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I asked for a low cost rental in Los Angeles. My scretary was very pleased that she found a Ford Focus for $32 or so per day.
I was pleased too. The Focus is supposed to be a good car and I wanted to see what it is like. $32 per day is a pretty good prce (until you add the surcharges, tax, airport premium ect. The reality was $45 per day).
When I arrived, I discovered that the agreement is actually for "Ford Focus or similar" Fox Car rental has a different concept of "similar" than I do.
They did not have one Ford Focus. There were maybe 20 cars in Section ten where they told me I could choose any car I liked. There was not one Focus. My options were Mazda 2, Hyundai Accent, Chevy Aveo, Suzuki SX4.Mazda 2, look decent, even if it was tiny. Did not make it to the gate. In addition to tiny it was very very broken, depsite having only 22,000 miles on it. Transmission making a grinding sound in reverse, brakes pull to the side and grind, coolant leak, seat angle would not adjust, radio sounded like it was being electrocuted on any station. I put it back and started loading my things into the Aveo. Then I sat in it and looked around. Nope. No way. This thing is just too junky. Everything about it screams "LOOK AT ME AND I WILL BREAK" It was cramped and uncomfortable, and the epitomy of chintszy. Switch to an Accent. Not much better. Cramped and cheap. Seat broken, mirror broken, three idiot lights on in the dash panel, white smoke pouring out the exhaust. Try another accent. Still cramped and super cheapo. More broken things, only one idiot light on the dash, headlights do not work, turn signal will only signal right, transmission had a long delay and then thmped loudly into drive. Switch to a Suzuki SX4. Hooray! No problems. Well, not until I got on the freeway. They forgot to include the sign on the dash "Unsafe for freeway driving. Do not drive at speed in excess of 65 MPH". I did not return it, just stuck it out and drove slowly. Created a traffic jam at one point. Everyone wanted to go 75-80 mph. I was chugging along at 65- 70 and taking my life into my hands at that speed. I have never felt so unsafe in any car before. It was just downright scary. It had a few broken things too. At one point I was sitting at the crub not moving. Without any sound at all a large crack suddenly appeared in the windshield. I got out and looked for a chip that could have started that crack - none. No rock or anything hit the windshield. I was just sitting there and it cracked. Wierd.
Anyway, I conculded that the small savings over the next step or two up was not worth it. It took me an hour to select a car that was even drivable for me and then I spent my entire time pulling it back into the lane, and wondering if I woudl survive the trip to my desitination. It was really doggy and still only got 25 MPG mixed, but mostly freeway driving. It was by far the worst car I have driven since I rented a Dodge Colt back in the middle 1980s.
All in all I concluded that those cheapo cars are really not worth the savings. With only 20-30K miles all of them were pretty much on their last legs. I know those things are supposed to be disposable cars, but I woudl expect to get at elast 90k miles out of one - no way. If you are considering one of these cars in order to save money, my advice is to wait, save a few more pennies and get something a step up. Long term, you will be better off.
I do nto know whether the Ford Focus falls into this same class, but if it does, I wonder if it can be abything but junk. However I think the refrence to a Focus was just a pait and switch tactic. Focus cannot possibly be a junky as these purported equivalents and get the rave reviews that it gets.
I'd consider all those cars below a Focus in class. I think I would have had a rather large fight with the rental counter of sticking me in one. (Equivalents to the Focus would have been a Mazda3, Hyundai Elantra, Chevy Cruze, etc).
I'd consider all those cars below a Focus in class. I think I would have had a rather large fight with the rental counter of sticking me in one. (Equivalents to the Focus would have been a Mazda3, Hyundai Elantra, Chevy Cruze, etc).
It won't do you any good. About the only thing you can do is call your CC company and attempt a chargeback after you turn the rental car back in. Enterprise is one that i've encountered that apparently is especially notorious for playing bait and switch on car classifications. I was displeased with my last Enterprise rental, however, i ended up getting a substantial discount on the rental by employing the chargeback method.
I've been told FOX buys their rental cars used from the other rental agencies after they've been pounded on, so take your experience with a grain of salt. Not saying they're all Bentley's to begin with, but I wouldn't judge my entire perception of a car's reliability based on the experience I had with a rental car, especially one from FOX.
FYI, the Ford equivalent (sizewise) to the cars you mentioned would be the Fiesta, not the Focus.
Mike
Last edited by whiteboyslo; 04-09-2012 at 02:19 PM..
Yeah, what he said. The Aveo and Accent were not paragons of reliability, but the Mazda and the Suzuki were actually built in Japan and I can't imagine them being that bad. After 35K miles as a rental car, perhaps, but not if you actually went out and bought a new one yourself. I know how I take care of a rental. I got a bad Charger once in LV. 36K and the transmission already had problems. I rented a Nissan NV2500 from a suburban Detroit Enterprise a couple of months ago and it already had a broken windshield, so I'm pretty sure they all rent out some problem cars here and there.
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The only car rental agency I seem to ever have any luck with is enterprise.
I usually don't care so much about what make and model it is so long as it's new and doesn't stink like smoke or have food or unknown stains. It's not like I'm going to buy the thing.
Although I did rent a new car from enterprise not long ago and it had mechanical problems. ___ happens.
Yeah, what he said. The Aveo and Accent were not paragons of reliability, but the Mazda and the Suzuki were actually built in Japan and I can't imagine them being that bad. After 35K miles as a rental car, perhaps, but not if you actually went out and bought a new one yourself. I know how Itake care of a rental. I got a bad Charger once in LV. 36K and the transmission already had problems. I rented a Nissan NV2500 from a suburban Detroit Enterprise a couple of months ago and it already had a broken windshield, so I'm pretty sure they all rent out some problem cars here and there.
At least some of the suzuki problems were design issues. It simply was not designed to be safe at speeds over 60. I had to laugh becuase the speedometer goes up to 140. There is not way that thing could go that fast and they need a skull and crossbones on the speedometer at the 80 mark.
Even if they were from other rental companies. I was surpised at how many problems there were at 30K miles or less. I looked at most of them, tried around five. Every single one had problems. It was not a case of some of them being bad. As far as I cold tell every one of them were bad. I did not look at all of them. There was a coupel there who got in one, drove it 50 feet and put it back. Drove off in another and came back while I was still trying to find something driveable. They looked at another and got in a different one and left. I did not look at any of the ones they rejected.
I think the Mazda 3 is decent, but the Mazda 2 was pretty much as crummy as the others. Just becasue it says Mazda does not make it as good as a Mazda 3.
I expected them to be crummy, but not THAT crummy.
I use enterprise frequently and had good luck with them. They have nice choices. However for this trip, it would have cost double to use Enterprise. Not sure why, but the prices at rental places bounce all over the place and it is not just market, bucause at the same location, one company will be way cheap on one trip and then way high on the next.
I should have just gone in and upgraded. However it was midnight and I had a lot of bags to haul and I was very tired after wrking ten hours and traveling for seven. I walked by an entire section of challengers, camaros and mustangs to get to the junker cars. I wonder how many levels of upgrade it owudl be to go to a challenger.
Hopefully I can find one that actually has a Ford Focus of Fiesta. I keep hearing how great they are. I would like to drive one. However my next rip will be short (2 days), so I will probably try to rent a Challenger somewhere and have a little fun (but not likely from Fox).
Now I know why I don't buy previous rental cars.
In my younger days I would play "What would happen if" scenarios with my rental cars.
Jeff Foxworthy had an old bit about buying used rental cars that summed it up pretty well. 'Buying a used rental car is like marrying a woman from a house of ill repute. Anything that's been ridden THAT long and THAT hard, you just don't wanna stick your key in it.' (I'm paraphrasing, of course).
Mike
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