Originally Posted By: cjcride
You can rent my Corolla anytime you want Nuke.
I'll offer a free upgrade to an Audi!
You can rent my Corolla anytime you want Nuke.
I'll offer a free upgrade to an Audi!
Rental Car Treatment
- Thread starter The_Nuke
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I have never had to rent a vehicle other than a U-Haul van for moving. I drive it and treat it as if it was my own.
Originally Posted By: Leo99
It's the rental company's responsibility to maintain the vehicle. Not wasting my time or money on that. If the windows are dirty, get the rental company to clean them.
I turned in their most expensive ride available (at the time), an F150, on Monday after only 2 days, and then I specifically requested something in their $35/day line for the coming week. That's how I ended up with this gem.
Yes, it is their responsibility to maintain the vehicles, and I certainly could have asked them to do another pass on cleaning the windows before leaving the lot. But I intentionally put myself on their lowest rung of priorities by going from a vehicle which no doubt makes them money to one which probably struggles to break even. Any extra window cleaning I ask for would be extra in name only and not in effort. Further, they likely push the maintenance schedules on these low-rent beauties so that they can actually do better than break even. I would be naive to think my windows would be any cleaner after asking for them to do it again than just doing it myself.
But that's assuming they could have done a better job at cleaning them than I did when I first tried it. I have no doubt their results would have been identical to mine - glass which has no visible dirt or grime, yet still has a slight haze to it when viewed in direct sunlight. This is my 3rd day in the car, and I have so far logged > 10 hours staring out through that glass. I have 3 more days to look forward to at this point. Any haze on the windows, no matter how tempting it might be to call imaginary, just isn't going to fly with me on the car. Thus, I knew I'd have to break out the clay on them. Well, not clay exactly, but Mother's synthetic equivalent recently introduced onto the market at a very reasonable price.
But at the end of the day, maybe that's what all of this is about. I've got lots of fancy (to me) trinkets like Mothers Clay 2.0 and the latest and greatest synthetic wax in a bottle which I can never hope to find enough reasons to play with on my one, lonely car. But if I were to periodically have access to a new(er), previously unkempt car...well, now, that might just be nirvana for some child-less, boring, automotive-inclined weirdo like me.
Come to think of it, I also got to break out my fancy (but way too expensive) grabber-and-hold-onto sockets to pull that drain-plug. I have been waiting for a chance to see those in action, and this was the perfect opportunity.
Maybe this is more about me than I originally thought...
It's the rental company's responsibility to maintain the vehicle. Not wasting my time or money on that. If the windows are dirty, get the rental company to clean them.
I turned in their most expensive ride available (at the time), an F150, on Monday after only 2 days, and then I specifically requested something in their $35/day line for the coming week. That's how I ended up with this gem.
Yes, it is their responsibility to maintain the vehicles, and I certainly could have asked them to do another pass on cleaning the windows before leaving the lot. But I intentionally put myself on their lowest rung of priorities by going from a vehicle which no doubt makes them money to one which probably struggles to break even. Any extra window cleaning I ask for would be extra in name only and not in effort. Further, they likely push the maintenance schedules on these low-rent beauties so that they can actually do better than break even. I would be naive to think my windows would be any cleaner after asking for them to do it again than just doing it myself.
But that's assuming they could have done a better job at cleaning them than I did when I first tried it. I have no doubt their results would have been identical to mine - glass which has no visible dirt or grime, yet still has a slight haze to it when viewed in direct sunlight. This is my 3rd day in the car, and I have so far logged > 10 hours staring out through that glass. I have 3 more days to look forward to at this point. Any haze on the windows, no matter how tempting it might be to call imaginary, just isn't going to fly with me on the car. Thus, I knew I'd have to break out the clay on them. Well, not clay exactly, but Mother's synthetic equivalent recently introduced onto the market at a very reasonable price.
But at the end of the day, maybe that's what all of this is about. I've got lots of fancy (to me) trinkets like Mothers Clay 2.0 and the latest and greatest synthetic wax in a bottle which I can never hope to find enough reasons to play with on my one, lonely car. But if I were to periodically have access to a new(er), previously unkempt car...well, now, that might just be nirvana for some child-less, boring, automotive-inclined weirdo like me.
Come to think of it, I also got to break out my fancy (but way too expensive) grabber-and-hold-onto sockets to pull that drain-plug. I have been waiting for a chance to see those in action, and this was the perfect opportunity.
Maybe this is more about me than I originally thought...
Originally Posted By: Linctex
What does the rental agreement say about doing maintenance?
I couldn't tell you. The Terms and Conditions page is so long and boring, it's intimidating to even think about trying to comprehend.
But then again, I suspect that is on purpose. They would prefer that I, as an average customer, do NOT read their terms and conditions. That give them the advantage in any edge cases. Fine. I'm content ceding that to them. They can have that victory, such as it is.
I purchased their daily insurance though, so if the need should arise, I will pour over the doc from start to finish and not stop until I understand every nook and cranny. But until such time as that becomes necessary, no sir, I prefer to just keep it bookmarked for later reference.
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Do you get credited for doing an oil change?
I have not received any on the 1 or 2 that I've done for them previously, and I do not expect to receive any compensation for this one either. That would require me piping up and admitting to doing it, which I do not plan on doing...voluntarily anyway.
The oil change took approx 30 minutes from when the idea first popped in my head until I was washing the last of the dirt off my hands. It cost me 3 quarts of oil off of a shelf of oil I have which I cannot ever hope to deplete due to my penchant for taking advantage of oil sales. In real dollars and sense, it was probably $8-12 of money out of my pocket. In real-life, practical cost, it was negligible at best. I now have more shelf room and less old product sitting there collecting dust. That's worth $10 to me any day.
I cannot in good conscience say that the car would have been worse off if I had not changed the oil last night. The same goes for the washing and waxing. However, I can say with full conscience that the car is now better off from what I did to it and for it.
How much better off?
Probably not a lot...but some, and some is all I'm after.
What does the rental agreement say about doing maintenance?
I couldn't tell you. The Terms and Conditions page is so long and boring, it's intimidating to even think about trying to comprehend.
But then again, I suspect that is on purpose. They would prefer that I, as an average customer, do NOT read their terms and conditions. That give them the advantage in any edge cases. Fine. I'm content ceding that to them. They can have that victory, such as it is.
I purchased their daily insurance though, so if the need should arise, I will pour over the doc from start to finish and not stop until I understand every nook and cranny. But until such time as that becomes necessary, no sir, I prefer to just keep it bookmarked for later reference.
Originally Posted By: Linctex
Do you get credited for doing an oil change?
I have not received any on the 1 or 2 that I've done for them previously, and I do not expect to receive any compensation for this one either. That would require me piping up and admitting to doing it, which I do not plan on doing...voluntarily anyway.
The oil change took approx 30 minutes from when the idea first popped in my head until I was washing the last of the dirt off my hands. It cost me 3 quarts of oil off of a shelf of oil I have which I cannot ever hope to deplete due to my penchant for taking advantage of oil sales. In real dollars and sense, it was probably $8-12 of money out of my pocket. In real-life, practical cost, it was negligible at best. I now have more shelf room and less old product sitting there collecting dust. That's worth $10 to me any day.
I cannot in good conscience say that the car would have been worse off if I had not changed the oil last night. The same goes for the washing and waxing. However, I can say with full conscience that the car is now better off from what I did to it and for it.
How much better off?
Probably not a lot...but some, and some is all I'm after.
Originally Posted By: Linctex
What does the rental agreement say about doing maintenance?
Do you get credited for doing an oil change?
Absolutely not. Working on a rental vehicle is prohibited in the T&C that you sign when you rent the vehicle. You won't get a thank you, you won't get a credit. You get credit for doing your part of the agreement: Pay the fee, fill the tank, do not smoke, do not crash.
I can't believe anyone would wash and wax and change oil on a rental car. I have a wonderful relationship with National, and I've rented many $60K+ vehicles from them, never once have I even considered going through all that work. I admit, I've washed one or two (for my own appearance, not the quality of the vehicle at return) and I actually (gasp) filled the Maserati I rented with premium as designed. I'm sure it had regular in it when I got it and I'm sure it had regular in it the next round.
With how simple National makes it to swap a car, it doesn't make much sense to do all this. If the car you have is worn/stained/neglected, go get another one. The other plus of National is that you pick your own car so you don't have to be stuck with a 12-15k mile beater that's 2k over on it's oil change. My last rental was a 2017 Infiniti QX80. 125 miles on it when I got it. It even had the plastic on the grab handles. This is with a midsize reservation, mind you.
What does the rental agreement say about doing maintenance?
Do you get credited for doing an oil change?
Absolutely not. Working on a rental vehicle is prohibited in the T&C that you sign when you rent the vehicle. You won't get a thank you, you won't get a credit. You get credit for doing your part of the agreement: Pay the fee, fill the tank, do not smoke, do not crash.
I can't believe anyone would wash and wax and change oil on a rental car. I have a wonderful relationship with National, and I've rented many $60K+ vehicles from them, never once have I even considered going through all that work. I admit, I've washed one or two (for my own appearance, not the quality of the vehicle at return) and I actually (gasp) filled the Maserati I rented with premium as designed. I'm sure it had regular in it when I got it and I'm sure it had regular in it the next round.
With how simple National makes it to swap a car, it doesn't make much sense to do all this. If the car you have is worn/stained/neglected, go get another one. The other plus of National is that you pick your own car so you don't have to be stuck with a 12-15k mile beater that's 2k over on it's oil change. My last rental was a 2017 Infiniti QX80. 125 miles on it when I got it. It even had the plastic on the grab handles. This is with a midsize reservation, mind you.
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What.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them, and by return them I mean if they want they can come bring me a new car.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them, and by return them I mean if they want they can come bring me a new car.
Originally Posted By: Dallas69
Insane to work on a rental.
Why don't you just pay the note for them?
I guess I could offer, but if they accepted, it would put me in a bind financially. So I am going to hold off on that for now...
I'm trying to save up for my next car, which surprise-surprise will be another challenger. That will be my 3rd one so far (not all at once!), and hopefully the best of the three!
Insane to work on a rental.
Why don't you just pay the note for them?
I guess I could offer, but if they accepted, it would put me in a bind financially. So I am going to hold off on that for now...
I'm trying to save up for my next car, which surprise-surprise will be another challenger. That will be my 3rd one so far (not all at once!), and hopefully the best of the three!
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
What.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them.
Sounds good to me. Anyone who finds fault with your approach needs to rethink how they think. That's how this whole back-and-forth with customer service corporations is supposed to be handled.
it's not exactly how I go about it, but then that's the whole reason for this thread...
I've been an edge case my whole life. I wouldn't expect that to change now that I'm approaching adulthood.
What.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them.
Sounds good to me. Anyone who finds fault with your approach needs to rethink how they think. That's how this whole back-and-forth with customer service corporations is supposed to be handled.
it's not exactly how I go about it, but then that's the whole reason for this thread...
I've been an edge case my whole life. I wouldn't expect that to change now that I'm approaching adulthood.
Originally Posted By: The_Nuke
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
What.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them.
Sounds good to me. Anyone who finds fault with your approach needs to rethink how they think. That's how this whole back-and-forth with customer service corporations is supposed to be handled.
it's not exactly how I go about it, but then that's the whole reason for this thread...
I've been an edge case my whole life. I wouldn't expect that to change now that I'm approaching adulthood.
You have to an adult to rent cars. They have rules.
I know the haze of which you speak. I gave up trying to remove that haze 38 years ago.
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
What.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them.
Sounds good to me. Anyone who finds fault with your approach needs to rethink how they think. That's how this whole back-and-forth with customer service corporations is supposed to be handled.
it's not exactly how I go about it, but then that's the whole reason for this thread...
I've been an edge case my whole life. I wouldn't expect that to change now that I'm approaching adulthood.
You have to an adult to rent cars. They have rules.
I know the haze of which you speak. I gave up trying to remove that haze 38 years ago.
Originally Posted By: Leo99
Originally Posted By: The_Nuke
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
What.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them.
Sounds good to me. Anyone who finds fault with your approach needs to rethink how they think. That's how this whole back-and-forth with customer service corporations is supposed to be handled.
it's not exactly how I go about it, but then that's the whole reason for this thread...
I've been an edge case my whole life. I wouldn't expect that to change now that I'm approaching adulthood.
You have to an adult to rent cars. They have rules.
I know the haze of which you speak. I gave up trying to remove that haze 38 years ago.
The requirement about being an adult to rent a car is limited to chronological type definitions of the word. They don’t check the mental aspect of adult-ness at all, thankfully!
Originally Posted By: The_Nuke
Originally Posted By: rooflessVW
What.
Rentals are not my problem, and should never become my problem. I won't accept them if they're unclean or obviously needing maintenance.
If they need maintenance while in my care I return them.
Sounds good to me. Anyone who finds fault with your approach needs to rethink how they think. That's how this whole back-and-forth with customer service corporations is supposed to be handled.
it's not exactly how I go about it, but then that's the whole reason for this thread...
I've been an edge case my whole life. I wouldn't expect that to change now that I'm approaching adulthood.
You have to an adult to rent cars. They have rules.
I know the haze of which you speak. I gave up trying to remove that haze 38 years ago.
The requirement about being an adult to rent a car is limited to chronological type definitions of the word. They don’t check the mental aspect of adult-ness at all, thankfully!
Not that you couldn’t tell much from this pic, but I figured I would attach it anyway just for posterity sake:
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Yeah that definitely needed to be changed. Good job the Nuke. I changed put windshield wipers on a rental because the one there were terrible. I thought about changing the oil but the olm said it had 51% life left in it. So I trusted that. I did check the oil level and it was good, and the color was good.
Originally Posted By: The_Nuke
Originally Posted By: Leo99
It's the rental company's responsibility to maintain the vehicle. Not wasting my time or money on that. If the windows are dirty, get the rental company to clean them.
I turned in their most expensive ride available (at the time), an F150, on Monday after only 2 days, and then I specifically requested something in their $35/day line for the coming week. That's how I ended up with this gem.
Yes, it is their responsibility to maintain the vehicles, and I certainly could have asked them to do another pass on cleaning the windows before leaving the lot. But I intentionally put myself on their lowest rung of priorities by going from a vehicle which no doubt makes them money to one which probably struggles to break even. Any extra window cleaning I ask for would be extra in name only and not in effort. Further, they likely push the maintenance schedules on these low-rent beauties so that they can actually do better than break even. I would be naive to think my windows would be any cleaner after asking for them to do it again than just doing it myself.
I wouldn't worry about their profitability. Pretty much all cars that they rent out are profitable. If they have a 75% utilization rate that $35/day works out to about $9600 a year. They're making money at $35. Make them fix it if it's sub-par.
Originally Posted By: Leo99
It's the rental company's responsibility to maintain the vehicle. Not wasting my time or money on that. If the windows are dirty, get the rental company to clean them.
I turned in their most expensive ride available (at the time), an F150, on Monday after only 2 days, and then I specifically requested something in their $35/day line for the coming week. That's how I ended up with this gem.
Yes, it is their responsibility to maintain the vehicles, and I certainly could have asked them to do another pass on cleaning the windows before leaving the lot. But I intentionally put myself on their lowest rung of priorities by going from a vehicle which no doubt makes them money to one which probably struggles to break even. Any extra window cleaning I ask for would be extra in name only and not in effort. Further, they likely push the maintenance schedules on these low-rent beauties so that they can actually do better than break even. I would be naive to think my windows would be any cleaner after asking for them to do it again than just doing it myself.
I wouldn't worry about their profitability. Pretty much all cars that they rent out are profitable. If they have a 75% utilization rate that $35/day works out to about $9600 a year. They're making money at $35. Make them fix it if it's sub-par.
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