Following worst Courtesy Car, I thought this might be useful.

Rented a Focus sized car 4 years ago (actually says a "Focus or similar") and was given a Chevrolet Lacetti, I was furious. Needless to say, I never used Hertz again!

2 years ago rented a VW Passat Estate and was given a Zafria, not happy, so they swapped it for a Kia Sedona mmmm...... that was Avis.

Many years ago I rented a "small" car in Boston USA.

I had to spend 2 days driving around Massachusetts in a Hyundai effluent (accent)...nuff said :(

To flip this thread on its head, we missed a flight to Dusselldorf a few years ago, and rather than miss the trip, took an alternative flight to Amsterdam instead.

Got to the rental place:

"We need to drive to Germany, what cars do you have?"

"On German plates, all we have is a Mercedes E class, but since it needs taking back to Germany anyway, you can have it at the rate of a Daihatsu Cuore"

"That will do fine"

So on the bill it said Daihatsu Cuore, then in the little notes section it read Mercedes E220 CDI

You can only book hire cars by group not by make/model. If that group isn't available they'll try to give you a car from a higher group (which is not necessarily a bigger car) at the same price. Many years ago we had a complaint from a customer who had booked a Metro sized car from Heathrow and he ended up with a new Rover 825i at the price of a Metro.

Never had the luck of an upgrade, apart from the Sedona (space wise, its a massive upgrade) and we had a Mondeo Estate, instead of a Mondeo class car, what a treat! :p

Booked a Passat 'or similar' from Rome airport this summer. After a 3 hour wait in the queue at the car hire desk (another story) ended up with a Lancia Delta (now in the UK as a Chrysler Delta). It didn't have enough room for 3 adults in the back and 5 peoples luggage. However, we managed for 2 weeks... and they didn't notice the scrape on the N/S wing or the wear on the underside that I'd put on it. The roof was so low compared to the Roomster that I felt like I spent all my driving time peering out from under the cant rail. It makes me laugh when I see the new advert and they stress the amount of space in it.... not as much as they would like you to think. Was just about the fastest thing on the motorway on the way back to the airport though!

On one occasion (must have been about 1979) I had booked a compact car from a suburban location in Atlanta, as it was the nearest to Peachtree rail station. All they had left was a Chevy Camaro - that'll do nicely! Only problem was that my suitcase wouldn't fit in the boot due to the size of the spare wheel. Not a problem as there was only me so it went on the back seat.

It was quite entertaining to drive, quick in a straight line but not that interested in going round corners. Mind you, in that respect it wasn't as bad as the Dodge Magnum I'd had in California the previous year. Now that had serious understeer!

Rob.

perodua...

you get some gems aswell though, once got a 530d

Booked a Polo 1.4 or 'similar' from Dollar / Thrifty in South Africa in May and was presented with a Renualt Sandero 1.6, I think this is the Dacia Sandero in parts of Europe. What a pile of poo! I'm sure the Wife's 1.2 HTP Fabia is livelier and certianly handles a lot better, but it did get me from the hotel to the factory and back while I was out there.

Been luck in that most of my renta car experiance has been through work and we are pretty much 99% of one sites business so we/they get the newer cars in the area. So the ford focus I got was a realtivly new 1.6 wasn't great but better than a lot of other options. The other time I got a brand new as in still had delivery protective stick ons on the dials in the car new shape astra. Was nice but the driving possition was horrible with the front piller placement.

The only car I've had personaly due to insurance company was a chevy (haha) Aveo it was down right dangerous gearbox had no gate on it at all. the clutch had less bite than a damp sponge and the stearing had about 20 degrees of about there ish maybe play in it. First and last time I'll ever be accepting anything I wouldn't consider owning.

End up have a number of rentals , work wise at least 1 a week . The worst ever is the New Astra and even more if its a 3 door , they are **** . Had a new Alfa Romeo , diesel a few weeks ago , great as a drivers car , thought surprise yjis is good , only thing visability is very poor from rear and sides , The new Focus , lots better than previous , petrol consumption in a 1.6 is barely 36mpg , and it only has drum brakes at rear . But the best ever was 10 years back when over in usa on buisiness , kept getting great big cadillacs , so turbed up at Chicago airport , and said for a change could i have sometghing else , he rolled out a handfull of keys and said which one , I took the Ford Mustang , now thats another story .

If you build up some usage with one company you can say what car you want out of their fleet ...My dad has used hertz for years and has no trouble getting the motor he wants

K:)

The worst I've ever known someone get was a Chrysler PT Cruiser, which suffered from Dutch roll (this is normally only a problem with aircraft; look it up on Wikipedia).

The best was my Dad hiring me a Fraud Esgrot 1300 in 1992. I turned up at the hire place at 15:05, and the manager said he'd got no Esgrots, so I could choose either a Rover 414 (Hi grandpa) or a new Ford Mondeo 1800 estate. I took the Mondeo, and was very glad on my way home from the weekend since I overtook a snake of about 30 cars doing 35mph on the road up from Dunoon to the A83.

OK slightly the opposite but I booked a Renault Scenic in 1999 as I wanted something higher up for when my parents came to London - and we were going to Cornwall. Arrived at Kings Cross and no Scenics. All 20 they had in the fleet had been rented by the BBC. Well I said I rented a "van" to be higher up and I need to space... "erm, ooh, ok, well there is this one, you want it?" Hell yeah! A brand new Mercedes V220 automatic!! With six seats, a fold out table, dark tinted glass the works. Perfect for four of us. Mum and dad sat so far back we had to shout all the time to get their attention! And when we stopped on the side of the road you open both sliding doors, fold the table out and all four of us could sit in the back and eat! Fuel consumption was horrendous but hey ho we loved it!

But back to worst "upgrade": two friends booked a Mustang Convertible in Vancouver. Got to the rental shop and yep, no Mustangs. They love sun and said the replacement has to have a sunroof at the very least. The only car they had with a sunroof was a Hummer!!!!!! They were SOO embarrased as all the greenies in Vancouver toot tooted at them wherever they went in this thing. I would have been too. Horrid cars.

Sixt in Spain have upgraded me all 4 times i used them.

First time i booked a focus/307 or similar and when i got the the car it was the 140bhp 2.0 308CC with 3000km on it(£24,000 car)

Second time i booked MOndeo/laguna or similar, i got to the airport and they said they only had bmw's, i was a little cheeky and enquired as to what models they where and they handed me 4 keys, a 116D 318d 320d and an 330d.... obviously i chose the tasty free revving 230bhp diesel. man that car was economical AND fast.

third time i booked something more expensive... a 307cc/megane cab or similar again when i got the the airport they asked if i was happy with a 2 two seater convertible, i said yes and they gave me an SLK 200K(brand new 2011 model) i checked there websites price and i was quoted £320 for the megane/307cc and thats want i paid, but they quote £780 for the SLK... talk about a bargain