Travel- /Rentalcarlopnik

"PlaysWellWithNOthers" (henning2710) 11/20/2018 at 15:44 • Filed to: None

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After my Opa (grandpa) passed away in September of 2018 just shy of his 95th birthday I went to Germany for his funeral in October 2018 and because it was much cheaper than flying into Bremen, Germany, I flew into Amsterdam and got a rental car for the ~3 hour drive.

I booked through the German auto club ADAC with Hertz and since it was only my two-year-old son and me, I booked a compact (Ford Focus or similar). As a member of the Hertz rewards program I get to choose any vehicle in a designated area. From previous experience I know that especially at airport stations in Europe, you can really luck out and get a much nicer vehicle for the same price.

Plus, I was going to Germany, so naturally I was excited about that, thinking I could get myself into a nice, late-model, fast car.

After an uneventful flight we finally got to the Hertz counter at Schiphol airport, where we were told to proceed directly to the parking garage, because of my reservation and membership. Once there, we were told we could pick any vehicle in the area indicated next to my name on the overhead screen. I had already seen the area walking to the entrance and there were some nice vehicles (BMW 3-series, DS-Automobiles by Citroen, Mercedes A-Classes, C-Classes, and nicer Golfs (GTDs and GTIs) and a variety of standard Opel, Renaults, Peugeots, many of them wagons).

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

But wait! Why is my name not on the screen? I ask one of the attendants and he points me to a little office in the middle of the vast parking structure. I went into the office, talked to the lady behind the counter, and as it turned out I had an expired credit card in my Hertz account. She told us we’d just have to run a card for my deposit and we’d be on our way, since they have everything else up-to-date in my account.

Unfortunately, in cases like mine, they assign a specific vehicle to the rental. I asked if I could choose from the other area, but she told me they had as many cars as they had customers with reservations coming in within the next half hour or so (it was a Monday morning and the transatlantic rush-hour was in full swing)) and I’d have to wait about 30-60 minutes until they transferred more vehicles from their remote parking lot. Being with my two-year-old who was already getting queasy, I decided to just take what they had assigned us.

An attendant walked us to our car which was a Ford Focus wagon. It was black over black and looked sporty, but I thought, was just a base, rental spec Focus.

After I got our luggage, stroller, car seat and my two-year-old all stowed and strapped in, I got in to adjust everything and get ready to go.

The car was extremely well equipped for a rental Ford Focus, it came with the ST-Line package which sported spoilers in the front and rear, side skirts, upgraded titanium grey rims with low profile tires, rear diffusor and chrome exhaust tip on the outside, as well as heated, power adjustable leather/alcantara seats, black headliner (I’ve always been a fan), the Sync3 infotainment with navigation system, dual automatic climate control, a nice flat-bottom, very solid feeling steering wheel and parking sensors as well as a host of electronic driver aids and a heated windshield, as in actually heated inside the glass. It even had a pretty lively little ecoboost turbo engine and it was a six-speed stick.

So, after I felt a little disappointed at first about getting “just” a Ford Focus, I felt like this could just be a nice little cruiser for the next eight days. And it was. Entering the dutch freeway with its 100kph/62mph speed limit I noticed the engine was lively, but didn’t really have a way to test just how lively it was past that speed. As soon as we crossed the border into Germany and onto an unrestricted part of the German motorway network (Autobahn), I gave it full throttle to see what it could do, and, wow! In little time we were to 200km/h (~125mph) and still going. We ended up getting to 215km/h (~134mph) before we had to slow down for a large motorway intersection. What a nice surprise. As it turns oput my little rental had a 1.5 Ecoboost engine with 148bhp and some 240Nm of torque (177lb-ft).

What a blast! Turns out not having a current credit card on file got me into one of the most fun rental vehicles I’ve ever had, but I would have just passed it over, had I had the choice of any vehicle in the designated area.

E90M3 > PlaysWellWithNOthers 04/03/2020 at 09:22

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I’ve rented from Sixt the two times I’ve rented in Europe and have enjoyed the cars they gave me. I had an S-line A3 with the 2.0T and a 6MT when I was in the UK; really enjoyed that car.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > E90M3 04/03/2020 at 09:37

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That is a nice rental. Audis are great fun, especially with the S-Line package. Which castle is that?

I’ve had a lot of nice cars with Sixt back in the day. Mostly 530d BMWs with the straight six diesels, one of them was a 6-speed stick. A couple were wagons and one of them was a 535d xdrive wagon. Never a wagon with a stick, though.

Europcar always gave me great cars for road trips, too . VW Phaeton V8s with the 4 seat package and adaptive cruise control. Also R320s for when we needed more space and a really nice S -Classes, one of them a V8 diesel LWB with all options.

During the 2000s Sixt and Europcar had great weekend rates. Any of the vehicles mentioned above would be €150-25 0 Friday noon to Monday 9am including full coverage insurance (usually €750-1, 050 deductible), all fees and taxes included and unlimited miles. Too bad those deals are long gone.

Instead if using our own vehicles we would always get rentals for road trips. During peak vacation times they would always have great deals as well. I remember having an R320 LWB for two weeks for under €1,000 out the door over one Eas ter break . Considering the miles we put on the rentals it was cheaper than driving our own cars.

Cé hé sin > PlaysWellWithNOthers 04/03/2020 at 09:57

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Sixt used to have a budget operation called Sixti who advertised a Smart or other small car for from €5 per day in the early 2000s . The “from” bit being important but I did manage to get a car for that. They charged for anything over I think 250 km a day so I found it paid me to have a car sitting there for a couple of a days just to benefit from the 250 km per day.

I’ve got a Hertz car at the moment (current Mk9 Fiesta) and it’s costing me about €4.14 a day with unlimited distance . That’s the genuine price, it’s not €4.14 plus tax and insurance.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > Cé hé sin 04/03/2020 at 10:10

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Wow, tha t is seriously cheap. I would argue that if you drive over 20km per day it would be cheaper than ow ning a car.

E90M3 > PlaysWellWithNOthers 04/03/2020 at 10:12

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C ulzean castle in Mayb ole Scotland.

Sounds like you’ve had a good amount of pretty decent cars. 

Cé hé sin > PlaysWellWithNOthers 04/03/2020 at 10:13

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Shows how desperate they are at the moment! I’m having my own car repaired but garages are restricted to emergencies only for the duration of the lockdown.

Rates for a small car were about €25 pw when I booked the Fiesta.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > Cé hé sin 04/03/2020 at 10:28

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That’s about how much the smallest car was here per day before the pan demic started. And only th rough a corporate account or insurance.

PlaysWellWithNOthers > E90M3 04/03/2020 at 10:39

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That is beautiful. I always love going to the British Isles. There is a lot of neat history to discover.

I was fortunate to have friends that loved road trips, but not so much the driving. I was usually the one who got to drive all the neat cars. It was a good time.