Originally Posted by
darthbimmer
The PT Cruiser is an old, low-budget vehicle. It has wallowy handling, poor power, loud engine and tire noise, and a quirky design to its controls. None of these characteristics disqualify it from being a mid-sized vehicle but do partly explain why many of us consider it an inferior alternative to pretty much every other mid-sized vehicle in a rental company's fleet.
What should disqualify the PT Cruiser as a mid-size is that it's much more cramped than pretty much anything else in a rental company's mid-sized category. It's narrower than many other mid-sizes, so it's hard to fit 3 passengers in the rear seat. And it's shorter than anything else called mid-sized, with limited trunk space. There's no way you could fit bags for 5 people back there. My wife and I fill it up when we pack for a week. I know from plenty of road-warrior experience than most other rental cars, including most cars classed as compact and even some in the economy category, have roomier trunks.
True, and I wouldn't disagree with you that it's an undesirable car. However, like Tuneman1984 indicated, Thrifty's hardly alone. In fact, I've seen the PT Cruiser classified as a
standard-sized car at Enterprise--that's one size BIGGER than a midsize!
It's unfortunate that the rental industry's vehicle classifications are strange sometimes, but it's hardly a bait and switch when Thrifty is just following the crowd. Besides, people complain about cars all the time--I've heard people go nuts over minivans, Jeeps, Subarus, and all matter of other vehicles. One person at Dollar went absolutely bonkers because she was promised a Toyota Rav4 by Hotwire and she was getting a Dodge Nitro, even though the Rav4 appeared nowhere on Dollar's site (Dollar.com showed a Nitro) and that was just Hotwire's estimation of that vehicle class.
And why should you not pay what you reserved? You booked a midsize, thereby statistically depriving Thrifty of booking that midsize for somebody else and taking in the higher rate on that midsize over the compact. The point becomes clearer if the difference is greater: if you had booked a large SUV (like a Dodge Durango) at $150 per day and then walked up to the counter and said, "I don't need that big SUV. I just want at $30 per day compact." Thrifty (or whomever you're renting with) has been holding that vehicle at $150 per day for you on the assumption you're going to be paying them $150 per day. They have told other people that it wasn't available and have deprived themselves of that potential revenue. You show up and suddenly short Thrifty $120 per day because now that Durango is sitting and not earning money. Had you just booked the compact in the first place, Thrifty could have told other inquirers that yes, it DOES have a large SUV available at $150 per day, and they could have booked it. Your actions have cost them money, so why shouldn't they hold you to what you said you'd pay?