Dollar - Dollar MCO ain't what it use to be!

Although I usually rent from the "Big Guys", I do rent from Dollar a half dozen times or so a year because there rates are sometimes dramatically less and because I had an unbelievably good experience at a Dollar location in Halifax Canada about 10 years ago when I was involved in an accident. Last week I rented from Dollar in Orlando, cheap and in the terminal which is another major plus over Hertz. When I arrived at the counter I got the usual broken english high pressure buy everything deal and the forced downgrade or "wait" deal, I was off to the lot....there was a woman screaming about something and demanding a new car. I got my keys then.....

Car 1- service engine light was on
Car 2- had the little spare tire on!!! Are they blind?
Car 3- I left the lot and made it 5 miles before I got pulled over by the police to be warned about a burned out headlight.

I went back to the counter and got....another size downgrade.

I used to think a car was a car and that the rate was the key....clearly this isn't the case anymore....Dollar rents mostly all Chryslers, which sucks enough in its' self; now they want to rent 2 year old cars that are beat to crap with 40,000 miles on them...good luck with that! I'll pay more for the reliabilty of a new car. So long Dollar!

Sorry to hear your experience. Like you, I only rent from dollar when I go to Florida. Mainly, because of the special rates there (see mousesavers dot com). I did join Dollar Express and seem to get pretty good treatment because of it.