Rental Cars - the worst thing you've done with (or in) them...

[dd74]

I just got back from a week in Maui. The occasion was a friend's wedding and just a general hankering for paradise. I didn't even think about the Porsche, much less cartoon characters and superheroes.

The lowpoint of the vacation, of course, was the white Chevy Impala I rented. But I must admit: despite my dislike for the car, on this trip I didn't thrash it; no burnouts, no pedal mashing, no trail-braking along the road to Hana. I drove it, in fact, like a senior citizen would drive their own Chevy Impala.

Maybe I'm growing up. Maybe it was because I had my wife and kid with me. Maybe I'm spoiled by my real car and I didn't want to devote real driving energy to a sub-911 car...

Anyway, the thought occurred to ask what the worse thing is you guys have done with (or in) a rental car. I know there are some great stories out there about your collective exploits, so bring 'em on.

[LeRoux Strydom]

I once drove a rental VW something-or-other straight across a traffic circle (or roundabout, depending on your side of the pond) that just happened to jump into my way on the way back to the hotel from a dinner engagement. Street lighting was poor, I was going too fast, and saw the traffic circle just in time to lay some rubber while pulling on the stick to gain some altitude. Didn't work, of course, so I limped the remaining 200 meters to the hotel on two front flats, parked it and called the rental agency. They delivered a replacement car within the hour, no questions asked....



LeRoux

[island911]

Drove in Rome.



btw, good to see your back, dd.

[RoninLB]

rented a new Caddy to use for camping and jeep trails. It lasted 2 weeks and wound up with a cracked shield, rock tore thru floorpan, one bent rim, and had enough rattles to sound like a 100k mile NYC taxi. The bride dresses up in NYC office clothes complete with briefcase, walks into Hertz at Aspen airport, and tells counter girl of rocks falling into road, says how scary it is driving in Colorado. The agent starts apologizing and gives us a small firebird till they can get another Caddy replacement. We took relatively good care of the 2nd one.

[VaSteve]

My (now) wife and I rented a car to drive the US Southwest. We started in Phoenix and ended in SLC. They gave us this great big Mercury Grand Marquis that needed to get back to SLC, GPS and everything. We drove that boat down every dirt road in AZ and UT. I attached my mountain bike to the back and everything. We were basically living in this car since we'd stay at different hotels each night. We would take out oinly what we needed and leave our gross sweaty clothes in the car. Any food junk we had just got thrown in the back seat since we had so much room.

That car smelled like a locker room after 2 weeks.

[JavaBrewer]

Many years ago a friend and I used to support this timed rally sponsored by a local car club. Event started at 6:00 pm in Santa Barbara and ended at 12:00 the next day in Vegas. Of course a rental ride was the order of the day and on our last year of participation we rented a Ford Taurus which happened to have the SHO engine in it. We were merciless on that car driving off-road rally style and generally thrashing the drivetrain at every opportunity. Feel sorry for who ever bought that car later in life. Car went amazingly well though and we had little problem keeping up with the more sporting cars on the trip, including the p-car entries.

[dillinger]

I was in Minneapolis for some training the summer of '87 or '88 and they had a massive rain storm. Tons of rain in a short period of time. Some of us got in the rental to go out and check things out. We hit a low spot in the road a few minutes into our trip. The car started floating and water was coming in thru the doors. Flooded the Chevy Cavalier. We let it drain and dry out for a few days and returned it.

[motion]

Had a Nissan Altima 2 weeks ago up in Montana. I decided to take a gravel road shortcut across a mountain pass. The gravel road turned out to be sharp granite. I was passing local pickups like they were standing still. I blew out both right side tires out in the middle of nowhere on a Saturday night at 10:00. No cell coverage. Drove it another 15 miles on the gravel road. The tires were both completely shredded and the rims/hub caps were mangled. Got into town and got the Goodyear guy out of bed (2:00 AM by now). He put 2 new tires on. Avis paid the bill.

[Superman]

Some folks visiting Seattle from California got bored one Saturday and came to our autocross in the Chevy Impala rental. We thought that was pretty cool.

[D67]

I was in Ok City working on a 9 day Net Install -

Took an off ramp with a Mazda 626 at 80 mph - Needless to say, I flew off the ramp and into the grassy medium. Damn car wouldn't turn! LOL

Bent the left front rim and rolled the tire of the rim. BTW - Always reset the Hertz Nav computer (GPS) It shows your ave MPH -

[tabs]

I'm tame by comparison....2500 miles in one week on a rental... Boston up through Maine...New Brunswick , PEI, Nova Scotia, back up through NB to Ouebec City...to Montreal and back to Boston....

that and I ran over a Duck....

[tabs]

Btw: I was with Daddy on that trip.. when he's driving around town he drives like an old man...well thats because he is one....but you put him behind the wheel when he's on a trip and something comes over him, like he's poessed or somthing. In Canada the highways are basically 2 lanes one in each direction. With Daddy behind the wheel we'd be doing 75 in the rain and come up behind some slower traffic and he'd punch it , cutting into the uncoming lane with uncoming cars less than a mile away....I sit there and start praying...Gawd I don't wana die....to which Daddy would scream , "Shut the fk up U fking sissy and let me handle this."

[vash]

in my youth, me and friends rented a mustang for the day, and then exchanged a bunch of good parts out and put them on his stang. when we returned the rental, it had cracked taillights, and the hatchback struts were crap, plus a bunch of incidentals, (floormats, wipers, etc.), damn glad he bought the insurance.

i rented a dodge convertible and ended up going couse deer hunting in tuscon. good think we got nothing, i would have put that thing in the trunk.

[cstreit]

Hmmm.... Looks a lot like Willow...

[Jay Auskin]

I sunk a P.O.S. 4x4 in ~2 feet of mud/water. There were a few inches inside the vehicle. This was in the Carribbean. $200 to a local with a tow truck, and he brought the car over to his house, and my wife and I did a good Pulp Fiction clean-up since off road damage wasn't covered and the transfer case was screwed. Good thing we hads a change of clothes on us to help with the "cover up". We were a bit dirty when it was all said and done.

[john70t]

Dodge Neons have pretty bad mpg but not too bad performance. Once drove down Mt. Diablo at dusk and at the bottom couldn't see out the windshield from the brakedust. Hit the govenor a couple times going east to Vegas. They were returned without a scratch though and the other 364 days drove like granny.

[dd74]

The one thing all you guys have proved to me is that extra insurance the rental clerk tries to sign me up with is really not needed. It sounds as if a person can roll a rental car and still get out of it Scot free.

[David]

A Carrera GT has nothing on a rental car. They are the best handling cars on the planet.

I totaled one before, but that was many many years ago. I have found that you can put them in reverse on the highway and nothing too several happens. I don't make a habit of the reverse thing, but I did it on accident one day when I had brain fade and thought I'd shift down a gear for passing by moving the lever "up" into third like on my manual tranny car at home.

They are rather adept at going over curbs also.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by dd74

The one thing all you guys have proved to me is that

you gotta have some brains in order to max out rentals.

fwiw.. my prev post was rental co logic. Everybody in the whole country knows that a NYC business woman would never sleep in a tent. And catering to this woman might generate more business.. and the "fear" of not wanting to fk with her.

[campbellcj]

I crashed a rental car during our honeymoon on the Greek island of Corfu. It was more like a cross between a dune buggy and a Yugo. The accident was honestly not my fault but try explaining that to a minivan full of cops and a mincar full of Greeks, all of whom spoke very minimal English! Thankfully I had picked up the full insurance coverage on the rental, and the rental agent spoke excellent English and was quite cool about the whole episode. I guess it happens quite often...

When we got over to Italy for the second leg of our trip, we didn't drive