Reserved A Car - All Avis Had Was SUV’s
 

I am presently renting with Avis. I had a full size car reserved. When I showed up, all they had were SUV’s. I do not like SUV’s. I would rather be downgraded to a compact car.

They had nothing else, so I took the SUV. To compound the matter, the SUV had very complicated features and broken cameras.

Last but not least, the gas tank was not full. I brought that to the exit agents attention.... Lisa said don’t worry about it, they won’t charge you for that little bit (7/8 full). I asked for a supervisor to document the gas.... Suddenly she felt compelled to document the shortage..... grr.

What do you think I should ask for when I return the vehicle?

What do you mean what you should ask for? Not sure what the question is.
I ALWAYS video/snap pictures the rental outside and inside and the mileage and gas before leaving the lot. Saved me a lot of headache (over 5 times this last 2 years). I rented for less than 1 day and someone documented my mileage over 2000 driven which was impossible. Disputed gas a couple times and damage once. Good thing I had videos and pictures.
They usually don't give you much hassle when you dispute the gas though.

But to the original question, what do you mean what you should ask for? A compensation?

Yes, but I don’t know if I really want to. the vehicle is has features that are inoperative such as the safety camera. Adaptive cruise control is broken. Rear camera, etc. person that checked me out refused to document the gas. Good point about taking a picture of the gas level, but odometer is on a different screen (electronic) so it would have to be on a different picture. The agent was a real ..... to me and all I asked her to do was document the gas. I wish I waited for a car, any car to get returned as this SUV is that bad.

Are you an Avis Preferred member? If so, have Avis put a note on your profile saying, "No SUVs," (or, "No SUVs or minivans," if you don't want a minivan either.)

It's not a fool-proof strategy, but might lessen the number of occurrences.

Was the SUV you got the only available SUV? If not, you certainly could have asked for a different SUV in better working order.
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yes, preferred. Thanks, I will try that for next tome. I already spent 20 minutes waiting to see if someone would return any car. So after that waiting around, I had to get to my meeting.

I understand the frustration but if they had nothing else and you abhor the idea of an SUV so much you should have left and rented from a different company.

Going to the counter usually gives you a very expensive rate

Good point, but I did not know the suv had operational issues until I drove it off the Avis lot.

You can make a reservation online with whatever discounts you want with a smartphone.

No, you are specifically talking about corporate codes that have a guaranteed rate. Regular discounts don't do much for last minute bookings, given the rate is so high. Eg Costco

When I returned the vehicle, a manager discounted the bill from $200 to $71. He said if this happens again upon arrival, ask for a manager. He said that he would have upgraded me to a specialty car like a Jaguar which they had in stock at the time.

Ironically, the SUV had much more serious issues and was taken out of service. I use Waze as my GPS of choice.... I noticed that nobody was passing me.... It turns out that the speedometer was off 9 mph... Whenever I drove city or highway, the Waze speedometer was accurate (as I use it all the time at home).

So when I drove 65 mph, I was actually driving 74 :-( . Big problem.... I showed the manager pictures and videos.

Very odd that the vehicle had so many issues. Things like adaptive cruise don't break unless somehow the radar got damaged which should be visibly clear.

Mind sharing what make and model this was?

Lincoln MKT - No longer being produced!

Not necessarily. I can't find anything confirming the production ended. And this article (and a few others) says they'll continue to make it for fleet buyers (including rental car fleets). From what I've seen, Avis has taken on a slew of them lately.

Now that you've returned it, can you please explain where this Avis location was? Thanks.