I had an unexpected rental car experience this week.
Was given an Audi Q5 (the mild-hybrid version) Really nice. Full panoramic roof, black with black leather, convenience package. Clean, no dents, no scrapes, no damage, no brake dust build up on the wheels. Interior was perfect, floor mats were clean and showed no dirt of wear. No funky smells. A really nice rental considering everything from the past two years. I've had an BMW X5 as a rental in the past, so I was interested to see how they compared.
Start it up, and check all of the gauges. OK... 5500 miles. Well, that explains a lot. No, wait. That odometer is reading FIFTY FIVE THOUSAND miles. What? I stop and put on my glasses to be sure. Yep. 55,000 miles. The thing looked brand new, inside and out. I look at the tag on the keys. It's not a 2022 or a 2021... it's a 2020.
There is no way that it had been in daily rental service since 2020, with 55000 miles, and still looked this good. I found a 2020 registration card in the glovebox, and the original MA plates had been issued to National. I can only assume that it was some sort of an corporate / executive long-term lease unit, and it had been a "one driver" for much of that time. Then, when it was turned back in, they must have tossed it into the rental fleet. It had newer Hankook tires on it from Mavis tire.
The other odd thing? The plates didn't match the registration on the rental contract, but the VIN did. The rental had expired (2021) Massachusetts tags on it, 238F80. The rental contract stated that it had plates on it of "2CY5378". I reported the expired plates when I turned it back in. Another oddity.
All of that didn't really matter. I put 601 miles on it in one day, and handed it back. It did everything that I needed it to do for me. Cost of the rental was $42.50/day with unlimited miles. Averaged 31 mpg on 87 octane with the cruise set at 78mph for most of the day. As nice as it was, it didn't matter that it was a 2020 with 55,000 miles. All I needed was something to pound several hundred miles on, and then walk away (like always).
They did have a 2022 Maserati Levante GT, which was my first assigned vehicle, but it had a check engine light on as soon as I fired it up. Only 8,000 miles. Since I knew that I was going to literally be driving several hundred miles, I gave it up. That would have been a super fun rental, even at $4.29 a gallon for gas.
Was given an Audi Q5 (the mild-hybrid version) Really nice. Full panoramic roof, black with black leather, convenience package. Clean, no dents, no scrapes, no damage, no brake dust build up on the wheels. Interior was perfect, floor mats were clean and showed no dirt of wear. No funky smells. A really nice rental considering everything from the past two years. I've had an BMW X5 as a rental in the past, so I was interested to see how they compared.
Start it up, and check all of the gauges. OK... 5500 miles. Well, that explains a lot. No, wait. That odometer is reading FIFTY FIVE THOUSAND miles. What? I stop and put on my glasses to be sure. Yep. 55,000 miles. The thing looked brand new, inside and out. I look at the tag on the keys. It's not a 2022 or a 2021... it's a 2020.
There is no way that it had been in daily rental service since 2020, with 55000 miles, and still looked this good. I found a 2020 registration card in the glovebox, and the original MA plates had been issued to National. I can only assume that it was some sort of an corporate / executive long-term lease unit, and it had been a "one driver" for much of that time. Then, when it was turned back in, they must have tossed it into the rental fleet. It had newer Hankook tires on it from Mavis tire.
The other odd thing? The plates didn't match the registration on the rental contract, but the VIN did. The rental had expired (2021) Massachusetts tags on it, 238F80. The rental contract stated that it had plates on it of "2CY5378". I reported the expired plates when I turned it back in. Another oddity.
All of that didn't really matter. I put 601 miles on it in one day, and handed it back. It did everything that I needed it to do for me. Cost of the rental was $42.50/day with unlimited miles. Averaged 31 mpg on 87 octane with the cruise set at 78mph for most of the day. As nice as it was, it didn't matter that it was a 2020 with 55,000 miles. All I needed was something to pound several hundred miles on, and then walk away (like always).
They did have a 2022 Maserati Levante GT, which was my first assigned vehicle, but it had a check engine light on as soon as I fired it up. Only 8,000 miles. Since I knew that I was going to literally be driving several hundred miles, I gave it up. That would have been a super fun rental, even at $4.29 a gallon for gas.