An Adventure in Renting
Written: Oct 19 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Price, Convenience
Cons: None
|
|
|
| solpo's Full Review: Enterprise |
My love affair with Enterprise started when I was newly 21, without insurance, and needed to rent a car in New York City. $50/day later, I had a car--from Enterprise.
I was hooked.
Almost 6 years later, Enterprise has pretty much always been my first choice for rentals, whether when traveling or when needing an in-town car. Why? First of all, although their listed price isn't always competitive (although they're pretty much always cheaper than the "big name" people like Hertz or Avis), you can dicker both price and car class. I've paid for economy cars and received mid-size, compact, and convertibles, but very rarely an economy car.
Their special delivery program also deserves mention--they will pick you up at home or work and take you to the location. Once you're done with the car, they will take you home. This is a major convenience.
I've had two experiences that make me particularly fond of Enterprise--one with them, and one with another company which made me wish that I had used Enterprise....
The good Enterprise experience.... A year or so ago, I wanted to take my wife on a trip on which I was going to propose to her (she wasn't my wife yet). For the trip, I wanted to rent a luxury car, so that we could be comfortable. I called around and got a rate of $85/day at Enterprise and $71/day at National after using coupons and discounts. I called Enterprise back and they immediately matched National's rate, even though I didn't have any Enterprise discounts.
The day of the rental arrived, and the Enterprise location I had called had rented out the specific car that I wanted (Cadillac) and had only a Buick in its place. I was somewhat peeved, so I called another Enterprise location closer to my house. They promised me a Cadillac and came to pick me up. When I got there, the Cadillac was gone (although they would have gotten me one), but they offered me an Infiniti QX4 for the same rate, even though it went for $119.99 a day. Sure, they made some mistakes, but they fixed them with a better-than-equal substitution. In my book, that's better than getting it right. We had a wonderful time, and, since it snowed in the mountains, having a 4x4 was a real advantage (no chains!).
The time I wished I rented from Enterprise? We were in Las Vegas and we wanted to rent a car for the day. So we went to the Dollar desk in our hotel (Luxor)--about a 15 minute walk. Then we waited. Then we went all of the way to the parking garage and stumbled around looking for their area of the garage. When we finally got the car, it didn't work well at all (automatic transmission shifted absurdly hard, and the brakes seemed to have no stopping power). Had we rented from Enterprise, we would have been picked up in front of the hotel, taken to the location, and been on our way. It would have been faster and more convenient with less walking. And it would have been less expensive than the $50/day rip off at the hotel.
One final advantage to Enterprise.... Their fleet isn't as fixed as other companies. You can usually get some choice of cars--it's a great way to go test driving. If you know that you always want a Ford Taurus, go to Hertz. If you either don't mind or (in my case) crave some variety, Enterprise is the way to go.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
solpo
|
|
Location: Edina, MN
Reviews written: 65
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Husband. Traveler. Manager. Glutton.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.