Rental Car Ecomods?

[SentraSE-R]

Busypaws,

California law requires gas stations that charge for air must give it to you free with a purchase. I've asked a few times. Some give you tokens to put in the coin slots. One gave me a number combination to enter in a keypad. Tire shops are always willing to give me an air hose, or fill my tires for me.

[gone-kl]

That reminds me, my local Discount Tire gives a free air check and they will fill your tires to whatever psi you desire for free, whether you are a customer or not. I don't know if that is a nationwide offer, or just for the one local to me. It's worth checking out.

[drv2die]

while in tech school in houston i had a rental 2001 ford focus had less than 3000 miles on it. i was in the electrical and driveability classes so i used the focus for testing and diag. we probed unplugged and ohmed almost every wire/sensor on the engine transmission. when i returned it, it was spotless just like new, except it would barely run and had about 6 dtc's that kept coming back and was stuck in limp home mode. glad they didnt start the car. i would have been screwed.

[Frank Lee]

Nice.

[benphyr]

ff... pff.. (blowing the dust off this thread)

Any advice or tricks to getting the best rental price and/or getting the best fuel efficient vehicle?

Our family is going fly to Calgary for sure and then either drive from Calgary, or fly and then drive from Prince George or Terrace to visit my parents between Smithers and Houston.

What it looks like is that
-BC is cheaper (ICBC?) than Alberta or ON and
-that the smaller the car the cheaper the price but not a big change until you hit mini-van
-that everything is automatic (except your test-case in 2011. How did that turn out by the way?)

Is there any way to see exactly which vehicles companies have? They seem to always have "or similar" next to a nice car and then when you get there you get something 3 sizes larger or 3 makes cheaper in quality..

Any advice you can provide would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Benphyr.

[tyronasauras]

A Roll of Blu tape to block the top half of the upper grill. It comes off easy and is easy to adjust based on temps. I am sure it helps and never had a problem. It also adds some visibility for other cars and of course I can find it. My rental key once unlocked another Rental Taurus that was two spaces away from mine and the key went in the ignition but I couldn't get it to start. After some frustration and more time than I like to admit I noticed a coat in the back seat that wasn't mine.

[Xist]

I just flew to California for my sister's wedding and half of the cars from which we could choose were a "full-sized" Hyundai. Mom wanted a red one. She mentioned that she had wanted to drive a red car, but I always drove.

The lady falls asleep and has cataracts!

When I decided to try out the buttons on the steering wheel, I was able to change the display from a menu to a conventional display, with average MPG and a bar showing 0, 25, and 50, and apparently my instantaneous mileage. I was driving 65 and trying to make up for missing a flight and the new one having a layover, while the original was a direct flight. However, at that point, we were running early for dinner, so I dropped to fifty-five, and tried to maintain that the rest of the trip, although Mother was very unhappy!

I do not have any idea when the average MPG started, the car had 3,900 miles when we returned it, but I brought it up from 26.3 to 27.3

I really wish that I had known what I got for just my driving!

Years ago, a woman told me that she sought out a former rental car "because you know they take care of them."

Drive it like you rented it?

[dirtydave]

I used to rent the big box trucks from penske. antenna remove for my FM transmitter. and EOC in the automatics.

[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.

[benphyr]

WarWagon: Thank you for the information. I know more now than I did several days ago and since knowledge is power, I am well on my way to a weight lifting championship...