Remember PT Cruisers? Those were “reserved” at Dollar and other rentals in HI for folks who did not buy insurance or pre-paid a tank of gas. 
The agent would ask if we wanted their insurance… Nope, not interested. An upgrade, perhaps? Nope.Then the agent would disappear to look for a car because they “are running low on the smaller ones” and finally hand us a key. You bet it was the lonely PT Cruiser among nice small Fords and Kias etc. waiting for us!
I don’t recall any outright terrible experiences, but I do have one good story and one funny story. The good one was when we were dropping D off freshman year. We flew cross country, arrived quite tired at night and I was ready to collect the “Nissan Altima or equivalent” I had reserved through Hertz. Got a text from Hertz when we landed saying, “Your Mercedes Benz E-class is ready for you in stall 9”. Sure enough, somehow I got a free upgrade to an MB, so I felt like Daddy Warbucks driving around town and dropping D off which helped ease the usual “dropping only child at college for the first time” routine. That is the first and only luxury upgrade I’ve gotten from Hertz in regularly renting from them for the past 20 years, so what a coincidence it was when I had the whole family along for an emotional and significant event.
The funny story was returning to the airport after an awesome vacation in Maui. For those that’ve been there, you know there’s only the one road to the airport from the resorts. We left 3 hours early for the airport, but immediately ran into stalled traffic. We moved literally 100 feet in an hour. Finally a police car come driving down the shoulder saying the road is closed (there was a brush fire, ended up the road was closed for a few days). Panic sets in, mainly due to the fact that W’s sister is arriving at our house the next day (she lives about a 20 hour flight away, so it’s a non-trivial trip). Call the hotel we just left to see if we can stay another night, nope all full. After flailing for a while, I think a kind hotel clerk told us that there’s a local airport up the street, the opposite direction of the fire! We called our travel agent and got a connecting flight to Oahu to meet up with our regular flight. Anyway, the rental car part of the story is that we ditched the car in the parking lot of this small local airport; I called Hertz and basically said, “Hey I left your car there in the parking lot sorry about that.” They said “no problem” and didn’t even charge a fee!
The ending of the story is that TSA manually searched every single person and bag on that little connecting flight. Every person on the flight was stranded like us and had made reservations 30 minutes before the flight left, which apparently triggers an elevated threat warning and a search. So the flight was delayed, then we had to literally run the entire length of the airport in Oahu to make our flight. We could hear the gate agent paging us by name while we were running! “Mr Anomander, your flight is about to leave. Please report to the gate.” “Mrs Anomander, your flight is about to leave. Please report to the gate.” “Little Ms Anomander, your flight is about to leave. Please report to the gate.” Yeah, that’s fun to hear while you’re running with luggage!
We got one once that was so doused in nasty perfume that I had to decline to take the trip. My eyes were watering and it was hard to breathe.
My H travels a fair amount for business and has a Hertz Gold card. The one good thing about it is that you don’t hae to wait in line. You look for your name on a board and go to the car.
Last time we rented a car, H and I were running late and H said–we don’t have time to fill up–how much can they charge us. LOL We were charged: $8.95 per gallon. Luckily, we han’d used much gas, but it still was a shocker. From now on, I’ll make time.
@Anomander, good to know about the little airport - I never thought about using it (would have just camped on the beach, LOL)! We once got stuck on that road for 3 hours… remnants of a brush fire and a burned body in a truck found at the spot where the fire started…
@takeitallin - My S had a similar experience with Budget. He reserved and prepaid for an economy rental car. When he arrived at the airport at the indicated pick up time, he was told that the only car available was a luxury sports car at more than double the rate. When he protested that Budget should give him the upgrade at the same rate, the agent not only refused, but loudly stated that he was “holding up the line” and needed to “take it or leave it.” It was late and he was traveling with his GF at the time, so he paid for the upgraded car.
He later disputed the additional charge through AMEX, and then Budget turned him over to collections. Fortunately, I was able to get Budget to drop the matter after sending them a nice letter about bait and switch practices.
For work travel, I usually use National and the Emerald Aisle, but for Labor Day Weekend I was doing some personal travel, and decided to use autoslash.com which I had heard about here (had used it once previously). I had reserved a car with another company, but with autoslash I could save $30 using Avis so I figured why not.
When we got to the counter we were asked all the usual questions (no to gas, no to extra insurance). I had reserved a mid-size car and they asked if we wanted a Toyota Camry or a Ford Fusion. We picked the Camry and I signed all the stuff (I’m short and had to be on my tip-toes to reach the screen) and then the next day I noticed instead of the $77 charge I was expecting, it was over $200. I called autoslash and they said it looked like I had been upgraded to a full size car and I needed to contact Avis. I tried calling their 800 number and was told I needed to call the airport. Called the airport and they said they had lots of people in line but would call me back. They didn’t call me back (I had to call them) and they said I agreed to it when I signed everything. I complained that they asked me which car I wanted, but NEVER said those were not the class of car I had reserved and there would be an extra charge.
I told them they were very deceptive and I was going to make a formal complaint, and they finally said they would charge me the amount I was expecting.
My husband thought I should have let it go but it made me really mad. If they had ASKED me if I wanted to pay to upgrade to a full size car, I would have said no. I think they should have said the words out loud and not expected me to catch it when I signed the electronic screen that was above my head. But if I ever use Avis again, I will be holding up the line by reading every single word before I sign anything
“Last time we rented a car, H and I were running late and H said–we don’t have time to fill up–how much can they charge us. LOL We were charged: $8.95 per gallon. Luckily, we han’d used much gas, but it still was a shocker. From now on, I’ll make time.”
You guys never realized that you get gouged for not returning a car with a full tank??
BB, what’s wrong with a PT Cruiser? As long as it’s the right price …
We rented from Enterprise because their for patients rate was about 1/2 what I could get from Costco. First, they claimed they didn’t have our reservations and we had to pick the car up at our hotel, then they found our reservations and gave us any car in the lot and a free tank of gas.
The tire developed a slow leak, so we called the toll-free number. They told us we had to pay to fix it on our own time and dime. I made H pull into an Enterprise we passed on the road. They said they just swapped their last car to another customer. They did tell us we could go to any Firestone or Big O and get the slow leak repaired and put on the Enterprise account and there was one across the street. We cooled our heels and waited hours to get the tire repaired. Later, when we returned the car, they charged us for an extra hour, as if we had picked up the car when we were first turned away from Enterprise! It sure left us with a bad taste for Enterprise.
Sadly, I believe there are very few car rental companies left, as all have merged. Service is very iffy and prices are higher with reduced competition. We are learning the joys of public transit instead. Still, for medical appts, I do prefer facing my own rental.
I’ve always had the price per gallon, if fueling is declined, spelled out on the rental contract. No reason for surprises. Just get out your contract and look. The past few years the charge per gallon is still more than the local pump price but far cheaper than the exorbitant charges rental companies used to charge. I think they clued into the fact that its better to make a little of more people than a lot off very few.
Pizzagirl, ugliness aside, those things rattled and literally started to fall apart at about 15K on the odometer. We found it funny that it was always a PT Cruiser we got and that the agent took her sweet time to locate one for us… to the point that I pre-emptively began telling the agents “anything but a PT.” 
It did not take long for all of them to be off the roads.
Elantra, Cruze, and Forte are roughly similar in size and market segment, and the Forte is from Hyundai’s sister brand Kia.
Generally, specific rental car models are a lottery. It is common to get a larger non premium vehicle after reserving a smaller one, though some renters did not like that when fuel was $4 per gallon.
I reserved a car weeks in advance at Alamo Albuquerque airport. The price was ridiculously low, like $10/day or less. I arrived to find a long line to check in. People behind me decided to use the self-serve kiosk (they had no advance reservation) to check in. Me and the other suckers who had made advance reservations watched as 3 groups of people checked in quickly with the automatic kiosk. I was also told by the Alamo agent that an additional driver would be $25 PER DAY, so this appears to be an Alamo policy. The real last straw: We went out to get our car and there were none left because they had been given to the people (without reservations) who had checked in at the kiosk!
We waited about 15 minutes before they rounded up a giant black SUV with totally black tinted windows for us. The car was “not in their system” so they couldn’t explain why the “change oil” light had not been addressed. I half expected to find packages of drugs stuffed under the seats.
Oh that’s why I always get Cruze except for one time that I bought the insurance and got free upgrade to Explorer?
Yeah–but never thought it was as much as it was. Also, never bothered to look at the contract. We’ve always filled up before. In the end, it was probably cheaper to pay for the 2 gallons of gas than it would have been to pay for changing our flight.
@pizzagirl - well of course you are penalized if you don’t fill up the car before you return it! I never pre-pay for a tank of gas- I just always fill at a gas station before I return it!
Just an FYI: always take your gas receipt with you when returning the car just in case! To qualify as a return with a full tank of gas, Dollar in HI required a receipt from a gas station within 5 miles.
We rented a car in Dallas…and this was back when you did this by phone. It was for college visit trips. All I asked was that we NOT get a Daiwoo. I was assured that they did not rent Daiwoo cars…ever at all.
Yep…we got there and the only car they had was Daiwoo. You know…W done in Texas drives an SUV, and there we were in this teeny tiny Daiwoo sedan. Talk about a clunker. I would gladly have taken a PR Cruiser!
Recently I rented from Budget at National Airport. The guy gave me the spiel about, “you’re getting the basic package, right?” and I thought, “right”, until I saw that it was $250 instead of the $110 that I had reserved. I bet they fool a lot of people that way. I couldn’t hear out of one ear either from the flight descending which didn’t help.
He also tried to get me to upgrade and we declined. Walked up to get our “hyundai elantra or equivalent” and it was a red Jeep! I don’t think he was being nice. I think he was being passive aggressive and giving us something bigger than we wanted. There hadn’t been a line or wait but we didn’t want to go back and change it so we drove the Jeep for the next few days.