Rental car

AeroCleanse

AeroCleanse

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Just detailed part of a rental car, can't understand how they don't take care of them.

Picked up a mini van from Enterprise, outside looks nasty, no water beading, covered in bugs and water marks, etc. Inside a little dusty. I did the inside around the drivers area, then dry washed the hood and outside mirrors. Followed that up with some Meg's D151 on a SurBuf pad. What a transformation!

Since I am only renting it for a few days, one day is an 8hr drive, I am leaving at that. I think places like this would be a great place to offer something like Opti-Bond or GTech C1, etc. I know they don't keep them long, but with the amount of people renting them and the need to keep them clean, I think it would be good, as washing after them would be so much easier. In fact with C1, I can wash with a pressure washer and no soap.
 
When I get a rental car I always check the cold tire air pressure . It's always either 10 lbs over or 10 lbs under inflated .
 
Nick B said:
When I get a rental car I always check the cold tire air pressure . It's always either 10 lbs over or 10 lbs under inflated .
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The last rental car I had had three tires that were 15 or more pounds low.
I inflated them, but one continued to lose air. I brought the car back and
got another one.

Neither of the cars had been washed recently.

Rick
 
I rent alot of cars myself for work, and you are right. Poorly mainained, however they don't keep these cars long and when they resell them again they do a proper detail for the next buyer.

I think most rental companies only do the basic wash, vacuum and windows. Depends on the poor smuck working, sometimes they get lazy and do a half ass job.

On a few ocassion I decided to take a different car because it was just too dirty.
 
sound a lot like me, I recently had a rental from Enterprise (2010 Jeep Compass) and the paint literally felt like sandpaper. I cleaned it up a little, just used up a few older products I had (Eagle 1 Nano-spray wax, some older Meguires car wash, and a quick vacuuming) had it looking better than new. Only reason I did all of that (even though it only took about an hour and a half) was I knew I'd have it for almost 2 weeks and I can't stand driving a filthy vehicle.
 
I would think that with proper education the manager might be interested in a full detail and a paint coating applied if it means it would be faster for them to take care of it. If all they have to do to the outside is pressure wash it (as I do with C1), it would cut costs and offer them a faster turn around.
 
I have worked in management for car rental companies. Interiors get wiped down, vacuum, windows cleaned to be presentable. Exteriors at airport location get brushed in some areas to remove bugs and brake dust, then go through automatic car washes and air dry. Some might make the investment in a reverse osmosis rinse system to reduce spotting, but that's it. There might be exceptions to higher end cars at some locations that may get special attention. I can say the companies I worked for (large majors) did do a good job of following routine oil change and tire rotation procedures.

There is just no return on investment so to speak for these companies to spend any money on enhancing the appearance of their cars. If they keep them clean and presentable for the rental customer, that's all they really need. Most people just want a car that looks clean and doesn't smell like crud when they rent cars. With fleets that can be 100,000 to close to a million cars, it makes no financial sense for car rental companies to spend any more than is necessary to make a car rental worthy.
 
Really??? when i rent a car i feel relived! finally I can NOT be obsessed about chips, scratches, door dings, stains....ETC!
 
WindyCity said:
Really??? when i rent a car i feel relived! finally I can NOT be obsessed about chips, scratches, door dings, stains....ETC!
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I'm a professional detailer....besides gives me something to practice new products and techniques on. :props:
 
I feels you on this one. I washed and waxed two rental cars when my car was in the shop. I did a write up on one of them, and people thought I was crazy. If I had to drive the cars for a month at a time, I wanted to drive in a nice clean one.
 
WindyCity said:
Really??? when i rent a car i feel relived! finally I can NOT be obsessed about chips, scratches, door dings, stains....ETC!
Click to expand...

:iagree: When I rent a car, I pretend to be a test driver for Road and Track Im the MAN
 
I work part time for a Toyota dealership that also rents cars . The 3 people that run the rental part of the busness couldnt care less if the cars are realy clean. They run the cars thru a automatic car wash and let it air dry with a lot of spots. If the interior is very dirty they may have the detail dept hand wash it vacuum do the windows . This is if it real dirty or it its a special customer. I am the schuttle driver . I drive a 05 minivan with 117000 miles on it . When I first got the job it took me 2 weeks to get the inside of the van cleaned, spray foam, Apc and brake clean. Management doesent know what there doing , and the workers dont want to do anything.
 
the funny thing is recently rented a new ford fusion with only 10KM on it (Canada). I don't think they even PDI the thing properly. There were still various manufacture stickers, matts not in place, grease stains from lube smeared on some area of paint. Other then the brand new car smell, then kinda rushed it out for rental.

I also find that during the winter time rental companies get lazy, maybe because water freezes they wash the cars lest often.

I hate it when I get a dirty windshield, my GPS doesnt mount properly err..
 
Why would you waste product on a rental? I can understand wanting to try products out or maybe a rotary, but doing it just so its clean doesn't make sense to me. As they say, whatever floats your boat.
 
the only time I used product on a rental was when I got scratches from other cars, of course I didn't want to get ding/billed by the company and I made the fixes with a handle bottle of scratchx I always keep in my luggage. You never know..
 
In response to the original poster, it really makes no business sense for a rental car company to invest in better detailing products/techniques. They are in the business to rent the vehicles as often as possible . I worked for a major rental car company. When the cars are returned, there is a finite amount of time to clean the car before it is returned back into service (think automatic wash, interior vacuum, glass cleaned, and maybe an interior wipedown). Ironically, it a vehicle was returned excessively dirty, it was brought to me for a turnaround. (cars destined for resale would be segregated from the active rental cars, cleaned thoroughly(interior) and then sent on to sales lot. At that time, an onsite detailer would focus on the exterior).
 
Plenty of reasons not to buy a car that was a rental.
 
Bunky said:
Plenty of reasons not to buy a car that was a rental.
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Yet, i have bought three of them and had no problems with any of them ( my last one had almost 180k before I sold it). It depend on the rental car agency and their respective maintenance records. The ageny I worked at changed oil every 3 thousand miles/rotated tires and did any other required service work.

The only problem I experienced with buying one is that I would eventually replace the windshield (automatic washes tend to leave minute scratches that could not be removed). The exterior would always be properly detailed by myself when I bought it.
 
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