My truck is out of commission waiting for shocks to get rebuilt, but needed a car for client meetings in Plano.
Reserved a rental at Avis, and when I went to pickup my compact rental (typically a Corolla or the like), the agent asked if I’d like a significant free upgrade to a Mustang Mach E.
I’ve owned an EV, several hybrids and a plug-in hybrid, so I said “sure!”
The vehicle:
Not a bad car.
Plenty of pickup, as you’d expect.
Felt like no rebound damping in the rear, it was a mess when I hit large bumps in the road…not comfortable at all over large imperfections.
Giant screen controls all functions…which is great if the car wasn’t pogo-ing down the road. I touched the wrong thing on screen numerous times, very frustrating.
It also had a 100% glass roof, and no sunshade.
In a fucking Texas summer.
Who thought this was a good idea?
The glass was so hot, I could barely touch it.
Started with 320 miles of range.
Drive about 150 miles and had 15% battery life remaining when I turned it in.
The rental experience:
This part is on me…I didn’t ask about battery level/recharging before turning it in.
Turns out, returning with:
70% charge or less, $35 fee
20% charge or less, additional $35 fee
Cheap-ass that I am, I wanted to charge it before returning it. Nearly all stations around me are EVGo network, so I find one on google and drive to it.
Oh shit, I need an account. Spent 20 mins getting an account setup.
Perfect, now I get to charge it for 30 mins so I can save 70 bucks.
But…it won’t recognize the car.
WTF?
All other spots are full with other cars, so I drive to the next station about 15 mins away.
Same fucking problem.
I go to literally 9 other locations.
5 were completely full….sorta. One or more spots at multiple locations were out of order.
The other 4, same problems, out of order and/or won’t recognize car.
Having wasted about 90 mins trying to save 70 buck, I’m out.
I go to return the car, and the attendant is super cool about it, says he won’t note the low charge on the docs.
And here I am 3 days later…the rental doesn’t even show up in “past rentals” on the app or website, they didn’t charge the card, and the invoice that’s typically emailed immediately upon return is nowhere to be found.
Net-net:
I will never rent one again, it’s just so much more convenient to fill a normal car with gas prior return.
For our use, an EV would be a good second car. But relying on public charging is a no-go…recharging overnight while I’m sleeping is the only way I’d currently consider buying another one.
But not one with a fucking glass roof or dodgy shocks
Reserved a rental at Avis, and when I went to pickup my compact rental (typically a Corolla or the like), the agent asked if I’d like a significant free upgrade to a Mustang Mach E.
I’ve owned an EV, several hybrids and a plug-in hybrid, so I said “sure!”
The vehicle:
Not a bad car.
Plenty of pickup, as you’d expect.
Felt like no rebound damping in the rear, it was a mess when I hit large bumps in the road…not comfortable at all over large imperfections.
Giant screen controls all functions…which is great if the car wasn’t pogo-ing down the road. I touched the wrong thing on screen numerous times, very frustrating.
It also had a 100% glass roof, and no sunshade.
In a fucking Texas summer.
Who thought this was a good idea?
The glass was so hot, I could barely touch it.
Started with 320 miles of range.
Drive about 150 miles and had 15% battery life remaining when I turned it in.
The rental experience:
This part is on me…I didn’t ask about battery level/recharging before turning it in.
Turns out, returning with:
70% charge or less, $35 fee
20% charge or less, additional $35 fee
Cheap-ass that I am, I wanted to charge it before returning it. Nearly all stations around me are EVGo network, so I find one on google and drive to it.
Oh shit, I need an account. Spent 20 mins getting an account setup.
Perfect, now I get to charge it for 30 mins so I can save 70 bucks.
But…it won’t recognize the car.
WTF?
All other spots are full with other cars, so I drive to the next station about 15 mins away.
Same fucking problem.
I go to literally 9 other locations.
5 were completely full….sorta. One or more spots at multiple locations were out of order.
The other 4, same problems, out of order and/or won’t recognize car.
Having wasted about 90 mins trying to save 70 buck, I’m out.
I go to return the car, and the attendant is super cool about it, says he won’t note the low charge on the docs.
And here I am 3 days later…the rental doesn’t even show up in “past rentals” on the app or website, they didn’t charge the card, and the invoice that’s typically emailed immediately upon return is nowhere to be found.
Net-net:
I will never rent one again, it’s just so much more convenient to fill a normal car with gas prior return.
For our use, an EV would be a good second car. But relying on public charging is a no-go…recharging overnight while I’m sleeping is the only way I’d currently consider buying another one.
But not one with a fucking glass roof or dodgy shocks
