Originally Posted by tschesnok

I'm German, but I think I have been pampered a bit by US car rental companies. Sixt has the best cars (@ FRA) so I reserved an X3. Woman at counter told me that an X5 was available for just 15 Euro more. We had lots of bags so I took it. We get there and the thing is totally beat up. A bunch of stuff not on the damage list. 30 minutes of extra paper work. Crappy child seat. Crying baby (after trans-Atlantic overnight flight). Car filled to the brim with suitcases. Then After the guy leaves (In FRA you are simply in a garage with no-one around) I see a massive stone damage on the windshield right in the drivers line of sight. How could that have been missed. Another 20 minutes to call a guy from a service phone. guy shows up tells us it needs to go to the shop. Gets on the phone and tells us that only a Mercedes is available. There are X5s EVERYWHERE! I complain and he tells me that they don't guarantee a type of car and that the other X5s are all reserved. Did I mention the crying baby? and the repacking of suitcases.

I found that experience extremely upsetting (all in all it took us 1.5 hours to get out the the garage). The only person we can talk to is the garage guy who tells us "I'm just the little guy.. I don't make the decisions" So no changes when I say that they don't guaranteed X5s to the other people either and I'm here now.

In Germany at Sixt the customer is never right. Too bad. This may be standard customer service in Germany - I'm just not used to it anymore.

(and yes, the particular model of Mercedes is nice - but certainly the inferior car)