peteropny

Picked up today (Mon) at 1:00 PM - ES was a huge sea of Dodge Chargers, Chevy Impalas, Chrysler 300s (I took one), a few Ford Explorers, 1 Mercury Grand Marquis. EA had mostly Chrysler Sebrings (4 doors) and Malibus (didn't look very closely though).

jwbbx

I rent from this station 3/4 times a month, and always arrive after 11pm. Lately, I have been confronted with one of two scenarios:
There are less than 5 cars available in ES -of-
There is a veritable sea of Chrysler products, predominantly Chargers and 300s. I am not a fan of these, and have complained to the on-duty manager a couple of times.

He noted my concerns and gave me some nifty keen $10 off certificates I will never use.

HUB Flyer

Sunday evenings the lot is consistently full. You can always find a car with active Sirius if you aren't too picky about low mileage. Sometimes you get both a new car and Sirius, though it's often a Charger or Sebring.

precchia

I just finished a rental at DTW this morning that I started on Thursday. I have Executive Status, so I was checking both EA, and ES. It took me 30 minutes to find an acceptable vehicle. The main problem was that they just do NOT have enough Impalas, and 80% rate of Impalas (I'm not exaggerating) is just not enough, I'd love to see 90%, or maybe it could just be called the Impala Aisle.

On a serious note, besides the impalas, there were a few malibu's, some OLD Nissan Rogue's, a few other generic, beat up SUV's, and that was it. I did find a couple of Altimas in the Emerald Aisle.

I was about to give in and take an Altima (I love the Altima, it's my car at home, but...it's my car at home) when I saw a new Charger pull up; I raced over there, and was fortunate enough to be the first one to the car.

The moral of the story is: seriously National, give it up with the Impala's.

qs933

Doubt this will change anytime soon...given the more premium aspirations of the Taurus and Charger (people actually want to buy these cars, instead of having to dump them to fleets), the fleet-special in the full-size category will be the Impala.

The Impala gets a slight freshening for 2012 (3.6L V6 + 6-speed auto standard across all trims + minor exterior trim updates) but won't get completely redesigned until the 2014 model year.

On the other hand: with the strides Chrysler, Ford, and GM have made with their family sedans (formerly rental car specials), I've enjoyed driving the Taurus, Fusion, and Malibu and look forward to trying the new Charger and 300.

precchia

I have driven both the new 300 and Charger, and both were nice. They are the same interior with optional differences (size of the touch screen, leather vs. cloth, etc.)

Isn't that the model that got GM in trouble? Seriously, the 300 and Charger NEED to be different cars, so they aren't competing with each other.

I will say, the 300 was a fantastic driving experience (first in-car touch screen that made sense in its layout) and I preferred driving that to the Cadillacs that were offered to me (DTS and STS)

Charger is a fine car, but I wouldn't take it over the Caddy's probably.

qs933

Without straying too much further here in this DTW thread, "badge engineering" was a problem for GM because they had too many brands selling what was essentially the same vehicle.

I think the similarities are a good thing if the vehicle targeted at the lower end of the market feels like it shares the high quality feel of the premium vehicle. Unfortunately it's usually the other way -- the premium vehicle shares the cheap(er) parts from its lower-priced sibling (the interior door handles of the MKZ and Fusion, for example).

Yas46377

Guess not too many people renting out of DTW or at least not leaving any new posts. Thought I'd post that I was able to find an Infinit G37 a couple months back very late on a Thursday night with just a few K miles on it. Very awesome! I've been wanting to drive that car for a while.

plagwate

I'll be there at the end of this month and will make a note of what I see.

dwbf11

Picking up from DTW tonight around 8PM. Really need a minivan, large-ish SUV or pickup to be on the EA. If not, maybe a helpful lot attendant can be convinced to make it happen. Keeping my fingers crossed!

And will report back for the 4 people who actually care about cars at DTW

plagwate

Please do. I'll be renting out of DTW this Wednesday.

dwbf11

Friday, 8PM

EA and ES were completely stocked (to overflowing) with just about any car you might want/could think of. Of course tons of large domestics (Impalas, Chargers, Malibus) and generic small SUV's. A few of the more notable SUV finds (all on the Aisle):

1X Yukon
1X Buick Enclave CXL
2X 2012 Chevy Traverse, less than 2000 miles each (base, no leather)
1X 2011 GMC Acadia
1X 2011 Ford Explorer XLT w/leather
1X VW Tiguan 2.0T

Also saw a GMC Terrain (Looked like 2LT trim, chrome exhaust tips) in the return aisle.

I was looking for something larger (using this rental for hauling) so I was mostly looking at the SUV's/minivans only. I ended up in a 2012 Chrysler Town+Country Touring with 2200 miles, leather, active Sirius, and tons of other features I'll talk about in a ride report update

Overall very happy with the experience at the DTW National, very nice employees and a great selection of cars. I'm sure YMMV depending on what time you hit it.

hts

I fly in to DTW tomorrow (Sun/Mon) morning at 130a--I hope National is still open at that hour and they have some decent rigs, as I'll be in no mood to wait around for something good to be driven up.

dwbf11

I don't imagine you'll have any trouble. They seem to have plenty of cars to choose from and the employee I spoke with said that usually they actually have more than what was there - seeing how the entire aisle/ES was brimming, I think you'll be all set!

pragakhan

DTW has a large area for ES/EA, plus IIRC all the cars towards the back have ES/EA mirror hangs in them as well.. Took something from almost the last row once, it was hard to get out and not a peep about it