Took SWMBO on a milestone birthday trip (only 7 years late!) to the west coast of Canada recently.

Pre-booked a hire car for 5 days.
Travel agent told me it would be a Toyota Corolla despite me asking if a Miata was possible.
Arrive at the Calgary Airport National desk mid-morning.
Them: "We're sorry but Toyota not available but we do have a Hyundai or Ford Focus".
Me: "Ok I suppose the Focus".
Them (after checking): "Sorry don't have one of those either but we can offer you a Jeep".
Me: "Don't really like 4x4's"
Them:"Only other car we can offer but it is a big 4 door is a Dodge Charger but there's no extra charge"
Me, after leaving a suitable pause: "Ok I suppose we'll have to go with that"

So it's 3.6 V6, 290 bhp, 8 speed auto, climate, cruise etc. etc. and really a nice set of wheels.
Did quite nicely although their 60 or 90kmph speed limits are a bit painful, though we did find some twisties for a bit of fun.....

And if you haven't been to the Rockies I can thoroughly recommend them and the locals are friendly, English speaking.

Cheers, Pewe

Was in various parts of USA for a month at christmas and new year.

Needed 2 x cars for 3 of the 4 weeks.
Booked the cheapest cars available knowing upgrades where always on offer cheap if you lay it on thick.

Got to NYC and asked for a Mustang and got a V6 Camaro for a week no extra charge as it was Christmas. Pretty pleased with that.
Landed at Vegas and asked for a Mustang, Woman at the desk told me "no way sir, you look like a Chevy kinda guy"
Left Vegas heading for Highway 1 in a 6.2 litre V8 Camaro SS convertible in yellow. Was pretty fun for a big old barge in the mountains..

we went several years ago now, before kids, had booked the v6 mustang, ended up with the 5L v8 GT.. very nice, big cruismobile

went through the Rockies too, very nice area, places and people.

what am i doing wrong asked for a mustang or camero........got a mitsubishi eclipse

Off to Portugal with SWMBO and 3 kids next month, booked a hire car and expect a Fiat Punto on arrival. Whatever we get I can't drive it, but it's fair to say it will get a pasting from SWMBO and the kids


I should add that the drive of my (and a friends) life was a few years back in 3 cylinder hire cars in Portugal. We thrashed them to death on the back roads and incurred some tyre damage on one of them - great fun though

[Edited on 8/6/16 by nick205]

I hired a bog standard ford, unfortunately when we collected it Avis could only offer me either a minibus or this:



usa car

Hard choice !

Shame it was only the 2.3, but just enough power to have some fun.

Interesting that we all seem to have benifitted from up-grades whilst in North America.
Can't recall any up-grades when hiring in the UK other than they want you to pay through the nose - maybe a different attitude to customer service??
Cheers, Pewe10

quote:

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Originally posted by liam.mccaffrey
what am i doing wrong asked for a mustang or camero........got a mitsubishi eclipse

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It does go the other way. My parents went to Florida and hired a car through hertz and had selected ford focus or similar and were asked if they wanted a sedan or hatch and went for sedan. When they got there the only car available for the bracket they'd paid was a Mitsubishi Mirage (Which I'm pretty sure is a Nissan Micra).

A couple of years ago someone from work went on a business trip to the US and had to hire a huge 4x4 because that was the second cheapest car available. The cheapest was a Mustang but he knew the people who sort the expenses would get funny if he showed up with a receipt for a 5 litre 'sports' car.

You lot seem very lucky! The last hire car I had was a Honda Jazz. It's ok though, it was a 7 speed paddle shift so it was actually an F1 car. Sort of.

I've been lucky with UK hires. With work we usually end up one way hiring between airports. The company standard hire is a small hatch, I've had a brand new smax, merc e class, ford kuga, 3 series bmw and the best one was a spanking new bmw 7 series. What a top machine to drive from Gatwick to glasgow in!! I didn't want to give it back. I'm almost gutted now when I actually get given a juke or a note.

I assume this is because they've used us to move cars around the network rather than having to transport them.