2 vehicles wanted - advice needed

[berni_richards]

Roger
We need to hire a 5 seater (pacifica preferably) and an 8 seater for our trip in aug/sept. As we have a baby who will be 1 years old by the time of our trip my husband is paranoid about the types of cars we now hire. The pacifica has 5 star rating all over so he is happy with that one. My first question is do dollar still do Pacificas? We had to argue with Dollar in Jan and it put me off dollar slightly. They said they didnt have any then (after my shouting and the baby crying very loudly) out of the blue 3 turned up the first two looked like the crashed into one another and were filthy then we found the 3rd 1 to be ok just minor scratches. If dollar still do them then we would try for 1 of them again.

Now I need to know which 8 seater suvs do dollar, alamo & budget do? The 2008 ford expedition looks like it also has 5 star rating all over but my husband wants a list of make and models before we book a car so that he can check which models have the security features he requires can you help please?

The 8 seater will be used when we all want to go out together and will have the baby seat in at all times. Most of the time it should only have the 3 of us in it though.
Thanks in advance Roger

[blott]

Surely you can't specifically insist on any particular make/model when you collect your rental car from any rental company? Nor will anyone 'guarantee' that you get a specific vehicle.

You can ask at the desk of course but if there aren't any of the specific type that you want, then you'll presumably get another vehicle in the same class that you've ordered?

[roger]

Thats correct Blott. There are certain cars that you are likely to get, but the only guarantee they can make is to give you a car in the class booked.

In general, to stand a chance of a Pacifica, book the Premium class with Dollar. This is usually a Chrysler 300, but often Dollar will allocate a Pacifica based on that class of car. The problem is, as with any supplier, as soon as you request a specific make or model, they can use this as a way to charge you an upgrade fee.

The following link will give you typical car types for each supplier: http://www.uscarhire.co.uk/CarTypes.aspx

The 8 Seater SUV is only available with Budget. We are about to start offering a 7 seater SUV (Extended Trail Blazer) with Alamo, but may be a few days until we do. This is approx the size of a Durango.