Rental Cars -- Best & Worst

[PatrickShim]

Lately I’ve had a ton of chances to drive rental cars. As a ‘car nut’, having chances to rent cars is an interesting experience. If buying a car is like a marriage, I guess renting a car (which has been shared with many) is like picking up a girl from the street (which I have never done).

Here are some of the “Best” and the “Worst” so far.


Best #3: ’06 Jaguar X-Type
I actually hated this car when I got it as a loaner car from a dealership. It was a crap at first. I drove it around the town, and I absolutely hated it. I was joking how it is no more than a Ford Mondeo (which it is based on). However, I began to really enjoy the car. Its All-Wheel-Drive did work nicely at corners, and actually I began to like the styling of the car. My dislikes were the gearbox, which kept on acting funny, and the seats (they were leather, but super cheap plastic-ky leather) I actually had the car for five weeks and drove about 3k miles (went to Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, etc.) I was a car that I hated at first, but began to really enjoy.

Best #2: ’08 Toyota Prius (2nd Generation)
This is one of my all time favorite rental cars. I always forget to fill up the gas tank before returning the rental car, so having a highly fuel-efficient car is always a plus. It is quite comfortable car, and I like how things are arranged with good reasons behind them. My only dislike was, during the night, the speedometer was glaring on the windshield, due to the slope of the windshield (I believe this problem has been fixed on the 3rd generation Prius).

Best #1: ’09 Nissan Maxima
This is my all-time favorite rental car. This car really surprised me. For a sub-$30k car, the car was amazing. It was very roomy, comfortable, had enough power and I really loved its CVT (continuously variable transmission) gearbox. The seats were very comfortable and all the buttons were at the right places. I even drove this car through a canyon road, just to see how it does. It's front-wheel drive did not handle that well, but it felt fairly balanced. Only thing I disliked was the ‘feel’ of the trunk lid, which felt too light and sounded cheap. Yes, that was the only dislike.


Worst #3: ’09 Chevy Malibu
When this new version of Chevy Malibu came out, Chevy had several advertisements running to show how good quality the new car is. I remember seeing the pictures of the interiors and thinking, “Wow, Chevy now actually makes quality cars!” Well, I was wrong, and Chevy lied. Chevy Malibu… I could not find anything I liked about the car.

Worst #2: ’08 Chrysler 300
Okay, this car was a joke. Now I know why only people who drive the Chrysler 300 are people who don’t know anything about cars – and often time with big chrome wheels and flashy chrome parts. This car makes me puke. When I got in the car and put my hands on the steering wheel, it just didn’t feel right. In a car, holding a steering wheel is like a handshake… it’s gotta feel right. Well, this car was a total joke, and now I know why only the jokers drive this car.

Worst #1: ’08 Chrysler Town & Country
This was quite embarrassing. I had five of my clients from overseas, so when we flew out to Arizona together, I rented a Chrysler Town & Country without knowing any better. I thought it was the top-of-the-range minivan… isn’t (wasn’t) it? I thought it was suppose to be a “nicer” version of Dodge Caravan. Well, this thing was a piece of crap. Everything about the car was crap. Tons of plastic parts, random buttons that was hard to tell what they’re for, and for a “van”, it wasn’t that roomy at all! I hated everything about this car.

[kestrel74]

Best: Mazda 6 !! I like 'em ! peppy, good handling, A/C works great, and my head isn't hitting the roof

Worst Chevy Malibu........THIS has to be the car they base all the on-ramp speed limits on. CRAPPY gas mileage also.

[Cardinal]

The worst I ever drove was a Ford Focus. At 55 MPH, it felt like you could die at any second. Awful.

[MattG]

I actually tried a Hyundai on my last trip, an Accent. I thought I should give them a chance, as I had always thought poorly of them, but had never actually driven a Hyundai. Turns out I was being unfair, the car was much, much worse than I thought it would be. Absolute garbage, I can't understand why someone would buy one instead of picking up a used Civic, Corolla, Jetta, heck anything would be better.

I've been impressed with the Fords I've rented lately...they've come a long way and are actually not bad. I thought the Malibu was decent too (the latest generation based on the Opel platform).

[Noen]

What a great thread idea!! I rent cars pretty often while traveling for work, and the folks at AVIS know me by name now as the "guy who like to try stuff out". They save new vehicles for me if I let them know I'm coming, and have gone so far out of their way to accomodate me several times, I know I have a rental agency for life (sorry for the sappiness, but just a plug for a GREAT rental company, AVIS). The only thing I can ding them for is their super-****ty GPS units. I can't wait until the day that fleet vehicles start coming with built in GPS units (anybody working for GM/Ford/Yota/Kia/Honda, listen up!) as I would GLADLY pay the per day charge for a in dash GPS, but the stupid Garmin window units are terrible and a giant hassle.

I'm rating these based on my rental experience. So I make no claims about long term reliability, or dealership quality. For me, the test of a true rental is how well it handles, comfort in various driving conditions, fleet setup (tires, brakes, interior care, cleanliness), and interior features.

Best of the best:

2010 Kia Soul
2008 Ford Focus
2010 Chevrolet Camaro
2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder

Worst of the worst:

2007/8/9 Chrysler PT Cruiser
2010 Chevrolet HHR
2009 Pontiac Solstice
2008 Ford Mustang

Middle of the pack:

2008/9 Chevrolet Malibu
2008/9 Chevrolet Cobalt
2009 Kia Rio


If interested, I'll follow up with more indepth reviews The Kia Soul was HUGE suprise to me, as was the Focus. I was also very disappointed with the Solstice and Cobalt, had high hopes for both of them.

[Buteo]

Best: Subaru Legacy GT 08 or 09

Worse: 09 Kia Rio...scared to death the whole time.

[kestrel74]

UGH Yeah.........Chevy HHR........what a piece of crap ! the seats are made of marble and it didn't handle at all......pure junk.

[serpent]

Kia Rio, chevy hhr...worst two cars ever.

[biffster10]

My clients are cheap bastards... and since I couldn't be bothered to upgrade any of these rentals, I guess I am too. This is what I remember driving in the last year.

Pleasantly surprised:
- Hyundai Accent 3D. I beat this thing up and it was very predictable and nimble. I quite enjoyed putting it through its paces.

Absolute crap:
- Pontiac G5 sedan base/stripper. Gutless, poor handling, awful brakes. Nothing good about it and a fine example of why GM should be allowed to die.

Not good:
- Nissan Versa. Felt like a lumbering big car in a little package.
- Suzuki SX4. Meh?

Not bad:
- Cobalt GT coupe. It goes to show how a few better suspension bits and .2L in displacement take this car from crap to ok. GM, get the hint, make this the base level and people would respect you more!
- Dodge Calibre. Roomy. Decent handling. hated the CVT... it would have been good if it had real gears.

[cdn_alien]

Worst: Toyota Echo... yuk!

Best: An Elise. (Two weeks later, I went and bought a new one.)

[lotusland]

My favorite by far was the Hertz Vette, see mine parked next to a nice Duster below. Out of many other rentals the only other one I enjoyed was a Solstice. It handled like a pig but was still fun.

[Sweet Adrenaline]

Originally Posted by kestrel74

Best: Mazda 6 !! I like 'em ! peppy, good handling, A/C works great, and my head isn't hitting the roof

Worst Chevy Malibu........THIS has to be the car they base all the on-ramp speed limits on. CRAPPY gas mileage also.

+1

[RealDeal]

I agree the best rental car I've ever had by far was the Hertz Vette. Here's my list...keep in mind we are talking about rental cars, you don't always have a lot of options.

1st = Hertz Corvette ZHZ Convertible
2nd = Hertz Shelby GT-H Convertible
3rd = Infinity FX35
4th = Lincoln LS
5th = Moped in Bonaire (May have had more to do with the location than the vehicle)

Worst:
1st = Ford Taurus - I'd rather have a moped, at least a moped is more fun
2nd = Old Station Wagon I once got from Rent-A-Wreck in Australia
3rd = Cargo Van they once gave me when they were out of cars

[CosmosMpower]

Best rental/loaner I ever had was a Mazda CX-7 when I took my RX-8 in for warranty work. It was so comfortable, roomy and was surprisingly nimble for a SUV. Best of all, the turbocharged 4 cyl engine let me blow past some ricer in an Integra LS which left his mouth wide open.

Worst was a Pontiac G6. The thing had power adjustable pedals and even with the pedals all the way to the floor and the seat a decent amount back (any further back and I wouldn't be able to reach the wheel) I was still eating my knees.