When it is offered by a hire car company!
I have to hire around one car a month, and use mainly one company I must admit. However, I have been offered some really strange "upgrades".
Mini One instead of a Golf
Mercedes A class instead of a Mondeo Estate
Poverty spec Zafira instead of large engined Passat
Kia Ceed instead of Mondeo (I think they were trying it on here)
They seem to think that because it costs more per day to rent it is acceptable, but try fitting 4 adults and their luggage into a Golf when you ordered a Mondeo! my usual trick of refusing all offers until I get something that is bigger and/or better usualy works though :-)
Joe
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We were offered, in Boston USA, an upgrade from a reasonable brand new Kia to an end of the season battle scared Sonata - and they were most surprised when we turned it down. And then they offered a Plymouth people carrier, and again we turned it down. But when I asked about the Vitera they said would be an extra $300pw. So we stayed with the Kia - and it was pleasent enough for a 3 week, 3,000 mile drive through New England.
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A few years back I used to hire a lot of cars - usually at least one a week. We had a compnay deal with one of the big providers, and the corporate rate we had was amazingly cheap, but we always used to get upgrades as well. Before we switched providers it became a disapointment if you got what you had paid for. Usuall booking was a group c (Focus) but often got freelanders, Alfa 156's, Mondeo ST's / Ghia X's etc.
New provider is very strict - you get what you pay for :-(
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A trick I've learned when getting temporary hire cars when my company car is off the road. I ask for an estate which I am allowed to get.
We are meant to have only something like a 1.4 basic Astra sized car. But this is okay as it's normally when your car is in for a service. And we can get upgraded by manager's discretion. But most hire fleets with estates have only slightly higher spec cars ;-) Doesn't always work as I once had a 1.4 Megane estate but that was okay.
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A few years back a good ploy to get an upgrade from Sixt was to order a Golf sized car and specify a SatNav. At the time, only their premium class cars were fitted with them. This changed though as I discovered to my cost when I smugly went to the desk, mentally wondering whether I would get an A4 or a C-Class this time and was given the keys to a (old shape) Mercedes A140. Yep, they'd ordered a fleet of A Classes with SatNav.
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Tried the estate trick, but this does not always work, they still "upgrade you". With some firms asking for an Automatic can ensure a decent car, but....
Joe
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>> With some firms asking for an Automatic can ensure a decent car, but....
SWMBO used to do this all the time when hiring a car for work, and it was pretty successful. She'd started off with a poverty spec Focus or Astra, but asking for an automatic suddenly started seeing the likes of a Saab 9-3 Aero, Audi A4, and a fully loaded Titanium X Mondeo appearing outside the house.
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Once in Naples I arrived at the car hire office at the airport, expecting the keys to an Astra (or some such) only to be shown a Ford Ka instead.
The woman insisted she was doing me a favour, to which I made a mental note to complain to head office the next morning.
However, I never made that call, as driving through the backstreets of Naples (I was hopelessly lost) and later around the Sorrento coast made be realise that getting the Ka was indeed a huge advantage.
There were backstreets in Naples where even with the mirrors folded in, the Ka only *just* made it through. And as for the hairpin bends on the Sorrento coast, when you have coaches flying around from the other direction, mostly on your side of the road, smaller is definitely better!
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Yer, did all that in a daewoo matiz - horrid car but just the right size.
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Occasionally I have to deliver a lorry to another depot; if there's no lorry to bring back the company hire a car.
Took a Volvo lorry from Carmarthen to Denbigh one day in September a few years ago, an interesting run if you know that road; went into office at Denbigh, asked for hire car, and was told, "It'll be over here in a minute, they're just fixing a problem with the roof".
Slightly puzzled, as the default vehicle was an Astra or Vectra,I went in the canteen for a brew. On returning to the office, I was told the car had arrived..... a new-shape Tigra only a couple of months old. Don't try stowing the roof down, they said; not the warmest of days so no chance of that.
Anyone remember that silly advert where the bloke keeps getting sent the wrong way by the sat-nav, heading for Glasgow but arriving at a deliciously twisty rural road? Well it was like that all the way back to Carmarthen; tank was full leaving Denbigh and well below half on arrival, car thoroughly thrashed, an absolute hoot of a drive and even better I was getting paid for it.
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I used to deliver to the Welsh Health Authority and then reload from the depot you went to in Denbeigh HM :)
They were good lads there too!
Pat
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>> They were good lads there too!
"Were" being the operative word, Pat; the mill's closed now, it's merely a storage depot.
You're right though, they were a good crew at Denbigh; I spent two summers up there on the game feed, 4 nights out per week in a flat-top Volvo FM!
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Now there's dedication to the job HM:)
I didn't know it had closed down but what a lovely location for night out.
Also in stark contrast to a query I've had to deal with this week asking if a (young/new) drivers human rights we're being infringed because the fridge in his cab didn't work and his boss wouldn't have it reaired or replaced:)
They don't breed proper lorry drivers anymore!
Pat
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We were upgraded from a Suzuki saloon (that looked like a Hyundai Sonata) to a Jeep Grand Cherokee in Boston a few years ago.
We were upgraded from a Golf to a C4 Picasso last year in France which was handy for the space.
I recall being given a Bora V5 instead of a 1.6 Golf.
And I was once given a 530i at Brussels Airport when I expected a Corsa or similar.
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When is an Upgrade not an Upgrade - Routemaster
