Bob525D

I have been in Florida the last couple of weeks on holiday, I decide to upgrade my hire car to a convertible. All I have to say is OMG what a piece of crap, I got the car from Dollar and I ended up changing it 4 times due to stuff being faulty in the list below:

1st car - Shaky steering at 60 + very noticeable vibration through brake pedal when braking + steering pulls to the right + hand prints all over paint work (the car looked like a clunker).
2nd car - Didnt even leave the hire place due noticing the front bumper being loose at the front + missing seat adjuster button.
3rd car - I was happy with this car until it ate my brand new cd + knocking noises at low speeds. Wasnt looking to have it changed but they swapped it out anyway.
4th car - Smelt terrible + shaky steering + more dents on the bodywork than a destruction derby car.

I am still deciding whether to write a complaint letter or not, the attitude of the customer service people was the worst i have even seen. The girl at the Jetport branch was very nice and helpful, I did waste 2 days of my holiday driving to different dollar depots though. I heard that they are keeping their cars longer than normal due to the recession, i really shows.

When I got home I took may car out for a drive to my local Maplin, I came back on the motorway. I love the smoothness of the ride in my car, maybe thats why I was so miffed with the hire cars they couldnt even look at my E60 .

wolf

When I was ready to replace my 1998 e39 528 I went out car shopping. I was surprised to see that this car at 10 years of age and 120k+ miles drove better than new cars of some other brands...

sdg1871

I always rent from Hertz. They are more expensive but their cars and new and in better condition than the other car companies (other than Avis, which also has fairly new cars but less choice and no "Prestige collection". Hertz rents some decent cars such as: Infiniti G37 and M35, Audi A4 and A6, Corvette ZHZ.

You cannot compare a crappy american car to an E60. Of course, I sure do wish that Hertz would rent the Cadillac CTS-V.

DanL

+1

However, while it's usually true that Hertz's cars are newer and nicer, it's not always the case. I rented a Mustang convertible from Hertz a few years ago while in Hawaii and it was a piece of crap. I sent them an e-mail describing all of the problems with the car and they sent me a nice sized credit towards my next rental. I used that credit last month towards an Infiniti FX35 rental in Arizona and it was awesome. It was loaded -- navi, XM/Sirius, comfort access, air conditioned seats and bluetooth, and they rented it to me at the same rate as a premium rental. After two weeks and 2000 miles, I was actually sad to let it go, so much so, that I seriously considered getting an FX50 prior to pulling the trigger and ordering a 535i.

darkus

I agree, Hertz has been a big winner in my book and they arent really any more expensive then the other more cut rate rental agencies

CWS530

Sorry about the problems. Hope you enjoyed your holiday despite all this. Most I've rented aren't that bad, but all usually are some crappy car. They simply do not maintain them and customers, well, drive them like rentals. It's a bad combination.

Howitzer

You're right about this. BMW makes amazing cars and after a time you get used to it but all you have to do to remember is drive another vehicle and see the difference.

DD_545i

I had the exact same feeling of joy yesterday to be back in my car. I'd dropped my E60 off at the dealer so they could diagnose a problem. While that was going on I was driving around in the wife's Golf 6 (born Feb 2009). It still has that new car smell which is nice, it has the 7 speed DSG and 160 bhp to back it up and has a great interior. Really it's hard to fault it, but my left ankle started hurting trying to left-foot brake which involved it being at a 45 degree angle most of the time. My right knee was being constantly annoyed by the center console. The DSG never shifted when I wanted it to despite it being supposedly the fastest shifting gearbox in the world. Oh what a joy when I got back in my car. Pressed that #1 seat memory button to get my settings back from what the BMW guy had set them to and just relaxed into one of the most comfortable cars I've ever owned. Drove away with one of the best gearboxes I've ever had, and planted that right foot to the floor to enjoy the most awesome V8 I've ever had. Replace this with something better? There isn't anything. I don't even want to upgrade to a 550 or M5 because it's just more depreciation and this one with less than 40,000 miles is only just run in

Bob525D

Thanks for the replies, I sent Dollar an email complaining about the 2 wasted days changing cars. I will follow up with a letter if they dont respond, I am determind to get something back for the trouble i had. I would be happy with a refund my upgrade costs, I feel they owe me at least this much.

The holiday was great, but, the second last day car troubles spoilt the end of the holiday for me. I had to wait in a waiting area for around 2.5 hours for a replacement car which looked like a clunker, 3-4 hours in total wasted driving to different rental places.

Ps. I was glad to get home to Scotland where people understand what I say, when i was in Florida no one understood anything i said. Example below:

MacDonalds at Walmart

I asked "Can I pay by cheque here?"
They replied "The shake machine is off"
I said "I dont want a milk shake, can I pay by cheque?"
They replied "Sorry no shakes today"
I took out the travel cheque and pointed to it and said "Can I pay by cheque?"
They replied "I dont know" she asks her manager who asks what id i have.
I said "Driving licence"
They reply "Where from what state, country"
I said "UK"
They could not decide if they would accept it so I told them to forget it and went somewhere else. It took me a good 10 minutes to calm down after that, I couldnt have spoken any slower or clearer if i tried.

rodneyremington

Who pays for food at Mcdonalds with a travelers check? No wonder they couldn't figure out what you were asking. I haven't seen a travelers check since about 1980. Also when traveling abroad you may want to keep in mind that not everyone will understand your particular dialect of English. I've been to Scotland and don't recall getting annoyed that not everyone had studied up on American accents just to ease my passage.