Had a rental car this week with some unexpected twists.

Joined
Dec 8, 2006
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Illinois
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.
 
Sometimes you get a nice one.

My wife organized a trip for the extended family (cousins) trip to Norway a few years ago. On the island of Stord we needed a rental for a few days. We put in an internet order for the cheapest possible car and (since they didn't have one of those) gave us a small Audi Hybrid instead. We really liked that car. The only thing that gave me pause was the screen rising out of the dash every time it started. I wouldn't count on that being trouble free.

And in Quebec City we had rented a small cheap car and were given a Volvo instead because that's all they had on the lot. Another very nice car.
 
It happens sometimes I took a vacation last summer to northern California they gave me a Audi Q7 a few weeks ago I went to Florida they told me any car with a open trunk I found in the corner a Volvo S60 T6 AWD bizarre thing NY plates sold from my local Volvo dealership. Both very nice vehicles
 
Wow glad you had a great experience. My wife and I were in Austin Texas at the airport about a month ago and rented a Nissan Kicks. The right rear tire had a slow leak and we had to fill it every morning. The car was not washed very well and the interior was not vacuumed very good at all. Most of the places with air charged $2.00 to fill it therefore we paid every morning to fill it up. The car came from Hertz/Dollar rental company. Upon returning the car the attendant walked around the car and said everything looked ok and throw the keys on the dash. A couple days later I received an email that stated they needed my insurance information because the car had $750 worth of damage. I disputed it and won therefore I paid zero. I though it was nice of Hertz/Dollar to waive the fee and the damage however next time I rent a car I am going to date stamp pictures before returning the car. Here is the damage on the right rear bumper cover $750.00. BE CAREFULL WHEN RENTING CARS AND TAKE PICTURES.
 

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higher plushness @ higher rental cost.
I've known that make to B nice for awhile. But not long. Even w/good maintainence schedule...nice car, not durable. Most of the european are like that now (yes, even MB since the late 80s). Not only that but when comming into the shop - hard to wrk on. Nice motors & handeling, comfort but the rest - not so much. Buy one, 2nd or 4th yr? let me know how much U wanna keep it.
 
higher plushness @ higher rental cost.
I've known that make to B nice for awhile. But not long. Even w/good maintainence schedule...nice car, not durable. Most of the european are like that now (yes, even MB since the late 80s). Not only that but when comming into the shop - hard to wrk on. Nice motors & handeling, comfort but the rest - not so much. Buy one, 2nd or 4th yr? let me know how much U wanna keep it.
I bought a 3 year old BMW 528i M-sport with a 5 speed manual. Kept it for 19 years. It was a great car.
 
Was just going to post about high mileage rental cars. Rented from Hertz a couple days ago and ended up in a 2020 Malibu with 58k on the clock - except for some seat staining and many door dings it was in pretty decent condition. I was pretty surprised at the mileage as back when I travelled extensively for work and rented through National pretty much 99% of the cars I rented were under 10k miles, I think back then the highest I saw was 18k miles on a Maxima I had for a few days.

Guess the car supply problem really did hit the rental market pretty hard and they are probably having to keep them longer than typical.
 
Wow glad you had a great experience. My wife and I were in Austin Texas at the airport about a month ago and rented a Nissan Kicks. The right rear tire had a slow leak and we had to fill it every morning. The car was not washed very well and the interior was not vacuumed very good at all. Most of the places with air charged $2.00 to fill it therefore we paid every morning to fill it up. The car came from Hertz/Dollar rental company. Upon returning the car the attendant walked around the car and said everything looked ok and throw the keys on the dash. A couple days later I received an email that stated they needed my insurance information because the car had $750 worth of damage. I disputed it and won therefore I paid zero. I though it was nice of Hertz/Dollar to waive the fee and the damage however next time I rent a car I am going to date stamp pictures before returning the car. Here is the damage on the right rear bumper cover $750.00. BE CAREFULL WHEN RENTING CARS AND TAKE PICTURES.
joekingcorvette: how was your rented nissan kicks’ driving experience?
 
one can change that function (date stamp) to anything they want, no?
Would it stand up to a judge? I have no camera like that so am asking for usability, reality...
 
joekingcorvette: how was your rented nissan kicks’ driving experience?
The Nissan Kicks was a great car and we were able to get well over 30 mpg combined city and highway driving. I was surprised I could obtain good mileage because it is taller than a regular small sedan and its considered an SUV.
 

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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.


We have a 2019 Q5 and we love it. It is very comfortable, quiet and get great gas mileage. It is our go to vehicle for long trips it truly is effortless.
This is the first german car we have owned that there is little to no brake dust, it sounds silly but most of the time I would be washing a car just due to the dust on the wheels. We had a 2007 A6 which had 150k miles on it and the interior looked incredible with little care.
 
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