How can you guarantee that your rental car won't use unreasonably more fuel? [closed]

After more than 50 rentals, my grandpa and grandma have noticed that Enterprise CarShare's cars match manufacturer's advertised fuel economies, but Enterprise Rent-A-Car's are much lower. E.g., a CarShare's KIA Soul yielded 4-6 L/100 km, but Rent-A-Car's same model of KIA Soul yielded 13-15 L/100 km!

They suspect that as CarShare (a car sharing company) pays for gasoline, it cleans and services their cars better than Rent-A-Car, which requires renters to pay for gasoline and so has less incentive to keep cars fuel-efficient.

They drive identically on CarShare's and Rent-A-Car's cars. If anything, they'd expect worse fuel efficiency for CarShare's cars especially in the winter when they use the car heater.

Is there any evidence for our suspicion? Has anyone experienced this difference?
If our suspicion is true, then please see the question in the title. Starting with a fuel-efficient car is easier than requesting compensation after the trip.

car-rentals

Best Answer

The answer to your *updated* title, how to demand that the car match the manufacturer's rated fuel economy - due to the factors listed towards the end, I don't believe this is feasible.

The answer to your immediate question; how to check before driving if the car matches a certain fuel economy rating; can be done by the following:

Turn on the car, check the on board trip computer. Almost all modern cars have a fuel economy readout which tells you what was the fuel economy on the last trip. However, if someone has reset the trip computer, this value may not be accurate.
Carry with you a OBD adapter and a cellphone app. Plug it into the OBD port and read the last fuel economy reading.

Practically speaking - car fuel economy ratings are like laptop or cellphone battery estimates - they are done in controlled conditions which rarely apply to real life use. Cars sometimes match, sometimes exceed, but often struggle to match the ratings.

The figures on the sticker are to be used as a guideline only - they are not hard numbers.

Saudi Arabia has introduced fuel economy rating stickers on new vehicles sold, which are also used in other countries in the GCC. Here is what it looks like:

As you can see, the number is more of a guideline of how good or poor is the fuel economy of the vehicle. The actual figure is as a result of controlled testing.

I don't have recent experience with Enterprise, but what I can tell you is I have rented the exact same car (in fact, ironically, it was even the same bland white color) from two different reputable international franchise rental agents from the airport in Bahrain. Each car performed differently when it came to fuel efficiency. There are many reasons for this:

Maintenance - a poorly maintained engine is not as efficient
The grade of fuel used, if different than what the car is rated for
The gearing / how you drive. If you constantly use the manual pedals, "sports mode", etc. this all affects the fuel economy.
Tire pressure
Driving with the windows up or down, AC on or off, etc.
Ambient temperature and altitude

I am not sure what can be done to reliably predict how a car will perform - short of actually driving it.

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What is full to empty fuel policy?

With Full to Empty fuel policy, you pick up the car with a full tank of fuel and return it with an empty tank. Same to Same means that if you pick up the car with a fixed amount of fuel in the tank, you should also return the car with the same amount of fuel.

What does like for like fuel policy mean?

Fuel policy Like-for-Like for rental cars Such a fuel policy means that when returning the car, the tank must contain exactly the same amount of fuel as it was when the vehicle was picked up.

What does Prepaid fuel mean?

Prepaid Fuel or \u201cPPF\u201d means The Owner will provide the Vehicle with a full tank of fuel and you will not be required to refill the tank upon return. You will not receive credit for fuel left in the tank at the time of return.

6 CAR RENTAL SECRETS HERTZ, BUDGET \u0026 ENTERPRISE Don't Want You to Know! (2020 UPDATED)

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