7 ms·

Just a personal anecdote from dealings with rental companies, but that doesn't seem to be the only reason for this. They're also seemingly cost-optimizing by a

by avar 5y ago

Just a personal anecdote from dealings with rental companies, but that doesn't seem to be the only reason for this. They're also seemingly cost-optimizing by advertising car A, and then hoping to give you an "or similar" car B at less cost to themselves. Sometimes in a way that blatantly doesn't match their own advertising material. E.g. I've rented something like a VW Passat or other mid-sized-wagon, only to have the car rental try to pass off compact the size of a VW Golf as "similar". They'll then budge when you point out that the suitcases you've got won't fit in the Golf, and that their own website shows that the VW Passat could fit X amount of large suitcases, but won't fit in the "similar" car. Then it'll turn out that they do actually have a car that a reasonable person would classify as "similar" to the car you booked right there on the lot. They might even have the exact model you booked to begin with! I've also experienced "softer" versions of this where the 5-10 advertised cars in a given "similar" category clearly have 1-2 models that stand out as noticeably cheaper. Guess which models I got every time I rented there? Not something you can/should complain about, since the models all similar to a VW Golf, but cases where it clearly wasn't about inventory management. Instead it's systematic "down-selling" via deceptive advertisement that conveniently omits the proportion of the fleet represented by each "similar" model.

pkulak 5y ago
Yup, this happened to me all the time. My family of four will always rent the minivan, which will inevitably be swapped for some SUV. All you have to say is that you don't want the SUV, you want a minivan, but it's annoying to have to go through the charade every time.
- b112 5y ago
  Typically this is called a "upgrade", eg, "We upgraded you for free!" Gee, thanks.
dnautics 5y ago
I had the opposite problem, I always reserve a small four door fuel sedan, and several times they upselled me an SUV or sports car "at no cost". Well I don't like driving big or fast cars and I want good fuel economy since I'm driving 100+ miles. That's a real cost!! No can do. One time, I took the fast car because TINA and didn't notice how light the pedal was on a downhill section of the freeway and got a speeding ticket. So that "free upsell" cost me $350.
- davidgay 5y ago
  > I had the opposite problem, I always reserve a small four door fuel sedan, and several times they upselled me an SUV or sports car "at no cost". That's clearly another consequence of "You can book any car with any rental company and cancel up until the minute of the rental or just not show up and there's no penalty.": they've run out of the smaller cars and only have one larger one left (e.g., more than X% of the people with smaller car reservations showed up, but less than X% of those with larger cars - and if you think this through, I think you need to bias towards larger cars in your planning to avoid not being able to provide an at-least-requested-size car when the opposite case arises).
closeparen 5y ago
Since the Golf is a hatchback and the Passat is a sedan, it is very surprising that the Passat would have more cargo capacity. Car and Driver currently shows 17.4 cubic feet for the Golf and 15.9 for the Passat, although perhaps they were inverted in a different model year.
- NikolaNovak 5y ago
  Passat is a far far larger sedan than golf is a hatchback. Any magazine indicating golf has more capacity is doing deceitful apples and oranges - I assume golf with rear seats down (a two seater) vs Passat as full five seater. Jetta is the sedan version of golf (roughly) and as a five seater it is full 50cm longer than golf. Passat is another 25 cm. It's just more car than golf. (mind you, I'd always get a golf over Passat but that's precisely because I want a small car and don't need a cargo carrying boat :)
  - closeparen 5y ago
    It's 17.4 cubic feet with rear seats up, 53.7 with rear seats down. The Golf is surprisingly roomy! I moved across the country in one (granted, before I owned any furniture, but with several suitcases and large plastic tubs full of stuff...) https://www.caranddriver.com/volkswagen/golf/specs https://www.caranddriver.com/volkswagen/golf/specs
    - NikolaNovak 5y ago
      That's astonishing to me! My sister has golf and her husband a Jetta. I love the golf but Jetta is, as designed, a bigger car. There are definitely loads that will fit golf and not Jetta due to different trunk entry ways, but I'm still surprised to hear that in terms of sheer volume, golf wins with seats up :O
      - b112 5y ago
        Perhaps due to the storage space not stopping at the trunk lid level, but continuing vertically upwards?
carlmr 5y ago
I often rent a car when traveling alone. Ialmost always get an upgrade because I book the cheapest vehicle available. They almost always try to upsell the better model before, like do you want automatic, no, do you want a bigger car, no, do you want navigation, no. And then you get the big car with nav and automatic transmission.
- mauvehaus 5y ago
  The dead giveaway that you aren't in the US is that an automatic is an option. In the US, it is (to my knowledge) literally impossible to rent a vehicle with a manual transmission from a mainstream rental outfit.
  - smsm42 5y ago
    In Europe sometimes it's the reverse. I had to literally drive to another country once (fortunately, in Europe it's much less of a big deal than in the US) to be able to rent a car with automatic. I can drive a manual, in theory, but with me decades out of practice and my family on board, I'd rather not...
  - chrismcb 5y ago
    Considering it if almost impossible to purchase a manual in America...
  - carlmr 5y ago
    You're right, this is in Europe where it's usually the opposite, automatic is rare except in premium cars.
NikolaNovak 5y ago
It's fascinating to me because my experience has always been opposite. I want a small car because I don't like to have a monster in unfamiliar territory. I'm always "upgraded" to something larger and when I indicate no thanK you, turns out they don't have a small car at all. This included being given a muscle car instead of small SUV (not practical for a kid and pregnant wife:), and a culminated in a chrysler 300 which I drove away about 150km, then drove back 150km because it was just so much Nope Nope Nope as a car. I waited at the counter until somebody drove in with a sane vehicle. So I tend to believe the notion there's just no actual inventory management and assignment. You get what they have.
- fosk 5y ago
  What’s wrong with the Chrysler 300?
  - Tempest1981 5y ago
    Maybe they meant the Chrysler 200. Or maybe not a Chrysler fan in general.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - dghughes 5y ago
    Pimp/drug dealer car was my thought. "A pimp's love is very different from that of a square"
    - wyldfire 5y ago
      "Two D's for a double dose of this pimpin'"
  - xeromal 5y ago
    It's a drug dealer's car?
    - CydeWeys 5y ago
cowmoo728 5y ago
I had a situation where I found a fantastic deal on the company's own site for a Volvo XC-90, which I booked. When I got to the location they told me they have never had or seen any Volvo model. They offered me a Cadillac XT4, a worse and smaller car, at a significantly higher price than the deal I had booked. Again, booked on their own website. It was egregious enough that it felt like it should be illegal.
- smsm42 5y ago
  It might be, but what you're gonna do, sue them from behind the counter? You probably don't even have independent (i.e. not relying on their website) proof that's what the site said... But even if you do, how many people would bother? Eventually, somebody would launch a class action, but by then clever marketing person who launched that promo would already be promoted.
- listenallyall 5y ago
  > at a significantly higher price you didn't have a screenshot, printout, or email with the reserved price clearly indicated? (on second thought, car rentals, especially at airports, generally have a huge markup due to airport facility fees, service fees, and local taxes -- but even that should have been clearly displayed on the confirmation you received at the time you made the reservation).
  - 1123581321 5y ago
    I'm guessing he didn't reserve it and just showed up as a walk-in. I could see someone new to renting cars doing that, but it's a good way to pay a premium for urgency and suffer luck of the draw. Anyone experienced should know better as online reservations lock in the price, often at a discount, and guarantee the vehicle size or larger without paying more for the larger vehicle.
    - listenallyall 5y ago
      > I'm guessing he didn't reserve it perhaps, although he said "booked" 3 times.

by avar 5y ago

pkulak 5y ago

Yup, this happened to me all the time. My family of four will always rent the minivan, which will inevitably be swapped for some SUV. All you have to say is that you don't want the SUV, you want a minivan, but it's annoying to have to go through the charade every time.

b112 5y ago
Typically this is called a "upgrade", eg, "We upgraded you for free!" Gee, thanks.

dnautics 5y ago

I had the opposite problem, I always reserve a small four door fuel sedan, and several times they upselled me an SUV or sports car "at no cost". Well I don't like driving big or fast cars and I want good fuel economy since I'm driving 100+ miles. That's a real cost!! No can do. One time, I took the fast car because TINA and didn't notice how light the pedal was on a downhill section of the freeway and got a speeding ticket. So that "free upsell" cost me $350.

davidgay 5y ago
> I had the opposite problem, I always reserve a small four door fuel sedan, and several times they upselled me an SUV or sports car "at no cost". That's clearly another consequence of "You can book any car with any rental company and cancel up until the minute of the rental or just not show up and there's no penalty.": they've run out of the smaller cars and only have one larger one left (e.g., more than X% of the people with smaller car reservations showed up, but less than X% of those with larger cars - and if you think this through, I think you need to bias towards larger cars in your planning to avoid not being able to provide an at-least-requested-size car when the opposite case arises).

closeparen 5y ago

Since the Golf is a hatchback and the Passat is a sedan, it is very surprising that the Passat would have more cargo capacity. Car and Driver currently shows 17.4 cubic feet for the Golf and 15.9 for the Passat, although perhaps they were inverted in a different model year.

NikolaNovak 5y ago
Passat is a far far larger sedan than golf is a hatchback. Any magazine indicating golf has more capacity is doing deceitful apples and oranges - I assume golf with rear seats down (a two seater) vs Passat as full five seater. Jetta is the sedan version of golf (roughly) and as a five seater it is full 50cm longer than golf. Passat is another 25 cm. It's just more car than golf. (mind you, I'd always get a golf over Passat but that's precisely because I want a small car and don't need a cargo carrying boat :)
- closeparen 5y ago
  It's 17.4 cubic feet with rear seats up, 53.7 with rear seats down. The Golf is surprisingly roomy! I moved across the country in one (granted, before I owned any furniture, but with several suitcases and large plastic tubs full of stuff...) https://www.caranddriver.com/volkswagen/golf/specs https://www.caranddriver.com/volkswagen/golf/specs
  - NikolaNovak 5y ago
    That's astonishing to me! My sister has golf and her husband a Jetta. I love the golf but Jetta is, as designed, a bigger car. There are definitely loads that will fit golf and not Jetta due to different trunk entry ways, but I'm still surprised to hear that in terms of sheer volume, golf wins with seats up :O
    - b112 5y ago
      Perhaps due to the storage space not stopping at the trunk lid level, but continuing vertically upwards?

carlmr 5y ago

I often rent a car when traveling alone. Ialmost always get an upgrade because I book the cheapest vehicle available. They almost always try to upsell the better model before, like do you want automatic, no, do you want a bigger car, no, do you want navigation, no. And then you get the big car with nav and automatic transmission.

mauvehaus 5y ago
The dead giveaway that you aren't in the US is that an automatic is an option. In the US, it is (to my knowledge) literally impossible to rent a vehicle with a manual transmission from a mainstream rental outfit.
- smsm42 5y ago
  In Europe sometimes it's the reverse. I had to literally drive to another country once (fortunately, in Europe it's much less of a big deal than in the US) to be able to rent a car with automatic. I can drive a manual, in theory, but with me decades out of practice and my family on board, I'd rather not...
- chrismcb 5y ago
  Considering it if almost impossible to purchase a manual in America...
- carlmr 5y ago
  You're right, this is in Europe where it's usually the opposite, automatic is rare except in premium cars.

NikolaNovak 5y ago

It's fascinating to me because my experience has always been opposite. I want a small car because I don't like to have a monster in unfamiliar territory. I'm always "upgraded" to something larger and when I indicate no thanK you, turns out they don't have a small car at all. This included being given a muscle car instead of small SUV (not practical for a kid and pregnant wife:), and a culminated in a chrysler 300 which I drove away about 150km, then drove back 150km because it was just so much Nope Nope Nope as a car. I waited at the counter until somebody drove in with a sane vehicle. So I tend to believe the notion there's just no actual inventory management and assignment. You get what they have.

fosk 5y ago
What’s wrong with the Chrysler 300?
- Tempest1981 5y ago
  Maybe they meant the Chrysler 200. Or maybe not a Chrysler fan in general.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dghughes 5y ago
  Pimp/drug dealer car was my thought. "A pimp's love is very different from that of a square"
  - wyldfire 5y ago
    "Two D's for a double dose of this pimpin'"
- xeromal 5y ago
  It's a drug dealer's car?
  - CydeWeys 5y ago

cowmoo728 5y ago

I had a situation where I found a fantastic deal on the company's own site for a Volvo XC-90, which I booked. When I got to the location they told me they have never had or seen any Volvo model. They offered me a Cadillac XT4, a worse and smaller car, at a significantly higher price than the deal I had booked. Again, booked on their own website. It was egregious enough that it felt like it should be illegal.

smsm42 5y ago
It might be, but what you're gonna do, sue them from behind the counter? You probably don't even have independent (i.e. not relying on their website) proof that's what the site said... But even if you do, how many people would bother? Eventually, somebody would launch a class action, but by then clever marketing person who launched that promo would already be promoted.
listenallyall 5y ago
> at a significantly higher price you didn't have a screenshot, printout, or email with the reserved price clearly indicated? (on second thought, car rentals, especially at airports, generally have a huge markup due to airport facility fees, service fees, and local taxes -- but even that should have been clearly displayed on the confirmation you received at the time you made the reservation).
- 1123581321 5y ago
  I'm guessing he didn't reserve it and just showed up as a walk-in. I could see someone new to renting cars doing that, but it's a good way to pay a premium for urgency and suffer luck of the draw. Anyone experienced should know better as online reservations lock in the price, often at a discount, and guarantee the vehicle size or larger without paying more for the larger vehicle.
  - listenallyall 5y ago
    > I'm guessing he didn't reserve it perhaps, although he said "booked" 3 times.