Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#21

Post by JOHN_JOHN_JOHN » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:10 AM UTC

zoltar92 wrote: post #12

76357632477 wrote: post #8

Not being able to pick it up at any time. Not being able to return it at any time. Getting charged for a full two days when only renting for a day and an hour. Reserving the vehicle online weeks before, then getting to the rental office and finding that the requested vehicle won't be available for an hour or more until it's returned by the previous renter or sent over from another rental office. Getting a vehicle tha…

Reserving and finding they oversold is one i've heard a bunch. deff working to change that. As for the tranny, was this something that happened at one of the "main brands" (hertz, avis) or a second tier one? and could the fear be solved by automatic free insurance?

It's even worse when the vehicle you reserved days before isn't there, but there are several equivalent vehicles on the lot, and no other customers obviously waiting for them, yet the rental agents insist those vehicles aren't available. I've had problems with a well known national brand. The problem I had wasn't obvious unless going at freeway speeds. A replacement may have been available, but that would have cut into the rental time, which just isn't an option when there are places to be and things to do on a tight deadline. And I just can't trust these companies to honor whatever damage waivers or insurance they might offer. I don't want to waste my time arguing this crap with the foreigners who often work as agents at the rental counters.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#22

Post by erichurkman » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:10 AM UTC

No matter what car rental I choose, I feel like I'm not getting the best deal. Prices are never clear – just like telecom companies, you'll rarely see the full (price + taxes + fees + "convenience" charges + mystery airport fees + …) price listed. Suddenly your $50/day rental is $75/day rental. If you search online, you'll find a dozen different prices – heck, even calling the place to get rates won't always get you the same results.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#23

Post by rdl » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:11 AM UTC

76357632477 wrote: post #11

rdl wrote: post #3

I rent from Hertz and Avis and Silvercar exclusively, and have elite status with each. What I hate is when I get a car which is dirty, especially the side mirrors or glass in general (safety issue). I do not fucking want to have to wash the car when I get off a plane at 11pm to not have massive internal glare. Insurance is only an issue for morons. Counter lines are solved for elites. Prices at Hertz and Avis are som…

What do you mean by "Insurance is only an issue for morons."? Not everyone who rents a vehicle is doing it while traveling. A lot of people living in cities only need a vehicle once or twice a year, for example. They don't own a car otherwise, and thus don't have insurance that may cover rental cars. And not all of them have a credit card that includes insurance, or if they do, it may not offer sufficient coverage.

If you rent infrequently and don't have a car or good credit card, just pay the $10. If you drive once a year, you're probably a sufficiently bad driver due to recent inexperience so you're getting underpriced coverage. (e.g. when I rented cars right after getting my first US license, with no experience driving on highways or in cities.)

If you rent frequently enough that you dislike the fee, and don't have a car/insurance, either get a real credit card, or you're probably doing it wrong.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#24

Post by zoltar92 » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:11 AM UTC

joshvm wrote: post #19

Hidden fees. It's never as cheap as the websites. Car rental firms need to go the way of the airlines and be up front about what you're actually going to pay.

Hotwire shows you "total" price. I think this comes from a) insurance/ underage driver fee b) no clarity on 'taxes' c) messy UX... thoughts?

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#25

Post by rdl » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:14 AM UTC

zoltar92 wrote: post #13

rdl wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many airports have shuttles anyway. I'm not Hertz Platinum or anything, so I don't have someone usually bringing my car to me -- it's a shuttle ride to the rental place, which tends to be close. SFO has the airtrain/car pez dispenser, but I never need to rent a car at SFO.

So would being able to circumvent shuttles be a value add to you? Or insignificant because of relatively short time. What about the wait?

Hertz and Avis shuttles, at least, are frequent, and usually fast. It'd be a slight positive to get Hertz Platinum style "driver drives to curb with you car, gets out, you get in, and the delivery driver takes a shuttle back to base", but I don't think I'd pay much of a premium for that. Maybe $25 per rental, tops.

At airports with big on-site car vending machines, you're not going to generally be able to do that at any scale without being arrested, and you'll probably be inferior to my current experience of walking across to the car vending area gold stalls, going to the number which was emailed to me, picking up my car, and driving off.

It might be more of an issue at smaller airports with no onsite cars, or where at certain hours all the shuttles are infrequent.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#26

Post by jordanpg » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:15 AM UTC

zoltar92 wrote: post #18

pedalpete wrote: post #16

Dealing with the staff is often the worst part of the rental car experience for me. I book online, declined insurance, chose the car I wanted, I don't need your upsell and you telling me that I really should have insurance, which is a bunch of BS as I already have a ton. As some have already mentioned the shuttle bus is a slight annoyance, you calling them 'sweaty shuttle buses' is leading the conversation. I've neve…

Can you elaborate on 'dealing with staff'- as in they're rude? Or having to wait? You mention you book online. Do you find that process tedious? I agree overall it always had a godaddy vibe where I feel as if they're trying to upsell me on everything- but find that more annoying from a UX point.

> dealing with staff

Standing at a counter having an absurd conversation that we've all had dozens of times. Saying no to the insurance. Saying no to the GPS. Waiting in line. Paying. Having the contract explained, again.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#27

Post by JOHN_JOHN_JOHN » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:15 AM UTC

zoltar92 wrote: post #18

pedalpete wrote: post #16

Dealing with the staff is often the worst part of the rental car experience for me. I book online, declined insurance, chose the car I wanted, I don't need your upsell and you telling me that I really should have insurance, which is a bunch of BS as I already have a ton. As some have already mentioned the shuttle bus is a slight annoyance, you calling them 'sweaty shuttle buses' is leading the conversation. I've neve…

Can you elaborate on 'dealing with staff'- as in they're rude? Or having to wait? You mention you book online. Do you find that process tedious? I agree overall it always had a godaddy vibe where I feel as if they're trying to upsell me on everything- but find that more annoying from a UX point.

I've never liked dealing with the staff either. Many of the times I've done it in the US I've had to deal with foreigners who speak very poor English, and just don't seem to care at all about giving even a basic level of customer service. I don't expect much when renting a car, but being able to understand the agent does matter to me, as does them showing even a slight amount of interest in making it a tolerable experience for the customers.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#28

Post by rdl » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:16 AM UTC

The number one thing which annoys me is when I'm in Europe and I do something stupid like rent from Sixt and they promise me a BMW 3-series Automatic SATNAV, and then when I show up, it's a Golf manual.

I drove it in first/second to another station, on the clutch a fair bit to get the special smell, and then ended the rental early, walked upstairs to Avis, and got a suitable Audi. (I don't like driving manuals in cities, I especially hate vw clutches and golfs in general, and I don't like driving without satnav in foreign countries where I have no data coverage and where the car has no good place to put my phone for google maps use.)

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#29

Post by JOHN_JOHN_JOHN » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:19 AM UTC

rdl wrote: post #3

I rent from Hertz and Avis and Silvercar exclusively, and have elite status with each. What I hate is when I get a car which is dirty, especially the side mirrors or glass in general (safety issue). I do not fucking want to have to wash the car when I get off a plane at 11pm to not have massive internal glare. Insurance is only an issue for morons. Counter lines are solved for elites. Prices at Hertz and Avis are som…

"Elite" status is a slap in the face to all customers. If the rental company is capable of offering that level of service, then that level of service should be the norm, at the non-elite price, and available to all customers. Elite members shouldn't have to pay extra for it. And non-elite customers shouldn't be subjected to inferior service just because they don't have elite status.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate most about renting a car?

#30

Post by joshmangel » Sat, Oct 25, 2014, 1:19 AM UTC

rdl wrote: post #3

I rent from Hertz and Avis and Silvercar exclusively, and have elite status with each. What I hate is when I get a car which is dirty, especially the side mirrors or glass in general (safety issue). I do not fucking want to have to wash the car when I get off a plane at 11pm to not have massive internal glare. Insurance is only an issue for morons. Counter lines are solved for elites. Prices at Hertz and Avis are som…

@Ryan - I flew into LAX last week and went to try out Silver Car for the first time. I just needed a car for the day. Pickup was around 7 AM and I was going to be returning it the following day at 1 PM. The app quoted me $200 since it considered that a full two day rental ($89/day + fees). In my case, I wouldn't have opted in for the $28/day insurance either.