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

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

#11

Post by 76357632477 »

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.

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

#12

Post by zoltar92 »

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?

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

#13

Post by zoltar92 »

rdl wrote: post #10
zoltar92 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ryan, thanks for your input! I was under the impression Silvercar required you to take a shuttle there, is this not the case anymore? Or maybe not an issue for you?

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?

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

#14

Post by zoltar92 »

zwieback wrote: post #7
mindcrime wrote: post #4

At most airports, the walk / shuttle / train / whatever, from my gate, to the rental car facility. The worst ones are the shuttle-bus rides when it's cold, raining, after midnight, and I get stuck standing on the sidewalk for 15 minutes waiting for the next $VENDOR shuttle-bus, while freezing my balls off. If you can walk (indoors) from the gate to the rental cars, that's not too bad, and if there's a train, the wait…

To me that's really the only bad part. Everything else is pretty smooth these days. I usually don't even deal with any paperwork or tricky waiver situations any more.

How do you accomplish that? Through their loyalty program?

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

#15

Post by aaronpeck »

zwieback wrote: post #7
mindcrime wrote: post #4

At most airports, the walk / shuttle / train / whatever, from my gate, to the rental car facility. The worst ones are the shuttle-bus rides when it's cold, raining, after midnight, and I get stuck standing on the sidewalk for 15 minutes waiting for the next $VENDOR shuttle-bus, while freezing my balls off. If you can walk (indoors) from the gate to the rental cars, that's not too bad, and if there's a train, the wait…

To me that's really the only bad part. Everything else is pretty smooth these days. I usually don't even deal with any paperwork or tricky waiver situations any more.

What's your take on insurance - do you buy it?

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

#16

Post by pedalpete »

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 never been on a shuttle bus that I felt was sweaty.

I've always thought a curb-side service would be amazing, but haven't figured out how to make that work.

The fuel pricing hasn't been a massive issue, with the exception that again, the rental car companies try to up sell you on their hair-brained and over-priced 'pre-purchase' options.

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

#17

Post by jordanpg »

I smell someone trying to dream up the Uber of car rentals.

It's a good comparison. The obnoxious thing about taxis has always been the uncertainty, the wait, the unpleasantness, and of course the stress of the thing.

Turn it into a trivial exercise in using an app and you can eliminate all of these things, although I imagine liability will be a significantly larger problem.

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

#18

Post by zoltar92 »

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.

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

#20

Post by zoltar92 »

jordanpg wrote: post #17

I smell someone trying to dream up the Uber of car rentals. It's a good comparison. The obnoxious thing about taxis has always been the uncertainty, the wait, the unpleasantness, and of course the stress of the thing. Turn it into a trivial exercise in using an app and you can eliminate all of these things, although I imagine liability will be a significantly larger problem.

Uber of car rentals is zipcar though or Relay Rides. But close :)

I agree on the taxi thing but I think the use case of a car rental and a taxi are quite different.

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