electricbro

Recently I found that in some US airports, most rental car companies carry Mercedes (especially Hertz, Enterprise), the most frequently seen are C/E classes.

In some car rental forums I saw people even said they just book the cheapest possible car online, then proceed to the counter paying some $20ish - 30ish per day to "upgrade" to a brand new E350; And the rental company keeps 30 - 40 E350s in the facility, lots of choices to pick from. This is even way more cheaper than you directly book a Impala online! WTH!

When Mercedes become a volume rental car? Honda/toyota/chevy/ford... being a rental, that's OK. But lots of E350 in the rental car fleet and so cheap to rent? This really hurts MB's brand image, IMO.

aprevo15

I go on business trips every other month to all over the country and I get a rental every time. Not once have I seen a Mercedes on their rental lot.

On a side note, it annoys me when my clients from Germany come to visit me and tell me that my E is just a normal taxi there.

electricbro

2nd this! My Singapore friend told me E is also a normal taxi in his country, and the E class taxi fare is exactly the same as an Honda Accord.

BTW, honda accords are not considered to be what it is in the states, its more like a buick here.

thenew3

My local airport has tons of MB/Lexus/BMW rentals. for MB its mostly E and GL class. Similarly with BMW it's 5 and X5. Lexus ES and RX. There are more "luxury" cars in the rental lot than regular cars.

Last time I asked, (2 months ago) it was $200/day to rent a GL450 or GL550. or $900/week.

The guy at the counter says they usually stock a few dozen as these vehicles are in high demand. Many wealth folks and celebrities come here to play golf and they demand a premium rental.

I live near Pebble Beach, and Laguna seca.

In a couple of weeks is the annual pebble beach car show/auction. We've already start to see a large # of "exotic" cars on the roads here. Ferrari, Lambo, even a few Bugatti's.
For a few weeks each August, we just sit in our back yard and watch these cars go down highway 1.

My wife find it funny to see all these old bald guys driving these exotic convertibles, parked in the safeway parking lot trying to pickup young ladies.

aprevo15

When you see old guys with an exotic car in Beverly Hills, they usually have a young hot blonde in the car. LOL.

hyperion667

they're seen as luxury items I guess, and when folks are on vacation; holiday, what have you......they don't mind going for something a little bit nicer than normal....
if they are so popular, the 'public' must be asking for it........seems like it's be one of those "give 'em what they want" type of situation....

back in er uh........when got married......'04 I think......I rented a Jag S type on the big Island of Hawaii and thought it was great

hyperion667

https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-w...-our-cars.html

fintail

This has been going on for ages. My local Enterprise has carried C class since W203. Hertz has had C/E/GL in the "prestige" lineup for at least 3 years. The German firm Sixt, now operating in the US, carries C/E/SLK/E cabrio/ML/GLK/GL (I've rented Sixt E for under $40/day - bargain). I think National has C and GLK too. No big deal. BMW is also easy to find in US fleets.

maguzma

I travel quit frequently and never seen mid to high MBZ for rent. I have a National Exectuve Emerald Card and same via Avis and never seen a German luxary. Only cars I have rented were Volvos, Chrisler 300 (S), Nissans, Corvettes, and all the rest US and Korean cars. I did see some nice Mustangs, Lexus, and high end US cars at Hertz but no MBZ. I live in San Diego and often travel to DC, FL, TX HI, CO and other big cities but no MBZ. Maybe I am not landing in those states or countries. Maybe I need to start using my Hertz Gold Plus Rewards card (with points). Not been impressed but must be doing someting wrong. Worst thing I ever did was rent a Corvette convertable in Hawaii. I spent most of the time at the firm and hotel and never really enjoed the car I would have saved time and money on a Jeep/Hyundai.

norcal_cyclist

in Finland your E350 is just a cab, get over it.

K-A

If prices for them are becoming more affordable to rent (therefore being more common rentals), I wonder if it has to do with the fact that E350's are practically leasing for what loaded Accords or Camry's you'd imagine would. M-B using a horn-honking alarm system which always reminds me of "Rental Car" (which I put to silent on my 2011 after my dismay that it didn't use the classy electro "beep" that my 2010 had) doesn't make matters better when it comes to perception.

Having Luxury Rental Cars is nothing new (M-B, BMW, Jag, Infiniti I've seen), but being just $20 to $30 more than the cheapest cars on the lot is a problem to me. Nobody wants their premium car to be a prevalent Rental.

If you look up Used E Classes, you'll see tons being sold by Hertz as previous Rentals (I always hated that) for very cheap.

Arrie

I really need to talk to my Hertz representative next time as I have been renting their cars for 20 years and 2 months now exclusively and being their "President Circle" member I have not seen a rental offer for a MB for $20-$30 more to upgrade to in the U.S.

I have seen MB E350 cars in some locations but it has always been $50/day and up to upgrade from a full size rental I already have. Then, if you need to take the LDW on it you talk about some more serious "upgrade cost" on it.

I have enjoyed several upgrades in Europe though. These upgrades are actually the reason I now drive the MB E550. The Hertz car rental sold me on the MB products at the Dusseldorf and Zurich airports when they gave me MB S350 and E350 cars to drive as upgrades. The S350 with the distronic really impressed me.

For some reason my first own MB was without the Distronic but after about a year I got one.

What comes to the taxis in Europe. In most countries half or more of the vehicle price is the government taxes so the cars cost a lot of money but if the car is a tool, like a taxi, the tax is very low or in some countries none.

So, for the same cost as a Toyota Camry you can drive a MB E350 as a taxi car. Now, you can also get the Camry cheaper as the tool but if the price between these cars before taxes is only $10 000 or less which car would you choose to drive for 500 000 km? And some taxi customers also choose the ride too...

mikemargolis

I travel over 100K air miles a year, you see M-B C, E and GLK for rent at Hertz, especially in MIA and LAX. MIA even has E63's

I actually love this, you pay a little extra, get an awesome ride, and have a bit of prestige when you pull into the client's parking lot.

Plus, I fell in love with the E through frequent rentals before I bought mine. Not sure I would have bought one if I didn't have some miles on one through the rentals.

C280 Sport

What is the big deal? People rent Ferrari and Lamborghini all the time! I was in Las Vegas and rented a Gallardo...
Here in Sarasota we have Mercedes and BMW rentals because that is what EVERYONE drives here already.

El Cid

It's called supply and demand. Wealthy demand luxury cars and rental companies provide them.
Been a while, but my experiences were that you could negotiate a better deal at the counter than you could reserving a type vehicle.
Years ago (before 9/11) the Army flew me into Jacksonville FL and had reserved a "small" car for me. The counter person saw that I was in the Army and said he only had two small cars, but had a bunch of Chrysler LHS' fully equipped. He would rent the small cars with no problems, but the LHS's would sit there so he upgraded me for free.
The more cars MB sells (as taxis or rentals), the less profit it has to make on each car sold.
Also, remember Corvette is an expensive, foreign car in Germany!

instantfob

As long as they keep fleet sales in a reasonable amount then your resale value will not tank as much. Last time I checked in at LAX-National, I thought I walked into a Nissan dealership.

I remember in the late 90s rental car companies are under the automakers sub.

Hertz = Ford
Dollar = Pentastar
Alamo = GM

gesundbenz

Rented a beautiful GL450 from Hertz at LAX but not for $30 bucks extra. Total for 3 days was over $500!

adrien

This doesn't bug me in the slightest. It's a car.

I used to rent all the time, and Hertz was always upgrading me. Drove several Jags, several MBs and others. As long as they can monetize it, good for them.

My uncle showed up recently in something Hertz had given him. A Bluetech S Class, and this was in England.

As for the taxi thing -- I actually see this as a really good sign. They are Taxis because they have a ton of room for European cars (especially the wagons), and are perceived to be incredibly durable.

Gratuitous photo of our cab in Copenhagen attached...

hyperion667

electricbro

Just checked Sixt rental in phoenix airport, see my attachment:

C class only cost for $49/day! chevy Cruze will be $69/day, also Camry costs you $77/day.

How come Mercedes rents much much cheaper than curze and camry? That's insulting! C'mon man...

electricbro

But how much do people pay to rent a Ferrari or Lamborghini? Will they get the "economic car + $30 upgrade fee" deal?

The problem: now it becomes too easy and very cheap to rent a decent loaded brand new Mercedes; and most rental car companies keep so large volume of Mercedes like they do for econo car such as cruze/camry.

instantfob

/\ Great deal ... Now we know where to get spare parts when needed.

Mercedes is pushing volume cars everywhere now to meet goals. If rental customers can get their hands on a C class at a rental lot and pay for an extended test drive then he/she will be more likely to go home and consider buying one.

thenew3

When I checked a few months ago (wife was going to let me rent one for a week as a wedding anniversary gift), a few places in SF wanted between $500 and $1k per day for a ferrari or Lambo. With a $20k deposit.

So it was going to be about 5 grand for a week or so. I decided not to do it instead using the money towards some future upgrades for my E350.

A few MB dealers also rent out their MB loaner cars for fairly low prices. One dealer in the bay area will rent them out for $29.95 per day even if your car is not in for service. The catch is you're not able to select the model and its only whatever they have left after they've given out all the loaners needed that day for service customers. They showed me the loaner/rental fleet they had, about 40 cars total. They had C250, C300, E350, GLK350, ML350, GL350, R350. Mostly 2013 models with a hand full of 2012. You're not able to make a reservation for it, basically you show up at 9 or 10am and ask them if they have any loaners/rentals available for rent. If they do, you sign some paper work, give them your CC, and they hand you keys to whatever is available.

instantfob

If what people pay bothers you then, I am leasing my current E350 Bluetec for 2500 drive off and $390 a month after tax when MBZ was doing $3k in conquest cash. Deal was so good I dump my 1 year old G37 6MT for it.

The bigger problem is... there is not enough retail buyers and so MB needs to get rid of them via fleet sales. BMW is making their dealers buying up the 320i/328i/X3/528i and put them on loaner fleet for 5000 miles and resell them as cheaper CPO just to move units. Also it doesn't help that European car market is taking a dump and they have to shift allocation to move units in North America.

BenzMan369

Hah! Reminds me of my Avatar here and homage to global government excess.

It's a circa 2006 Brabus Rocket Mercedes CLS V12. It was the world's fastest police car when introduced. Used by German police agencies for patrolling high speed roadways such as the Autobahn.

US$437,575 worth of heart palpitating, pulse pounding pursuit pleasure. Throw in the flashing lights and screaming siren and sexual pursuits become completely unnecessary. Or so I've been told.

Although, I suppose it may be a bit easier to justify a custom-built Mercedes high performance police vehicle as opposed to "just another E Class taxi." That would irk me too. II.

My apologies if this is too far off the MB rentals topic.