give you the worst car on the lot.”
This hasn’t been my experience. And we’ve often been able to take our pick without being a preferred member.
“BTW… if you don’t buy insurance and gas, they will give you the worst car on the lot.”
Obviously, this applies to the rental places where the agent assigns a specific car to you, not where you get to choose which one you want. 
I actually like to get a pre-scratched car…
I hate it when you have reserved a specific car for a specific reason at a specific price, and you arrive at the airport only to be told that they don’t have it.
For those saying “never again” to a certain rental car company - you do know that they are all owned by the same companies, right?
The last I paid attention to this, Avis owned both Avis and Budget. Enterprise owned Enterprise, National and Alamo. Hertz owned Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty. There may have been some changes recently; I’m not sure. But either way, these are all conglomerates.
Bad car rental experience: Arriving in Boston for D’s graduation. Picked up a car that for whatever reason, the shift was something I wasn’t used to, so I mistakenly shifted it into a manual setting and got myself in 2nd gear. I started to drive on the highway and I just couldn’t get myself past, say, 20-30 mph and the RPM gauge was revving to danger zones and I was genuinely afraid the car was going to overheat and blow, so I limped back to the car rental company thinking that I had a lemon. Boy, was I embarrassed when they showed me that the car was fine, but I had put the shift in something unusual! (In my defense, it totally looked like a normal shift and that I was in drive.)
Here is a headsup for others so they can avoid doing this:
After waiting in a very slow line for 10 minutes (Alamo) we decided to try the electronic kiosk - it’s like an ATM and you can supposedly do everything on the machine without a human clerk. After 5 minutes of inputting all my info I tried to add my wife as a second driver, and the cost went up $150! I wasted another 10 minutes or so calling Budget to see if they charged extra to add a spouse as an extra driver and they said “no”. Was about to leave and mentioned the problem to a human being who explained that their ATM/computer machine can’t tell my wife is my wife because her name is different, and they in fact do not charge extra for a spouse as extra driver. So, we wasted maybe 30 minutes, and lesson is, don’t try to add your wife with different last name as driver using an ATM type kiosk machine at Alamo!!
Had a cracked windshield on another trip. My own insurance covered it under comprehensive.
Wow, so many bad experiences! The last several rentals we’ve done have been with Advantage. There have been no lines, no upsell-in fact we were upgraded without even asking on one occasion. We always decline gas and insurance and get very nice, clean, unmarked cars. The last few times we got a VW Passat, which got 40+ mpg and ran so quietly we could have mistaken it for our Prius. HUGE trunk, needed for D’s college move-in. No problems with being charged for damage we didn’t notice (though we do take photos). Easy drop-off at a kiosk. Highly recommend, but I don’t think they’re in all airports or cities.
^^In my experience, the kiosks ask you to enter everything and then - boom! - something happens, and you have to start the process again.
Some issues are really location-specific issues (as tried and tested more than once). Avis in HNL nitpicks every little thing upon return. For example… Someone splashed a little bit of shave ice on the side of our car (you know, that shaved ice in a paper cup with some bright dye-colored syrup in it). The agent argued it was “damage” on the car until I used my spit to rub it off with a finger to prove it was dirt. That grossed her out, and she backed off. 
We rent cars fairly often and I have to say overall we have had pretty good experiences. However I will not rent from Budget/Avis. For a long time they were the only rental agency in our town, and twice we reserved cars and they did not have them is stock when we arrived. The second time they had no cars in stock at all and we were left hanging. The first time, we had to upgrade and even after I got on the phone with their corporate office and argued that I should not have to pay for an upgrade, I had to if I wanted the car. I equated it to making a hotel reservation and then showing up and not having a room available, but they didn’t care. Fortunately, Enterprise is here now and we have had good luck with them.
The only other issue we have had is when I rented a car in Baltimore, drove an hour to our hotel and found we could not close the trunk. I ended up leaving my girls at the hotel as it was late and we had not eaten, drove back to the airport, and traded cars. They did give me a free upgrade to a very nice car. BTW, I never buy insurance/gas and have not noticed that I have been penalized in any way.
Of course you’re “penalized” if you don’t buy gas - it’s refilled at their rate which is a lot higher than what you’d pay at the pump.
Getting to the car rental place (Fox) and finding out that instead of the compact I’d reserved, the only thing they had left was a PT Cruiser with soaking wet carpets that had just been washed. And no other cars to be had elsewhere due to some big convention in town.
To top it off, when I returned the vehicle the computer system was down, and when they finally completed the checkin when their system came back on line, it was about 7 hours later – and they charged through an extra day’s rental. I got that fixed by Amex when they saw that my return flight was 2 hours after I’d dropped off the car at the adjacent airport, and that I’d just refueled at the gas station a block from the drop off before returning the car. (Though neither of those two pieces of evidence were sufficient for the car rental company to deal with it when I called them. Yet another reason why I’m a 35+ year Amex cardholder. And never rented again from Fox.)