Premium for Renting a Subaru

I don't ever recall ever seeing a Subaru in a rental lot. I haven't even seen that many Japanese nameplates, although my last rental was a Mitsu Lancer at Enterprise.

Well - the major US car makers offer huge fleet discounts to rental companies. Notice that Avis "features" GM cars, Hertz -> Ford, Enterprise -> Chrysler, etc.

First of all, let me say that I am extremely jealous of you. I'm in the borderland of west Texas now, but have been very homesick for Vermont the past couple weeks!

I think the dramatic difference in price was probably just due to the size of the car. SUV's are more expensive than "full size" cars (for rentals), which is probably where the Forester would fall under. Legacies or Outbacks probably have a premium since they are larger than a regular car, and are AWD.

Interesting to hear that MHT airport has Subaru rentals. I'll keep this in mind for my next visit, though Hertz offers hefty surcharges for those under

25 at Manchester. ($25/day, even if you have your own full coverage insurance). If there was a surcharge for those over 65, it would be called age discrimination!

-Mike

kl wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

I'm a former Hertz area manager. We rented Legacy sedans, Forresters and Outbacks, with Outbacks comprising the majority of our Subaru fleets. The reason the price is higher is the same reason the price is higher at the dealer, you pay a premium for a better vehicle. The Taurus/Sable is the standard full size vehicle. If you reserve a fullsize, you are guaranteed at least a Taurus/Sable. If the location sells out of these, they will sub you a premium fullsize such as a Camry or similar etc

Also depending on the time of year and location the rates can jump. All rental companies jack up their rates at opportune times. I can't say i'd ever work in the rental business ever again, but i can say that Hertz is on the ethical end of most situations, while Enterprise tends to play the dirtiest.

Major Hertz airport locations as well as some smaller locations carry ski racks where apprpropriate, especially in CO.

After driving all too many Escapes, and hundreds of Taurus' i can tell you that the 347 is worth it.

What you can also do is keep your Taurus res and then when you get to the counter see if the CSR has anything to upgrade into. But don't immediately say the Outback because they'll just give you the matrixed in upgrade rate. Do it smartly and you can get out of there with the Outback at a rate lower than the reservable weekly rate of 347 you were quoted.

Also, the ONLY situations that Hertz rents to anyone under 25 are:

1) Your employer has a CDP setup with Hertz that allows you to rent, on business or pleasure.

2) You're renting due to insurance replacement, and this only pertains to 21-24 year olds. If you're under 21, you can't rent at all.

The above also refers to driving the vehicle, not just renting it.

The person who responded that Hertz has an additional rate for under 25 is wrong. Many of the other rental companies have these additional fees, but Hertz doesn't.

y_p_w wrote in news:MbiZb.1068$yZ1.114 @newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net:

Hertz rents Subarus, Nissans, Mitsu's, Hyundai's, Mazdas, Toyotas, and they used to rent Hondas too.

Ford owns Hertz, so while we would make fleet purchases from Ford as we did other makers, all the money was staying "in house."

Enterprise goes into an area and buys cars from every dealer in the area that they want their service and body work from. If you can't give them it, they won't buy your vehicles. That's how they operate.

They also give the shops their "hits" which means when a rental gets into an accident, instead of sending it to a regional Enterprise body shop, they will give it to a local body shop in exchange for using them everytime a customer comes in and needs a rental. But they rape body shops with lowball hourly rates.

"Mike Hardiman" wrote in news:OesZb.11131$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.texas.rr.com:

Hertz doesn't rent to under 25 as a policy. This isn't to say that its never been done, hint hint, but what you paid isn't an age surcharge. They sold you the full package(LDW/LIS/P&P) coverage on the vehicle you rented.

All the northern Hertz locations have Subarus and plenty of crap SUV's like Explorers and Monteros available. Burlington...Manchester...Bangor...Portland...

Also one way rentals dump nice vehicles at locations all the time. Whenever bad weather grounds flights at La Guardia, JFK, Newark, you'll be guaranteed a ton of one ways thruout new england. Since these locations tend to sell out due to this, they're sending their land rovers and jaguars etc.

: :

Thanks for the info and advice. I have had substitute premium cars in the past (even getting a full size on a midsize reservation), but I wouldn't have thought about asking about the upgrade like this. I'll give it a try!

kl

kl wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:

Yeah, a major part of the business is cost per vehicle left on lot. If we left ten taurus' on our lot overnight w/o having been rented it wouldn't cost us nearly as much as ten grand marquis or even ten camry's. So that, as well as internal incentive programs for upgrades encourage CSR's to upgrade every customer that walks in the door.

Also, another trick is to reserve an A class or sub-compact vehicle which was usually a Hyundai Accent. The reason being we had very few of these and if you have a res that isn't first thing, you're almost guaranteed a free upgrade to a compact or midsize. Quite a few people make reservations for A's knowing this. At some of my smaller locations (HLE's) if the manager's had "regulars" who would try this on weekend special rentals they'd keep an A class just for these renters to see the dissapointed look on their face when they weren't getting a free upgrade and had to take the Accent. But if you're renting at major locations such as airports or downtown city locations 95% of the time you'll get the free upgrade.

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Brian Wasson) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

The manager was correct. Hertz classifies a midsize as a "C" and a fullsize as an "F". Subarus are all classified as a "Q."

I bet that the CSR's were having an upgrade field day if it was a CO snowstorm day. Do you know i had CSR's working for me that made more than me? They'd been there for years and worked all the best shifts for volume and upgrading so their incentives paid them around $70K. They would be crazy to become station managers, lol...

The new('02+) Camry's are great cars and easy to upgrade from the crap Taurus'. Solara's are fun too.

If you're a gold member, i'd suggest calling the gold desk and having your profile reflect that you prefer a Q and/or everytime you make a res make it for a "Q."

Gold members receive free upgrades, but its based upon availability. If a location doesn't have the right mix of vehicles to fit the res' then you'll receive at least your reserved class but under only very extreme circumstances (ie stars) will a CSR break someone else's res of a higher class to give that gold member an upgrade.