My Alamo Car Rental Jeep Liberty Review
by Liv | Published on May 28th, 2007, 2:58 pm | Sports
So the story goes, it's better than nothing right? I had my handy dandy reservation from Alamo when we landed in San Diego after a millennium aboard an ancient Delta airliner. We grab our luggage and hastily make our way to a bus that drives us over to the Alamo garage a couple blocks away.
When we get there the line is out the door, but they have these self-serve kiosks. I figure what the hell, I'm a freaking blogger, I can figure this electrical contraption out right? Well I put my credit card in, and it says my reservation is for a compact. I'm like, "uh, no"... I try again, and same thing. Finally I go stand in line and wait till some guy with the IQ of my Labrador retriever decides to help me.
He makes several attempts to pull up my reservation before he walks over to the Kiosk and tells me to use it. He discovers as I did, that the programmers of these unique devices are complete idiots and it's not going to work. Back to the counter. Finally he runs my credit card through manually, after I was preparing a ballistic assault on this man's forehead with my teeth if he didn't give me a damn set of keys.
A few minutes later he says all I've got is a Jeep Liberty, do you want something bigger. I'm like "uh, yeah, I ordered a equinox." He's like, "we don't have anything bigger."
Asshole.
So out to the lot, and into the car. A Blue Jeep Liberty.
After a week with this vehicle, I can personally and properly conclude that this car is the biggest pile of crap I've ever driven. The ride was harsh, the gas mileage was horrible. It's small, and the tinted rear-window makes it's an absolute traffic hazard to drive in so-cal traffic. Alamo, like other rental car companies I've rented from have a bad habit of not rotating the tires correctly, which left the outer tread on the two front tires worn down considerably enough the Jeep didn't track right.
The motor did have lots of torque, but you often found yourself in dead-spots on the motor when having to pass in LA traffic. This vehicle would be much better suited at 65MPH and slower traffic of the east coast than the 85-95MPH traffic on the 101.
I can't really complain for the amount I paid for the vehicle, and therefore I didn't. However, if offered a Jeep Liberty when renting I'd gladly see about getting something nicer. Don't be fooled, this isn't a SUV, it's a commuter car to technical school for a spoiled rich kid who got mommy to buy them a car for their sweet 16.
When we returned the Jeep Liberty, they scanned the vehicle with a reader and printed out a receipt. It was a much easier process than when we arrived. Interestingly enough I lost my credit card at a Westminster Carl's JR (Hardee's for east-coasters) and had to cancel it. I've yet to see the charge for the rental vehicle yet. I'm waiting on getting a call on that one.
