Rental Cars

Michael Or, when you want to rent a car: The newspaper says that the rental car costs $19.95 per day. Man, that's really cheap, you think, and call the number provided, but when you reach the call center, which is usually staffed by people from parts of the USA where no one else ventures (like Iowa, for example), and who speak with a terrible dialect, you might find out that the offer is only valid in Florida, or only if you pick up the car from a specific airport.

If you don't mention that you read the offer in a newspaper, you'll be quoted completely different prices: $34.95 is common. However, if you provide the so-called Ad-Code (the code printed in the advertisement, something like "Q-95" or "ZX"), the people at the computer suddenly find the cheaper price. Immediately after, you're informed that the car for this price is, of course, only an "Economy Car," something like a VW Golf, and you're advised to take the "Full Size Car" instead, with more horsepower and a larger interior.

If you're smart, you stick with the small car, get your reservation number, and can visit the car rental company on the agreed date. There, the whole process starts again: The best line I ever heard came from a salesman at Alamo, who tried to convince me that the car I ordered only had a three-cylinder engine and that we couldn't possibly manage the hilly routes we had planned -- to which I replied that it would be fine as long as all three cylinders were in good working condition. The gentleman didn't find that very funny, though, because, after all, people in car rentals are paid for so-called up-sales, meaning if the customer drives off the lot with the car they ordered instead of upgrading to a larger one -- of course, for an additional fee -- something went wrong, and the manager will come down hard on the salesman if it happens too often. Funnily enough, those who insist on their small car usually end up getting a large one without any extra charge, as car rental companies often don't have small cars in stock since almost everyone gets talked into paying for a larger one. When we didn't have a car of our own, we rented one every few weeks, and we regularly watched German tourists getting ripped off by this scheme left and right.