I landed in wonderful Detroit about midnight local time. It's now 130 am and I'm in an Uber going to my hotel 85 miles away.

Why?

Because Avis didn't have any real cars. My only choice was a Chevy volt. I left the rental lot, looked down and saw the estimated range was 27 miles. Looped back into the lot Went inside and was told it was the glorified Childs ride on or nothing.


I hate electric cars.

The *former* great motor city is now just a pathetic excuse for a city.

EV's have a lot of great use cases. Trucks and rentals are not one of them.

My travels to LA have had me encounter electric cars a few times. It better be 100% leaving the lot or I won't take it. so far, no issues.

I now try to reserve hotels with recharging stations just in case. But I do not go out of my way to recharge the thing before returning it the same way I top off the fuel tank. My employer can pay the recharging fee.

what possible reason does anyone have for going to Detroit?

Much less landing at 1 freaking am.

Rental cars are hard to get this week due to all of the canceled flights and airport chaos. At 1:00 a.m. you're already scraping the very bottom of the barrel.

They tried to do the same thing to me in Detroit this summer. They told me they had no ICE vehicles left. I refused and magically they found a nice normal car. They're trying to shove those down our throats.

If you own an EV then you generally know where your next charge station is.
If you rent an EV then you need to find your next charge station.

Not sure why anyone deals with rental places when something like TURO exists. You get to pick you car, typically cheaper, and as long as you look at the reviews, I haven't had any issues.

Why didn't they give you one with a full charge?

I'm not a fan of short electric cars, but the long ones are the way to go!

I'm guessing since they were short on cars, they hoped they could just pawn this one off on some sucker and let roadside assistance do its thing shortly thereafter

fixer said:

---

what possible reason does anyone have for going to Detroit?

Much less landing at 1 freaking am.

---

Mid-level cartel meeting at Dennys

Martels Hammer said:

---

I landed in wonderful Detroit about midnight local time. It's now 130 am and I'm in an Uber going to my hotel 85 miles away.

Why?

Because Avis didn't have any real cars. My only choice was a Chevy volt. I left the rental lot, looked down and saw the estimated range was 27 miles. Looped back into the lot Went inside and was told it was the glorified Childs ride on or nothing.


I hate electric cars.

---

I thought the Chevy Bolt had a back up gas engine.

Red Pear Felipe said:

---

Martels Hammer said:

---

I landed in wonderful Detroit about midnight local time. It's now 130 am and I'm in an Uber going to my hotel 85 miles away.

Why?

Because Avis didn't have any real cars. My only choice was a Chevy volt. I left the rental lot, looked down and saw the estimated range was 27 miles. Looped back into the lot Went inside and was told it was the glorified Childs ride on or nothing.


I hate electric cars.

---

I thought the Chevy Bolt had a back up gas engine.

---

No, that was the Chevy Volt.

The rental EV had a short?!

Ok, but the most important question: were you armed?

can't rent a car motor city.

Thunderstruck xx said:

---

The *former* great motor city is now just a pathetic excuse for a city.

---

Now? Hell, the 1987 movie Robocop painted a very bad picture of Detroit. It's been that way for decades.

Yes, but do golf carts really need to be that big and expensive?!?

You should be mad at Avis

Martels Hammer said:

---

I landed in wonderful Detroit about midnight local time. It's now 130 am and I'm in an Uber going to my hotel 85 miles away.

Why?

Because Avis didn't have any real cars. My only choice was a Chevy volt. I left the rental lot, looked down and saw the estimated range was 27 miles. Looped back into the lot Went inside and was told it was the glorified Childs ride on or nothing.


I hate electric cars.

---

Is this an EV issue or an Avis issue managing their inventory?

213 Grove said:

---

Not sure why anyone deals with rental places when something like TURO exists. You get to pick you car, typically cheaper, and as long as you look at the reviews, I haven't had any issues.

---

Because TURO doesn't have an airport pickup 99% of the time and sure as hell not at 1AM in Detroit. It is no cheaper than rentals. The added inconvenience of ubering to some tow yard or ****hole building to get the car.

213 Grove said:

---

Not sure why anyone deals with rental places when something like TURO exists. You get to pick you car, typically cheaper, and as long as you look at the reviews, I haven't had any issues.

---

Smart people like me use National Emerald service (which is free) and now I have National Executive through my CC.

I land, go to rental car center, do not talk to anyone, walk straight to any car on the lot, get in car, and go.

The fact that most people still talk to anyone at a rental counter boggles the mind, but I'm glad they do because if everyone realized you didn't actually have to do that it would probably cause a supply problem for the smart people like me.

TshirtVulture said:

---

Yes, but do golf carts really need to be that big and expensive?!?

---

And, is this a wedge issue?

Chevy Volts have a short EV range, but a reasonably long gasoline-powered range. They carry about 9 gallons and get well over 30 mpg, running on their generator.

They were the ideal short-commute vehicle (electric is much cheaper than gasoline) and a reasonable long-range, gas-powered car too.

Hertz Presidential Circle is nice.

Gaeilge said:

---

Hertz Presidential Circle is nice.

---

Yep, the walk-to-car-and-drive away program starts as low as Hertz Gold. Not hard to get at all. I haven't rented in years but somehow have Gold status. Walked right to the car this weekend and took off.

CDUB98 said:

---

Red Pear Felipe said:

---

Martels Hammer said:

---

I landed in wonderful Detroit about midnight local time. It's now 130 am and I'm in an Uber going to my hotel 85 miles away.

Why?

Because Avis didn't have any real cars. My only choice was a Chevy volt. I left the rental lot, looked down and saw the estimated range was 27 miles. Looped back into the lot Went inside and was told it was the glorified Childs ride on or nothing.


I hate electric cars.

---

I thought the Chevy Bolt had a back up gas engine.

---

No, that was the Chevy Volt.

---

So they gave him a volt, which does have a gas engine.... ?

akaggie05 said:

---

CDUB98 said:

---

Red Pear Felipe said:

---

Martels Hammer said:

---

I landed in wonderful Detroit about midnight local time. It's now 130 am and I'm in an Uber going to my hotel 85 miles away.

Why?

Because Avis didn't have any real cars. My only choice was a Chevy volt. I left the rental lot, looked down and saw the estimated range was 27 miles. Looped back into the lot Went inside and was told it was the glorified Childs ride on or nothing.


I hate electric cars.

---

I thought the Chevy Bolt had a back up gas engine.

---

No, that was the Chevy Volt.

---

So they gave him a volt, which does have a gas engine.... ?

---

I think he got the model wrong. They probably gave him a Bolt.

Any chance you have an AMEX platinum? If so, you get it for free.

There are a few other cards that offer that perk too.

HowdyTAMU said:

---

Gaeilge said:

---

Hertz Presidential Circle is nice.

---

Yep, the walk-to-car-and-drive away program starts as low as Hertz Gold. Not hard to get at all. I haven't rented in years but somehow have Gold status. Walked right to the car this weekend and took off.

---

PSA for everyone else: National is free. There is no qualifying barrier. I now have Hertz as well as a perk via my Sapphire card, but it will only be used as a backup. It also seems to have some limitations that National's program does not based on my very limited perusal of the program.

Regardless, there is zero reason for anyone to go to a counter these days unless you are flying into a tiny airport that doesn't support this for some reason.

Both

It's not like I could fix the issue with a convenient stop at the gas station