Do Rental Cars Even Get Maintenance?

"Nick Has an Exocet" (nickallain)
09/15/2016 at 19:08 • Filed to: None

Does anyone have any insight (first, second, or third hand) on rental car maintenance? The rental car that I have has all the maintenance alarms turned off in the menu. I get that - you don’t want some person freaking out about a light on the dash when it’s just a “hey, refresh your oil.”

However, there is a sticker in the door that says the last oil change was due at 23,000 miles. The car has 39,000. The car guy in me wonders whether they did it or not. The realist in me thinks that they haven’t since the entire front end shakes violently under braking (warped rotors).

Anyone have any knowledge about that? Have rental agencies been slipped on maintaining their cars?

DISCUSSION (15)

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:18

I’m inclined to believe that the bigger well-known companies have some semblance of a set maintenance schedule. Which is why I try to rent with them even if a little more expensive than the no-name cut-rate companies.

LongbowMkII > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:22

Depends on the company I assume.

I have a friend that works for one. Maintenance is followed but it generally just tires/brakes. It’s hard to convince a manager to spend much money on a car that’ll only be around for another 10,000 miles or couple months. Don't expect preventative maintenance.

jariten1781 > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:23

Depends on the company. The ‘name brand’ guys, as I understood it (been a few years since I travelled a lot) do oil changes but get rid of the car before any other big ticket stuff hits. Little guys and the second had name brands (think ‘Budget’) are more of a crap shoot.

Any rental that’s over 30k is likely to be a bit crap regardless which is why the big guys cap their mileage around there.

smobgirl > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:24

I think it might also vary between neighborhood locations (independent franchises) and airport. The enterprise I used a few times in flagstaff sends their cars to Firestone and does oil changes approximately every 5k miles. I had a local rental in Denver that claimed the same. Airport - who knows. I've rented so many broken vehicles I'd believe they never do anything.

NJAnon > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:27

Yeah I agree it depends. I’ve seen some rental places wash their rental fleet. I use the term “wash” loosely as they just spray water over the car and wipe it 60% of the car down. No soap or anything.

So if they can’t be bothered to even do simple washes, Im sure they aren’t really always on top of maintaining them.

dogisbadob > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:32

Yeah, I hear they get regular Italian tuneups!

facw > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:42

My understanding is that they generally do, but that no one is taking a car out of service during busy times for preventative maintenance, they’ll wait until they’re sure to have a surplus of vehicles, so it’s easy to miss services, especially in the summer.

Eggplant > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 19:54

When I worked at a dealership, we would regularly service cars from a major rental company. It was mostly oil changes (VW oil changes are EXPENSIVE!). Occasionally, our guys would do a tire when someone would run over a nail and keep driving. However, for the most part, cars didn’t stick around long enough to need more than a few oil changes before they got resold at auction.

Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 21:23

Don’t have any first hand experience, but...I bought a 2005 Focus in late 2005 as a used car, was a rental in Nevada (I assume Las Vegas). Didn’t really want to buy something like that, but wife plugged a deer and totaled her Sentra right after we bought a new car thinking hers would last ‘for a while yet’, so we needed something cheap and quickly. Figured it only had to last a few years ‘til we could afford something else. Had 25K miles on it when we bought it, figured first major repair we’d get rid of it. Now has 131,000 and the only thing we’ve replaced on it besides maintenance items is a throttle position sensor. At this point, it’s not worth trading off or selling, so it’ll go ‘til she’s ready for the junkyard. Only a few small rust spots on the bottom of the door in 10 years of upper midwest winters. So, it seems that at least some places must take decent care of them. And I wouldn’t have expected a Nevada rental to be one of them.

Land_Yacht_225 > Nick Has an Exocet
09/15/2016 at 22:36

Speaking as an Enterprise employee, yes we do service them. We keep our own maintenance records in our own computer system which trips when the car is returned over its next service interval. Most airport locations employ a couple of lube guys and have a couple lifts in back by the carwash for tire rotations. That’s why the sticker may be from the last time the car was serviced outside of the airport. We obviously have no need for stickers internally.

As for turning off the monitoring lights? People abuse the hell out of them. And I don’t mean the cars, I mean the lights. You rent a 200, it says it need a needs an oil change in the middle of the rental, you come back, scream bloody murder, and we have to send you back out in a 300C to ensure you don’t tell the random CSI survey people that we rented you a poorly maintained screaming metal deathtrap. Low tire pressure light, the customer says the tires are bad. Don’t put the fuel filler cap back on and get a check engine light? You can’t blame the customer, because enterprise doesn’t work like that. So it’s our fault.

And all that costs us a lot of money, so we turn off the warnings if we can, or reset them often.

Your average rental customer is dumber than a stump. Low washer fluid is equivalent to throwing a rod to most of them.

Nick Has an Exocet > Land_Yacht_225
09/15/2016 at 22:46

For what it’s worth, the enterprise cars I’ve had have been great. The Hertz cars I’ve had have been... Hertful.

Thanks for the inside scoop!

Svend > Land_Yacht_225
09/16/2016 at 03:19

We had a rental from Enterprise, U.K. and while it seemed well maintained it just wasn’t as clean as I’d like (but I’m very picky. Lol) but I did give it a thorough clean before sending her back.

http://oppositelock.kinja.com/well-the-rental-goes-back-tomorrow-1786055233

Roundbadge > Nick Has an Exocet
09/16/2016 at 08:18

Land_Yacht_225 speaks the truth. I know other Enterprise employees who’ve said the same.

I’ve rented from Enterprise a number of times, but each time we’ve gotten fresh cars with less than 1000 miles...so it hasn’t really been a question.

We rented an Avalon this spring, and it kept showing tire pressure warnings during our drive (put 600 or so miles on it). I know for a fact the rep from the agency immediately took it in to the dealership to be looked at.

Ultimately, I don’t know about other companies, but I do have second-hand knowledge about how Enterprise operates.

Nick Has an Exocet > Roundbadge
09/17/2016 at 00:35

Hmmmmm, I think it’s enterprise next time.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Comes over to help work on your car and only drinks beer
09/20/2016 at 18:18

Considering Las Vegas, I bet most were either short-term local rentals (mostly idling in traffic) or road trips (which is also pretty easy on cars). Mind you, those engines were pretty close to bulletproof. As long as they changed the oil every 2-3 months, it could otherwise suffer serious neglect with little risk.

I wonder more about modern rental fleets, though. The used prices are so high that fleets keep cars much longer. I have seen rental cars that were years old and with 60k+ miles, which seems like a really long time for a rental car.