My S was smashed by a drunk on Feb 2. The shop said repairs would be 5 or 6 weeks. My insurance (uninsured motorist ) covers 30 days or $750. So Enterprise knew I'd be renting for at least a month. I called for an economy car, they were out and gave me the small car for the economy price. I drove the chevy cobalt over the weekend and the suspension was awful, it had no cruise control for the long highway trips and it had roll up windows. I have a torn rotator cuff, so I need power windows. Well I went whining into Enterprise and they upgraded me to their midsize car for $25/day normally goes for $49/day. Of course the car I got was a Sebring convertible and it was raining, so they probably thought nobody would rent it anyway. I've never negotiated price before and I was very happy.

 

Not big discounts, but you do get free child seats...

 

The last time I was out in SoCal, Enterprise was able to lock in a price of pre-paid gas that was cheaper than the price of gas at stations before I left ($2.90/gal with Enterprise as opposed to $3.25/gal. at a station when I left). So the pre-paid gas deal isn't always a screwjob.

 

The pre-paid gas is never a screw job. You as the consumer need to make sure you bring it back empty. The rental company is betting that you will forget to empty it.

 

I always book online to get the best rate and always go for an economy, but frequently get the "free upgrade". This is quite common. People gebnerally want midsize or bigger so that is what they have most of. They want to keep some economies on the lot for walkup cheap bastards, so if the lot is full of midsize, they bump you to keep a safe level of economy or whatever. It is to try to make sure in part that they neve lose walk up traffic and keep cars going out the door. You also feel ike you got a freebie and a good deal. Supposedly.

I reserved a Cobalt on Maui and was given an "upgrade" to a Grand Prix.

I was looking forward to driving the Cobalt (sort of) because it was a new model and wanted to see if GM was building a good small car. Parking spaces and roads are tight in Hawaii so a small car is great, and gas is expensive. The Grand Prix I got sucked gas and was one of the three worst cars I have ever driven. Horrible ergonomics, numb steering, huge turning radius. For my trip I would have preferred to get the small car.

 

Yes, I have a good rental story:

Someone crashed into my MR2 on the 405 freeway when I was like 20 years old. The 89 year old man smashed it hard enough that I had to use a rental Chevy Cavalier for 4 weeks while the MR2 got repaired. One day while driving the Cavalier, with my friend in the passenger seat, he threw his cigarette out the window, only to have it blow back inside the car, and into the back seat, where it proceeded to start a fire while we were driving. My friend jumped into the back seat, and pounced up and down on the rear seat trying to extinguish the fire while smoke billowed out the windows. I returned it with a basketball sized burn hole on the rear seat, and pretended as if nothing ever happened. I figured that since they were gouging me, they could afford to have the seat re-upholstered, and I was right. The End.

 

from now on, i'll make a reservation with something like Expedia if it's weeks in advance. Then a day or so before, I check with Priceline (as someone suggested) and if my priceline request for cheap get accepted, I just cancel the other reservation. You can cancel a rental car reservation without charge last minute, maybe even the same day.

 

I rented a car from Avis to pick up at the trade center in Barcelona, Spain. Somebody screwed up (either Avis or the travel agent) and the car was at a trade center in a town 25 miles away. I asked them to bring the car to the right place (the night before I was to pick it up) and they refused. No cars available in Barcelona unless I cancelled my reservation and made a new one- at TWICE the price. So I took a cab for 50+ bucks but I felt like pushing the car over a cliff at the end of my trip.

 

JFO and I flew were in Vegas and rented a car. Got a good deal thru priceline.com but at the counter I took the extra insurance offered by Avis. The first day we had the car we were driving back from the kart track at about 80mph and slammed on the brakes. As we started rolling again we heard this steady thump thump thump sound and thought we F'ed up the car. Well we did, we flat spotted all four tires. During the time we were there we pulled the E brake more times than I can remember, once almost kicking the back end into the car in the next lane. We also had it floored from Vegas to Parhump, 120mph I think and just about blew the thing up. Usually the extra insurance is a rip off but for the hell we put the car through it was worth it. If any thing would have happened to the car all I would have had to do is get the pile of metal back to the rental lot with the keys and I was fine.