born sleepy

Rented "intermediate" via corporate travel system. $27/day. Received dirty well-worn Renault Fluence diesel that twice would not start without a long wait between attempts (yes I punched in the "code" whatever that is supposed to do, and it freaked me out in the middle of Nowhere, Negev). Returned it today and was a little stonkered to see that with all the fees ladled on that the rental was more like $65/day.

Any recourse? The girl at the counter insisted it was correct and even though I declined all the insurance add-ons (per corporate policy) she insisted that it is mandatory in Israel.

Asked for diesel because I planned some long trips over the weekend. Fluence is the only diesel car they have. Good fuel economy but the Fluence really should be called Flatulence. Noisy, bad jerky transmission, overall loathsome. People buy these on purpose?

NYTA

I have never had a good experience renting in TLV from anyone. They always add on some mandatory government fee that they don't tell you about on the web and the cars and service are usually awful.

clubman

I'm actually amazed they have any on the fleet.
I'm very familiar with the Avis rental fleet in Israel, and they have never held Diesel cars (which are not very popular in Israel in general) so these must have come back from leasing contracts cut short.

My only experience with the Fluence is with the 1.6 petrol (also from Avis) which is an awful car, but the Diesel version is consider to be a pretty good.

born sleepy

It's listed on the car menu at the terminal 3 desk. Unsure why diesel cars are not popular here considering the price of fuel and the added efficiency.

The Renault diesel engine is fine; the car surrounding it, not so much: tinny, crappy interior, baffling controls, awful automatic transmission. Booking a tiny Asian petrol manual-trans car for this weekend.

Yeah they neglect to tell you about the $US29 airport fee and mystery "it is required" insurance despite declining all of the insurance options per company policy.

clubman

You need to ask the government why Diesel isn't popular - they impose additional taxes on it which is a real shame.

You sure it's the diesel version listed on the menu, and if so what class is it listed under?
As for the auto transmission, if it's the version with the dual clutch (similar to VW's DSG) I'm surprised, because it's actually a very good box, and works very well in the new Clio for example (although I have no experience of it in the Fluence...).

born sleepy

Yep, specifically on the menu as Fluence Diesel. I forget the class.

The trans was dual-clutch but in need of some adjustment. It would often jerk around between 1st and 2nd at low speed. The car had about 55,000km on it. Hope I get something better tomorrow...