Over the years (say at least 35) I have been driven in or have driven literally hundreds of hire cars and racked up tens of thousands of miles in at least 10 countries. As far as I can remember, I have never suffered (other than self-inflicted) a breakdown or puncture.
In fact apart from my father losing the keys to a Fiat minibus in 1974 in Pisa and him having a puncture on top of the Andes a few weeks ago, when he took a dirt track over the top rather than the main highway, we cannot recall between us a single incident.
Have I/we been lucky?
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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We,, over 20 years of occasional care and van hires. Perhaps 3 per year.
1. New VW Golf in 1996 with failed rear wiper...horrendous on a spray soaked motorway.
2. Keys locked in boot of US rental
And that is about it
StarGazer
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Left lights on of a rented Ford Mustang whilst I went to see a Batman film in Washington DC.
Returned battery dead. Called Hertz (for it was they) for them to send a tow truck to sort me out. They refused to come as according to them the cinema I was in did not exist (ie: it wasn't on their map). Got the manager of the cinema on the phone to tell them that it did exist and where it was. They refused to come as (according to them) it did not exist.
Gave us this existential conversation and the manager of the cinema gave me a jump start and I gave him 10 dollars.
Happy days.
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1. Worn clutch on a mk2 "bubble" Nissan Micra - it's a weak point on those cars (UK)
2. Chevy Cavalier with a driver's window that didn't like to back up (US)
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You've both been lucky.
Over 20 years of hiring dozens of cars with reputable multi-national firms in the UK I've run into a variety of problems. None has actually stranded me by the roadside but on several occasions I've had to return to the depot driving cautiously.
Failures include:
* Fiat 128 Coupe rented in Scotland in early 1970s. Came with a bulging front tyre (how the firm ever passed it as "safe" to hire, defies belief) so had to drive back to Edinburgh slowly for a swap.
* Hillman Avenger rented from Glasgow airport very late on a Friday in the mid-1970s. Sounded as though it was firing on only three cylinders. No other cars left to hire so had to take it. Swapped for another car the next day.
* Another Hillman Avenger, this time hired from Luton airport in the early 1970s. Leaking cooling system. Had to drive 50 miles for a swap.
* Clutch failure on a Ford Sierra hired from Glasgow airport in the mid 1980s. Clutch refused to rise from floor now and again. Only discovered this after having driven 40 miles. So had to drive cautiously back for a swap.
* Vauxhall Vectra hired from Edinburgh airport in December a few years ago. About 10 ways down the road I found the windscreen washer wouldn't work. Assumed it just needed a top up so continued driving. Later found that the reservoir was full, perhaps because an air lock. So faced horrendous drive down motorway in sub zero conditions at night with salt spay covering windscreen. Had to pull off motorway every now and again to clean windscreen with contents from a bottle of coke I had on me.
* Nissan Primera hired from Belfast main airport three years ago. Only when I came to lock the car later did I find that the central locking had failed. So no way to lock the car. Had to return to the airport for a swap.
The point is that although the cars were cheerfully swapped, there was no compensation for the time lost or the cost of fuel required to make the swap. No vehicle upgrade was offered as a way of "service recovery."
I now thoroughly check any hire vehicle before I drive away. But some problems will be impossible to spot.
alex
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Hired cars in the states (driven about 15,000 miles there over the years in hire cars), Australia (bout 5000 miles up there), Mainland Spain, Lanzarote, Ibiza, Menorca. Loads of times in the UK.
Never had an accident or had a car failure or anything untoward
Except, I caused a pile up in Spain in the Gibraltar - Malaga road. Toodling along (well quite fast), those tiny little spanish traffic lights dangling over the road with the sun on them, couldnt see it was red, saw it red at the last moment decide to stop. Big mistake the cars behind assumed I was going to jump it (as were they). I heard the squeel of tyres behind, saw the approaching carnage, and quickly jumped the red light, just in time to see the multiple shunt happen behind me.
And in the states I managed to sweet talk my way out of several speeding citations. One in South Carolina (driven down there from New York) went along the lines:
"where you boys from"
"London"
"London? why you got Jersey plates on that thing boy"
"London England!"
"you a long way from home boy"
Followed by long chat about how his father was over in the war and did we know the jones family he got friendly with .
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From a servicing point of view hire cars have to be serviced regularly & be fully roadworthy due to public liability issue - although obviously this differs between countries
- my guess is that in general hire cars etc are in better condition/more frequently serviced than many privately owned ones
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I?d say you?ve been reasonably lucky.
I?ve rented at least ten times in the last year. Hertz usually do me proud, and most cars work perfectly well. (And so they should, as they?re only a few months old). However, my most recent rental (from Hertz at Blackpool airport, a Mondeo 2.0 LX auto) had clearly not been properly checked. Within twenty miles of setting off the oil light came on and stayed on. Naturally, this had to happen at the most inconvenient moment, at night on the M6. I limped into the next service station, added a litre of oil and still the oil level barely registered on the dip stick.
As I don?t normally drive a Ford, I was not familiar with the rigmarole with the ignition key that you have to go through to get to the bonnet open. (What exactly was wrong with the simply pull lever in the footwell?). Struggling with the handbook (to try and understand exactly how on earth you open the bonnet), an unfamiliar car, a poorly lit service station forecourt - you can guess that I was not best pleased about the situation. To anyone who owns a Ford and says ?it?s obvious how you open the bonnet? - well it is once you know, but it?s not intuitive if you?ve not encountered it before!.
Showing my complete lack of mechanical understanding in the next sentence, but here goes. The engine in this particular car felt truly gutless, nothing like what I?d expect from a 2 litre. Could it have already suffered damage due to driving who knows how many miles without sufficient oil.
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No real problems in the UK but have had some "fun" renting cars abroad both business & holiday.
We still laugh about the hire car we had in Malta on honeymoon which had one front light and one rear light working, two bald tyres and had to be parked on a hill as the starter motor was u/s.
We had to keep that as they didn't have any alternatives but then this was the same company who advised another couple in the same hotel, when they discovered they were both too young to be insured, to "give them your watch and run" if they had an accident.
Funny to look back on but scary possibilities.
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My experiences generally good. The one exception was a Seat Marbella hired in Spain in 1999 from a small independent (booked through Holiday Autos)- it leaked oil, and a tire sort of fell to bits as we drove down the motorway.
My parents however have had difficulties on at least 3 occasions
1) in Crete, 1982, a car (hired, IIRC, from a local firm) with a very difficult gear box - getting reverse was a real challenge
2) in Africa in late 1990s the exhaust fell off a car hired from Avis
3) I believe there was also a problem with a car hired from Alamo in the USA some time in the 1990s - it had to be returned and swapped for another.
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I reckon there must have been something wrong with it, I know they can use a little oil sometimes, but that must have had virtually none left.
From the few 2.0 Mondeos that I've driven I would say they all felt quite lively, but I suppose it depends what you're expecting, I just expected it to be faster than a 1.8 Mondeo, and it was. :-)
Never hired a car myself (too young) but I sold my aunt an ex-hire C-Max, and it seems ok, it's had to go in for one or two niggles, but nothing serious.
Blue
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Only problem i've ever had with a hire car was just outside Henderson near Las Vegas coming back from the Grand Canyon. I'd hired the american equivalent of a Suzuki Baleno saloon from Rent a Wreck and got stopped by a local policeman as the car had a rear light out. He let me off and i returned the car to them the next morning.
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Never had a hire car break down, but my experience of a Fiat Punto in Ireland three years ago put me off ever buying one. It had done 5 miles when I picked it up, within the next 5 miles three pieces of interior trim had fallen off and by the end of the week the passenger side seat belt wasn't returning properly.
The Almera we had the year after also put me off one of these - for a 1.6 it was dangerously sluggish.
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The worst hire car I can remember was the Hillman Avenger given to my parents as a couteousy car when the garage couldn't fix my mum's Mini. The boot of the Avenger was full of water.
I've been lucky with the cars hired myself: worst was a 4-yo Maestro from a small hire company in London. It overheated somewhere on the A5, which the AA said it was due to a cracked reservoir bottle -- long-since-cracked, said the AA man. When i moaned to the hirers about it, they said "it's OK, we know about that". So why not fix it, you twits, grr! Still, it was a very cheap rental.
Best hire vehicle ever was a Gloria Mundi rented for a move in London. It drove fine, but had a very squeaky fanbelt (permanent loud screech) which terrfied everyone else so much that we got loads of room on the narrow London streets. I don't think I've ever had a vehicle so easily driven in the city.
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Not so long back I had a Hertz Chrysler New Yorker play up with a bad ignition coil, near Rutland, Vermont. Hertz were not very helpful (customer services were very abrupt, like it was my fault) and it took a day or two to sort out a replacement. Fortunately I was staying at a hotel in the town at the time.
Also had an almost brand new Zafira with a failed PS pump (think a valve had broken up) - no PS.
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A hire car has, so far, been the only time I haven't been able to fix a car or limp home.
Yes, it was a Renault!
After a period of financial myopia from our company accountants, we were forbidden from using Hertz. So, we went from running nice, nearly new, Focuses and Mondeos to hideous, poorly maintained, Renaults from a cheaper hire company.
The Meganne let me down a few miles away from the aerodynamics experiment I was setting up on the remote Cumbrian coast at 8pm on a winter's night. After running a bit rough for a mile, it just stopped. The fuel pump wasn't building enough pressure for the common rail system to work.
I should have realise something wasn't quite right when I initially picked the car up. The engine cover was still in the boot from its last failure!
number_cruncher
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I had a power steering pump fail on an American car (Omega sized - can't remember what it was) and a truly frightening seized caliper on a Sherpa van - first time I stood on the brakes, I thought we were going over. Apart from that, given the miles I've done in other people's cars, it's been good.
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
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Also forgot to say I locked the keys in my Dad's hired Crown Vic in the states in 1991 by turning the engine on for the aircon (this was in Las Vegas in summer) and catching the central locking switch as I got out. Explaining to my not pleased parents what I'd done was not very funny. We called a tow truck guy who had a coathanger and got the door open in about 2 seconds. Nice and cold inside though!
O
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Jaguar XJS V12 - comes with free personalised oil tanker.
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I've just recalled the awful Polo I had in Majorca about 15 years ago, which ran poorly. I swapped it over for a new Corsa and saw the Polo the next day stuck at the lights with its hazards on. Phew!
I also had a new Polo with a 1.0 engine and air-con in Israel about eight years ago. It was very good except so slow that with the a/c on it would not get up the steep hills in Galilee and into Jerusalem.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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Yes the suzuki swift auto I had in Menorca would not, could not, climb hills 4 up with air con on.
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I have had many a hire car, the ones I have had in other countries have all been fine, had some nice coupes and pick up trucks in the states. Over here I have had various problems, Had hire cars for about 14 months as a company car (Don't ask, as I could never understand why myself!!)In that time sent 2 focus's back with problems, then got a batch of vectra SRi's, Had a couple of the crank shaft sensors go, and I also used to average a windscreen about every 3 weeks. As for them being serviced, most hire companies get rid of them before the first service is due, I used to have my cars changed every 6 weeks due the milage I would put on them (about 1500 per week).
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No breakdowns but a few memorable hires:
- a twingo in Majorca c.1995 - the prebooked baby seat was tied in with old rope - it was also broken into and my wallet stolen from the jeans on back seat - they even locked the door again
- a seat marbella in tenerife c 1990 - hired from a huge jamaican operating out of a kiosk - dirt cheap and looked like it wouldn't make it to the end of the road but went like the proverbial and was great fun on the twisty rods up and down mount teide
- last but not least - in Toulouse with the boss - upgraded from usual laguna to MB s class (500?). I was cat napping on the autoroute as the boss drove when he said 'what does 240 kph mean in miles'! ;-)
Dan
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A terrible red Mazda 121 in Malta about 10 years ago. It was one of those that looks like a bowler hat on wheels and it had a big yellow splash of paint on the bonnet.
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Once with parents we had a hired Seat (the fiat type) 600 in spain, a full two litre glass bottle of coke (or fanta I cant remember) exploded inside due to the heat,
Boy was that car sticky.
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