Got a brand new (15 miles) Willys 4XE from Budget on a recent trip to Boston. It turned out to be very well suited to the crappy roads there. Only got to charge it once for about 45 minutes at The Ninety-Nine, so was driving in a discharged state for pretty much the entire 300+ mile trip. Wasn’t too bad at all.
8 Likes
Got a Volvo XC60 in Germany from Hertz.
Picked this particular car because it was by far the least expensive options.
4370 Chase points for a 1 day rental.
Pros:
- Cheap
- Lots of luggage space
- Diesel Car (Didn’t show it was Diesel when it was booked, but surprising avg 35mpg on the Autobahn). Had stickers all over the car to make sure people remember to fill up with Diesel. Diesel engine couldn’t be heard inside so the diesel engine sound didn’t bother me.
- Had Google maps Navi - didn’t have to use my phone’s Data on an international trip to look up places and load Waze.
- Was fairly new, low miles
Cons:
-
Just such a blah car. I know I’ll offend some Volvo fanboys here and I get sometimes the Volvos lease well but I couldn’t see myself driving one and be locked into a lease you can’t transfer for an extended period, It’s just too blah for me. Then again, I’m prob not their target market and maybe a higher trim is nicer.
-
This car had heated front windows. I found the heating element vertical lines very noticeable (see the photo with the no-smoking sticker, you can see the lines). To be fair I don’t think I’ve ever owned a car with heated front windows so I don’t know how much it is noticeable long term but I found it distracting.
-
468 Euro pre-authorization on my card even though car was prepaid. She said that’s what they’d charge me if I don’t return the car full. Found that to be excessive
3 Likes
Oh Grizzly gonna come after you any minute now. Run for it !
5 Likes
Wtf is a b4?
Also the b4 has less than 200 horsepower. Nearly the same as a rav 4 which is ridiculous
I mean not a single customer I have ENJOYS driving.
1 Like
6 Likes
You can always download google maps for your region for offline use.
P.S. what’s up with hiding rental’s license plates, especially in Europe? Really curiuos.
5 Likes
habit
You can but I’ve found that if you make the wrong turn and it needs to recalculate the route it runs into issues. Both Waze and Google maps. That’s if you preload the route and then turn off data. I’ve never downloaded the entire region prior to a trip, was told to do that next time.
I had the gas xc60 B4 in Germany a few weeks ago from National/enterprise. I didn’t get close to 35 mpg 
. I think we paid more in fuel than the cost of a week long rental. She was thirsty on the autobahn.
There were quite a few XC60s at the airport rental in Frankfurt as well as Dublin.
I was doing about 130km/hr on cruise control most of the time. Too much construction to go much faster. Was pleased with the diesel fuel economy.
Very cool. The roads we were covering ground on didn’t have much construction. I would average about 150-160 km/h that was its comfort zone, faster it started to get less comfortable. IIRC ~180 is where it topped out. About 5 years ago I had a vw arteon R rented from Sixt with summer tires that was a blast on the autobahn. It stayed confident at very high speeds.
3 Likes
Anyone know of a code that works in Iceland? Or any way to get a better deal on a rental car there?
Costcotravel website doesn’t quote for rentals in Iceland. The code jeisensc mentioned doesn’t reduce the price on Avis’ website. Right now I’m booked on a Priceline rate at $150/day for an SUV.
Iceland is incredibly expensive in general. I’m not sure that my corporate rate does anything either.
1 Like
He’s being tracked
We’re all being tracked Mani
5 Likes
Europcar I had a good experience with and decent pricing there.
There are a number of off site and brand options in Iceland that aren’t great. (Read those reviews)
You don’t have presidents circle?
I’m looking to rent a Kia Carnival (to test drive but also for extra room) for an upcoming road trip. Is there a way to search for a specific car at these places? (Avis, Hertz, etc) Turo doesn’t have any options in my area.
Which color Pacifica would you like (assuming the Grand Caravans have been retired)?
1 Like
Guessing not possible then unless via Turo.