Tag: rental

Rental car fuel tops $9/gallon in U.S.

Filed under: Etc.

Hertz

It’s never a good idea to return a rental car with less than a full tank of gas. The reason? The rental car companies usually charge a fee if you don’t fill up before dropping off. And according to a report in USA Today, that fee has, in some cases, gotten a lot steeper.

The national newspaper polled 102 rental companies at 13 major airports to gauge how much is being charged per gallon for renters who don’t fill up before returning their loaner. Surprisingly, 54 of those airports were charging less than the average fuel price at local stations, likely because many companies haven’t adjusted their per-gallon charge to reflect rising gas prices. Another 43 rental stores were charging more than the average gas station.

Meanwhile, the Hertz rental company is in a league of its own. The USA Today poll shows that the rental giant was charging $9.29 per gallon of petrol at 13 locations. Dollar and Thrifty weren’t far behind at a pair of locations, with a price of $8.99/gal. For perspective, at $9/gal, it would take around $275 to fill up the typical full-size pickup, and about $110 to top off a Ford Focus.

While those are some ridiculous pump prices, this is one instance when the punishment is nearly 100 percent avoidable. After all, if you don’t want to get slapped with a $9.29/gal bill, all you need to do is fill up before dropping off the vehicle. Unfortunately, you’re still going to pay well over $4/gal in most areas.

Rental car fuel tops $9/gallon in U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 May 2011 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Rental car fuel tops $9/gallon in U.S.”

Video: Car and Driver presents the Rental-Car Olympics

Filed under: Videos, Cadillac, Ford, Jeep, Lincoln, Humor

Car and Driver Rental Car OlympicsClick above to watch the video after the jump

Anyone who’s ever seen videos from the annual Car and Driver Lightning Lap spectacular knows that the legendary magazine can also do high-flying motion pictures. Shooting track-ready sports cars gliding around the track is one thing, but can C/D keep our attention with a bit of humor?

Car and Driver technical writer and Autoblog Podcast veteran Mike Austin and his cohorts took the reins of four rental cars to see which can win the Rental-Car Olympics. The four participating vehicles are the Mustang Convertible, an all-wheel-drive Cadillac CTS, a 1984 2010 Lincoln Town Car and the hapless Jeep Compass. And don’t expect 0-60 times or hot laps; Austin and company instead opted to judge the four vehicles on attributes like “Sumo Wrestling,” and “Parking Brake Assisted Parallel Parking.”

If that doesn’t make you want to hit the jump, we’re thinking you’ll never guess which of these vehicles can go 63 miles per hour in reverse, easily besting the competition in a backwards lap. Hit the jump for some very funny stuff.

[Source: Car and Driver]

Continue reading Video: Car and Driver presents the Rental-Car Olympics

Video: Car and Driver presents the Rental-Car Olympics originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Video: Car and Driver presents the Rental-Car Olympics”

Report: Rental companies drag heels repairing recalled cars

Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety

General Motors and Chrysler have informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that cars sold to rental companies aren’t getting repairs done on recall for months at a time. NHTSA then started monitoring three million units from the two manufacturers in rental fleets to see how long they went unrepaired.

One month after a recall, NHTSA says that between 10 and 30 percent of cars had been repaired. By 90 days, the average was just 30 percent. According to the administration, it takes a year or more for rental companies to get more than 50 percent of their cars repaired.

According to The Detroit News, there aren’t any laws on the books that say a rental company has to get a car repaired before it rents it to a customer. What’s more, hundreds of recall notices go out a year, and rental cars move around a lot, making it difficult to nail them down for repairs.

According to Bob Barton, president of the American Car Rental Association, most companies place a hold on models that have been recalled, preventing them from being rented until repairs are made. The hitch, according to Barton, is that it can take months for the company to realize a recall has been issued.

NHTSA says its investigation is ongoing, and the administration noted a statement that dealerships aren’t allowed to sell a recalled vehicle until repairs have been made. That said, NHTSA also doesn’t have the authority to legally require that customers – including rental companies – have recall repairs made.

[Source: The Detroit News | Image: Hertz Rent-a-Car]

Report: Rental companies drag heels repairing recalled cars originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Report: Rental companies drag heels repairing recalled cars”

Study: Rental car companies increase customer satisfaction, Enterprise tops

Filed under: Etc.

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Economists and talking heads argue endlessly about our economy on a daily basis. “It’s back!,” “It’s almost back!” and “It’s never coming back!” seem to be the leaders among the varied viewpoints we hear and read about. One sector that has apparently begun to rebound is the car rental business. Not necessarily in financial terms, but from the standpoint of customer satisfaction, America’s rental car companies are returning to to a position last seen in the pre-recession days.

J.D. Power has released its annual North American Rental Car Satisfaction Study, and the results are positive for every company included in the survey. Now in its 15th year, this J.D. Power study examines customer satisfaction with the airport car rental process, and it looks at six specific factors: Costs & Fees, Pick-Up Process, Rental Car, Return Process, Reservation Process, and Shuttle Bus/Van. The highest score possible is 1,000 points and, for the 2010 study, the average Overall Satisfaction score is 750. This is up from 733 in 2009 and 734 in 2008. Every company in the survey has improved year-over-year in the survey.

This year’s big winner, however, is Enterprise, which received the industry’s highest rankings in customer satisfaction. Enterprise is no stranger to this award, and getting the nod in 2010 makes it seven years in a row for the rental car company. Following behind Enterprise, Hertz and National also performed quite well in the survey while Advantage, Alamo, Avis, Dollar and Thrifty rounded out the results. You can see how each one performed over at the J.D. Power results page.

[Source: J.D. Power]

Continue reading Study: Rental car companies increase customer satisfaction, Enterprise tops

Study: Rental car companies increase customer satisfaction, Enterprise tops originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Nov 2010 11:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Study: Rental car companies increase customer satisfaction, Enterprise tops”