[War_Wagon]

The big rental companies basically have whatever fits the size category sitting around. A small car here will probably be a Chevrolet Spark, Ford Fiesta, or whatever the smallest Dodge is these days. Rental companies generally have 2 kinds of cars, the ones they get on short term lease from the manufacturer, and ones that they buy outright and resell when they are done with them. So, you will usually see the domestic cars listed above, as that's what is easy to get rental type leases on. Some will have Toyotas, Hyundais, Mitsubishis, but those will be harder to find. I'm afraid I can't tell you who has what, you'd pretty much have to call around and ask. And there's really no way they will reserve a certain car for you, you will just have a better idea of what to expect when you arrive. When I used to work at the auction we had a guy that was buddy buddy with one of the big rental companies, it's fun to show up at the airport in Edmonton and roll out in a brand new, leathered up Tahoe for $20 a day haha, but sadly that doesn't happen anymore. And any rumors of me taking a brand new Cadillac DTS street racing in Calgary are total lies I tell ya! Those things are pretty quick (allegedly).

As for our manual transmission rentals, we ended up with two of them. A Grand Am and a PT Cruiser. The rule we made for the receptionist was simple, if they have an accent, rent them the stick shift, as they probably know how to drive standard if they aren't from North America. But if they are local, don't rent it to them as they probably just want to learn how to drive standard on someone else's car. The Grand Am didn't get rented much, and the PT only got rented twice. The second time, it was some dude from China that just got his license, I wouldn't have rented him that car in a million years, he asked questions like "What happens if I break it?" but I wasn't there that day. It came back on a tow truck 3 hours later with NO clutch left in it. After that we got rid of both cars, they just weren't worth having around. No rental company makes money on economy cars, by the time they pay for insurance, maintenance, rent, staff, etc etc - the bills get paid by the $80 a day mini vans and $120 a day SUVs, the $29 a day cars are only there because they need to have some small cars around as the guy down the street will. You really are just stuck with whatever you get, as it's probably costing them money to rent it to you at the end of the day.