• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Super basic little rental weird

Share this page

JPSmit

JPSmit

Moderator
Staff member
Country flag
Offline
Down in Orlando for a few days to get ready for Christmas ( and have a break) we rented a compact and got a Yaris hatchback - I have to say it is basic to the point of being comperable to the Midget - ish.

I still occasionally get rental cars that don't have remote locking - like this. OTOH I can't tell you the last time I drove a new car where you had to manually adjust the mirrors. Weird. Yet there is AC bluetooth and lane departure alerts. And of course any kind of zip or pickup on the engine was clearly an uninstalled option as well.

it genuinely fascinates me that certain things don't get installed. I can't imagine (for instance) that it would be worth the hassle of not installing remote adjusting mirrors. It would require a different wire harness and a different driver's arm rest. Likewise as I restore the Vauxhall I discover differences between the UK cars that make no sense, like, why not just switch all cars to a dual brake circuit instead of just the North America Cars ( especially since people not robots were installing them) or why not put a two speed wiper in all the cars instead of just North America. I know the answer is always money, but penny wise and pound foolish comes to mind.

Weird
 
JP it sounds like you have been spoiled.
 
We rented a Yaris on our vacation to Scotland. A gutless wonder. It was a standard shift and you had to use it for any incline. I told my wife, next time, the car is going to have more than 50 HP. At least it felt like that. My old mini is better in the hills than the Yaris.
Jerry
 
I don't know about the Yaris, but they didn't have to use a different harness. Sometimes the wires are all there and just not used. Likewise, the door may only have a different switch insert, which is $.10 worth of plastic.

Options are almost always way overpriced; it's a marketing gimmick. People get enticed by the low price of the base model, but then add thousands of $$ worth of "must have" options. I'm no different; the only time I ordered a new car, the options I selected added up to about the same as the base price! But, to call them "options", they must be willing to sell the base model; and some people will buy the base model.

Just curious, what did you have to pay for petrol? IIRC, it came to about $9/gallon when I was there; but I've forgotten what the exchange rate was then. It's probably more favorable (to us) now due to BRexit.
 
Sounds like the Subaru Justy we rented in Honolulu.
Those three little hamsters were working the little feet off.
There was a place near our hotel that rented Samurais for $10/day.
They looked like more fun.
 
Back
Top