Your worst rental car?

MattLodi

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Dodge Journey - maybe the worst transmission I’ve ever driven...
Agree, i've driven it from Denver to San Francisco, via LV and LA.
Another bad car i've rented was a VW Transporter rented in Iceland, it consumed more AdBlue than diesel.
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Shankmeyster

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A Hyundai from Enterprise. No cruise control but did get decent mileage. Had that thing for a week and had to drive from LA to Phoenix and back. I had no idea there were still cars that didn't come with cruise standard.
 

ken88

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2018 Toyota Corolla a couple months ago because the Si was at the bodyshop.
That damn CVT transmission is total garbage.
The manuals are just as bad...I test drove one before getting my Civic.
It felt "sticky" and I ended up going from 2nd to 5th a few times.
The seat was no picnic either...I spent most of the test drive fiddlefucking with it trying to get a comfortable position the never happened.
 

BoxsterSteve

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2014 Nissan Versa when my Accord got clipped in 2015.
What a boring gutless turd.
It took almost a week to get my dignity back after I returned it.
 

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This was years ago when my then new 2005 Scion tC was in the shop after a kid ran a light and rammed me head on. I got stuck with a 2005 Hyundai Elantra base model from Enterprise.. oh geez.. such fun... thankfully work had me traveling that week so I only had to drive it up to the office and it was parked the whole week I was out of town. That car sucked though, manual everything.. zerooooo power.. I swear there were overworked and underpaid gerbils powering that thing under the hood. The interior was crap and I felt like I could break the door every time I got in and tried to close it.

I also got stuck with a PT Cruiser as a rental in 2008 but at least it was the mid model so had a few tiny creature comforts. Still had zero power and scared the daylights out of me trying to merge on the interstate through Phoenix at 1130 pm on a Friday night :(

-R
 


Billy4202

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Oh! Almost forgot. Another shitbox we had in San Diego/LA back in '07.

An HHR. *dry heaves*

lmao we slammed that thing over speed bumps in the hotel parking lot, felt like it was gonna lose an axle.
 

fenix-silver

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Recently, had a Nissan Versa. Underwhelming in every way. Just had a Kia Sorento for a week and was pleasantly suprised! Pretty cut-rate interior, but that's to be expected. I was getting upper 20's highway mpg. Used Android Auto and it was pretty laggy. Took it on a logging trail and had to get through some pretty gnarly waterlogged sandy stuff. No issues, even w/ regular old highway tires.
 

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Worst? A Chevy Sonic. Left the lot and it had a check engine light as soon as I got on the highway. Never mind the low power, could barely merge!

Chevy-Sonic-hatchback-NYC.jpg
Yup. My wife and I rented a Chevy Sonic hatchback when we vacationed through Maine in 2017. I was initially excited because I was just starting to scour the market for hatchback options when I would be ready to buy a car in 2018/2019. In the end, it was an abysmal car experience with absolutely no engine power, shitty steering responsiveness, and a super cheap interior. It also had under 5K miles on it, but it rattled like it was nearing 300K. It's the shittiest vehicle I've been in since I was in high school in the mid-90's when me and my buddies were all poor and owned a variety of jalopies.

I should thank the Sonic for being so shitty, though. It made me really sift through the hatchback market with a fine-toothed comb and zone in on the Type R.
 

Browncoat3000

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Pretty much anything I’ve had from Kia and Hyundai have been dreadful. Pretty sure that whenever someone on these forums complains about rev-hang a Hyundai owner dies laughing.

But the worst ever is the Nissan Sentra. Completely gutless, the CVT sounds like it’s about to fly apart when you accelerate, body roll that makes a boat seem planted, and a miserable uncomfortable and ugly interior.
 

Gunther

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Nissan Versa. It's not about it being cheap - I've driven cheaper cars that I've thoroughly enjoyed and were entertaining. Fiat Punto in Italy, for example. All 4 doors were about 2" thick. Zero amenities. Barely any sound deadening. Two speakers in the dash that sounded like they were straight out of a walkman. No AC. No power steering. 1.1 L, 55 hp of sheer terror. Christ it was fun beating on that thing. 100% would drive again... I didn't get the concept of underpowered cars being fun until I spent a week with it.

The Versa, on the other hand, is just enough "car" to make it a legitimate car, but falls short in every other way imaginable. Absolutely hateful piece of shit. Makes you wonder why you were born. Like a useless bag of blood & organs being shuffled around in some soulless transportation appliance. Zero redeeming qualities. It is amazing how uninspiring and demotivating a car can be. If Einstein had driven a Versa, I doubt he would've done all he did to advance the human species. What would be the point? The transmission alone makes me want to slam it into an oncoming train - with me in it, if need be. I could die happy knowing I've contributed something meaningful to society by ensuring there was one less Versa on the planet.

Although, it is amazing that you can buy transportation that could probably reliably take you to Northern Canada in "comfort" for like $12K, brand new.
 


jaco

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Newer Camry I just had, terrible seating position & the steering wheel felt like it was out of a truck. Pro, awesome A/C
 

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This is a good thread! I've gotten pretty lucky, I think. I tend to get Toyota products that are fine but I'm never thrilled with them. The worst of them being the Corolla.

I took a Malibu on vacation once and managed to pop the same tire twice. Imagine a car full of me, my ex, and two little kids, and all the junk that comes with that for a week at the beach when suddenly, in pitch black, a tire pops. We had to unload everything from the trunk to get to the donut spare, then jam the full size back in and load all our junk back in as best we could. The ex had to sit with a lot of the luggage and stuff in the footwell of the passenger seat because the full size tire was so big in the trunk. Then, I got the tire replaced while I was at the beach, and it happened again on the way home.
 

swah_fk7

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2016 Hyundai Elantra Base model hatchback. I wanted to kill myself. It was 4 days into ownership of my 2017 Civic Sport Touring and somebody backed into me in a parking garage. The rental his insurance provided me was the opposite of my civic hatch.
 

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I was in Chicago for 4 months for work. I had a Kia Soul for about a week before I had to take it back. It was the biggest P.O.S I've driven in a long time. They upgraded me to a Hyundai Sante Fe that was AWD. Worked beautifully and was definitely a help in the snow. I enjoyed that SUV a lot.
 

blackdiamond

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2004 Ford Focus sedan S.... I think the name speaks for itself... Something came up at the shop and I needed it for an additional week.. Nope turned it in as it was possessed by a entity that wanted me dead... never drive a blue ovaled car/truck again
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