Other Car Rental Programs (ie. Alamo, Enterprise) - Enterprise calls hyundai accent a midsize!

had a one day rental from enterprise, they gave me a Hyundai accent as mid-size car:confused:.
Their argument is "accent has power window and power lock and four doors so it is mid-size car":D

I'm surprised they call anything a "mid-size" considering that's not even a category they have, according to their website:

http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/showVehicles.do

Perhaps you mean "intermediate"? In that case, I think the Accent compares reasonably well to the Corolla or Sentra, which are specified as Intermediate. That said, I think Enterprise has too many categories of cars. How is the average person supposed to know the difference between an "Intermediate" and a "Standard". ("Standard" is sometimes used by people to refer to manual transmissions, which makes it even more confusing, considering that manual transmissions are typically not rented in the U-S)

My Hyundai Accent I rented from Avis through Priceline last fall in Florida had a surprisingly comfortable interior and power everything. The agent said he's giving me the subcompact I paid for. The Alamo agent said the same thing when I booked a subcompact through Priceline at Westchester Airport. The Yaris was waiting for me. What do they now consider a subcompact? A unicycle? :td::td::td:

yes, you are right, they call it "intermediate",
but i think Accent is more reasonably compared to Yaris or Versa
and Elantra is comparable to Corolla or Sentra

I'm surprised they call anything a "mid-size" considering that's not even a category they have, according to their website:

http://www.enterprise.com/car_rental/showVehicles.do

Perhaps you mean "intermediate"? In that case, I think the Accent compares reasonably well to the Corolla or Sentra, which are specified as Intermediate. That said, I think Enterprise has too many categories of cars. How is the average person supposed to know the difference between an "Intermediate" and a "Standard". ("Standard" is sometimes used by people to refer to manual transmissions, which makes it even more confusing, considering that manual transmissions are typically not rented in the U-S)

The Accent is usually a compact and the Elantra is supposed to be the Intermediate. I guess they were a bit tight that day.

Intermediate and Midsize are virtual synonyms, as are Economy and Subcompact. There's no difference between the terms. (How each rental agency actually categorizes cars, though, does differ--more in a sec.)

Here are the industry codes and how they map to terms:

ECAR: Economy car (Subcompact)
CCAR: Compact car
ICAR: Intermediate car (Midsize)
SCAR: Standard car
FCAR: Fullsize car
PCAR: Premium car
LCAR: Luxury car
MVAR: Minivan
CFAR: Compact four-wheel-drive (SUV)
IFAR: Intermediate four-wheel-drive (SUV)
SFAR: Standard four-wheel-drive (SUV)
FFAR: Fullsize four-wheel-drive (SUV)
LFAR: Luxury four-wheel-drive (SUV)

Also, you might occasionally see -WAR, which stands for wagon (i.e. FWAR is full-size wagon), or -DAR, which stands for four-door car (i.e. IDAR is intermediate four-door car--used to differentiate when two-door models are offered and classified separately).

Enterprise, and now, consequently, Alamo and National, tend to run small and vary widely, in part because they classify cars based on cost, not size. All that said, in my experience, here's how they classify things based on what I'm familiar with:


Size: Enterprise Thrifty
ECAR: Chevy Aveo Same or not offered
CCAR: Chevy Cobalt Dodge Caliber
ICAR: Dodge Caliber Dodge Avenger
SCAR: Dodge Avenger Not offered
FCAR: Chevy Impala Dodge Charger
PCAR: Pontiac Grand Prix Chrysler 300 Base

Cobalts are Intermediate at Enterprise, and Intermediate might mean you get manual windows, door locks and mirrors. Haven't seen that happen elsewhere in ages.