StuartUK

Hey guys....
I'll be renting for 1 week in Las Vegas (Airport) on a Monday afternoon in May.....
From following advice and reading lots of info on this forum, i'll be pre-paying for a FCAR (fullsize) through hertz.co.uk which includes LDW/CDW & LIS....... I'll pre-pay for the fuel at the desk.....

We will upgrade when we get to the Gold desk (first time renter with Hertz, but will book via the gold plus member account)..... and hope that we can get an upgrade for free (if lucky!), or settle on $25 per day upgrade.....

Ideally, we would love the Penske GT Mustang, but cant see that happening, soooooooooooooooo, i'll look in the stalls first to note the numbers of:
Camero SS convertible & Camero SS hard top.......
And then hope for the best!

However.......... Do any of you know if ANY of the adrenaline cars have Manual gears ? I don't mind auto's, but when it comes to these cars, would be nice if a manual gear option was available...
Ever come across manual gears in these cars ?

Also: When we get to the rental centre, am I right to think we go straight to the garage and find the Gold kiosk/office to sort out the upgrade ?

Auto Enthusiast

Rental cars in the US are all automatic.

marvanit

Your chances of a free upgrade as a first time renter to an adreneline car are zero. Your chances of an upgrade at $25 a day are better, but still not that likely. If you are set on an adenaline car, you should book it. Otherwise expect to be content in your Toyota Camry.

StuartUK

cheers for the replies....
I can stretch upto $40 a day making it slightly cheaper than booking a PBAR.... as said, hoping we can get $25 a day, you just never know!

Gutted about the gears, oh well

CTNYC

A tip I would suggest is using the gas option to your advantage... if they say no to your offer, say, what if I get the gas option? Gas options are commission for the agent, and more likely to help out if you get the gas option and a paid upgrade... make it clear that without an upgrade, you won't be taking the gas option (even if you really will be)

djk7

I think the only way to get a manual trans car in the US would be to get an exotic from one of the specialty places that rent them.

Red Scorpion

As others have said, 100% certainty that you will get an automatic. Most Americans simply can't "drive stick", so 100% of all US rental cars are autos.

As to your upgrade, well, Monday afternoon could play in your favour. Adrenaline cars are more popular for the weekend. so they may have a surfeit of them on a Monday with no bookings, so be prepared to see what sort of deal you can get. Usually, they want $40 a day extra for the Camaro SS/Challenger R/T/Mustang GT and $99 a day extra for the Penske Mustang, but you may be able to get these prices down. I got the Penske down to $75 a day over a Group C rate, and with unlimited mileage. If you can do that, I'd say "do it"......... you're never going to get a car like that back home!

Good Luck!

StuartUK

Cheers for the advice guys
Auto's are fine, can understand the rental firms going through clutches if most drivers aren't used to manual!

And upgrade info is very useful too, thank you!
Group C = ICAR ? (Toyota corolla / Intermediate) ????

itisme

I am having the Penske GT atm from LAs for 55$ a day over a economy booking. (for 1month until the 19th) It's the last one they had btw. So for 70% of the time they won't have one available anymore. Most have now been taken out of business to sell/auction them off soon. Sometimes they get one in tho from CAL/Ari but most Nevada ones are now out. Think from the approx. 140 they had there's only about 20 still running.

StuartUK

Handy to know about the Penske....
cheers for that! Guess i'll keep my fingers crossed that come May, they might still have one at LAS....

aces_high

I think Viper has manual, and so should GT500

Red Scorpion

Correct, the Viper is a manual, as no auto model is manufactured.

They have one at LAX, and last times I was there, it did not seem to move for days. You do need to supply your own insurance, otherwise, I would have paid up and taken it out for a day.

I believe the Shelby GT500 will also be a manual - not sure if this have actually reached the fleet yet. They certainly don't appear on the website to book.

docbert

You realize the pre-paid fuel is never a good option, right?

As others have said it can potentially be used as a bargaining chip for trying to get a cheaper upgrade, but otherwise you will *always* lose out from pre-paying rather than just returning the car full.

GW McLintock

That's not necessarily true. I will return a Volvo in several hours on fumes.

Currently the FPO rate is actually 12-15 cents below the surrounding area average. So not only will I save a couple of bucks, but I got a sub-2000-mile Volvo S80 on an EXAR reservation.

I suppose YMMV, but you can certainly work it in your favor.

-J.

docbert

Does that 12-15 cents below instead the taxes/fees? Normally there's something extra charged on top of the rate the quoted - sometimes taxes (in California, the fuel gets the normal tax plus an extra ~4% tax, for a total of over 15%), sometimes taxes + concession recovery fee, etc.

A few years ago Northern California had a refinery fire that caused gas prices to jump about 15% overnight. A day or two later I had a rental from SJC, and not only had they not updated their FPO price, but they were also advertising 10% off for AA members - so I took it.

I returned the car with it showing a "Distance to Empty" of about 10 miles, but when I did the math based on the consumption the car had claimed if came out that pre-purchasing the fuel had saved me about $2-3.

Despite a price well below street price for gas, and despite returning it almost empty, it was still basically a push. The reasons were simple - ~15% taxes added on top of the price that they quoted, and the fact I'd used over a gallon of gas less than they had charged me for - no doubt split between the fact the car wasn't 100% full when I picked it up, and the fact you can never realistically return it 100% empty.

So yes, I know it's not necessarily true that FPO can never come out in front (it did for me, even if only slightly!) - but it's going to very much be the corner case when it does...