Why Chevy makes the best rental cars: You'll get the core tech you want
Why Chevy makes the best rental cars: You'll get the core tech you want
Here'due south a can't-lose mode to get the most useful rental car: Ask for a Chevy. Chevrolet in particular and GM in general have been out front delivering useful engineering that tin't be taken abroad from you, no matter how cheap the rental company is when it comes to buying its armada of cars. If y'all hire a Chevrolet, you'll get a car with a color LCD in the heart stack, and compatibility with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Most importantly, through Android Auto or CarPlay, you've got admission to a navigation arrangement you already know how to utilize — Apple Maps or Google Maps — that displays up loftier on the motorcar's 7- or 8-inch middle stack LCD. No longer are you reduced to taking quick glances down at the map on the telephone display that's precariously perched in the cupholder or balanced atop the steering cavalcade, resting (until you hit a bump) against the musical instrument cluster.
2016 Chevrolet Malibu
Jackpot: upgrade to Chevrolet Malibu with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto
On a recent trip to the W Coast, I had a day of downtime betwixt two sets of meetings and rented a auto to drive the Pacific Coast. My criteria for renting typically starts and ends with cost. Unfortunately, the cheaper the car, the less likely information technology is to have an on-board navigation system. That's especially the case when you choose an economy or compact car. If you want navigation, you utilize your phone's GPS maps or pay upwardly to $15 per day for a windshield-mounted GPS unit.
At the rental counter, where you lot notice out exactly which brand and model you lot become, I thought the adult female in forepart of me lucked out landing a Kia Soul, a fun car to drive. When it was my turn, I got upgraded to a Chevrolet Malibu and hitting the jackpot: It's the all-time midsize car you can buy today. It supports both Apple CarPlay and Android Machine. That meant I was able to use Apple tree Maps, on an 7-inch screen, located loftier up on the dashboard.
Chevrolet but sells LS and in a higher place to rental fleets
For car buyers, across the Chevrolet line equally information technology is with most every other automaker, at that place's a reduced-features entry trim line (the industry term for a model variant) that serves mostly to nowadays a low teaser toll to buyers. Dealers sometimes merely stock enough to satisfy the customer waving the newspaper ad that offers a Malibu for $22,000. (Or to evidence they had one or two in stock, but it's "simply been sold.") Some corporate fleets are built around these cars. On most Chevrolet lines, that'due south the 50 trim line, followed by the LS, LT, and sometimes LTZ or Premier.
With the LS trim line, you typically get the Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system that includes a vii-inch color brandish (trim lines with built-in navigation accept eight-inch displays), control of phone-based apps, and access to Apple tree CarPlay or Android Motorcar. In a word, again: jackpot.
What keeps you from getting a stripper Chevy, an L without MyLink and CarPlay / Android Automobile? A Chevrolet spokesman says, "Chevrolet only sells LS [trim lines] and above to rental fleets."
As a bonus, when yous rent a car with MyLink or a like color LCD infotainment interface, information technology'due south easier to control your phone'south music playback capabilities with a graphical interface than with a tiny two- or three-line text brandish. Most every motorcar sold today has at least one USB jack, then with a rental auto yous can at least connect your phone for hands-costless calling and also play music from your phone or music player.
Why Chevrolet saw the light
The cost of calculation a color LCD display to a automobile isn't much – well nether $100 (to the automaker), fifty-fifty for automotive-form displays that have to hold up at the least for the duration of the three- or four-year warranty. It'south non much more than the cost of keeping a CD thespian (now 34 years sometime) in the dash. USB and a color LCD is a satisfier for renters.
Information technology'southward also a satisfier for people who buy used rental fleet cars when they reach vi months to 2 years of age (or reach a mileage cap). Information technology's easier to sell a used rental auto with a color LCD, electric windows (some entry trim lines are still hand-crank), nicer upholstery, access to CarPlay and Android Auto, and sometimes the more affordable driver assists: blind spot detection and lane difference warning. It's what buyers desire.
Majority of Ford rentals (but non all) have Sync three
Look for more automakers to follow the lead of Chevrolet and General Motors over the side by side yr or 2. Ford, for instance, will make Sync iii (the one that actually works) bachelor on all models for 2022. Typically, there'due south an entry trim line Ford with the legacy Sync ii (it won't run CarPlay or Android Car), a middle trim line where Sync iii is optional, and ane or two high trim lines where information technology's standard. On the Ford Escape (photograph inset), Ford's all-time seller that isn't the F-150 pickup, if you get the entry Escape S equally a rental auto, you're out of luck. If you become the high terminate Escape Titanium, it's always there. If you air current upwardly with a mid-grade Escape SE, it may or may non exist in that location depending on whether the rental visitor opted to become for the 201A Equipment Group ($one,395 list) which has Sync iii and as well Sync Connect (OnStar-similar telematics), blind spot detection, backup sonar, rear cantankerous traffic alert, and a 110-volt outlet.
A Ford spokesperson said, "Sync is available in 100% of car rental fleets, which includes cars and SUVs. Within the rental fleet, twoscore% of vehicles have the basic SYNC arrangement and threescore% accept the premium SYNC 3 system." In other words, you lot've got a 6 in x take a chance you'll be able to use your smartphone'southward maps and guidance renting a Ford. That beats a flashback from about five years ago, when an ExtremeTech editor and spouse went on holiday in Hawaii, rented a Ford assuming basic Sync was near universal, and discovered the car lacked even a USB jack. The rental agent noted they could still play all the CDs they brought along. "All the CDs?"
The Ford spokesperson added, "Sales for the car rental fleets closely mirror retail sales. For instance, retail sales for vehicles with Sync 3 is around 64% compared to 60% of car rentals with Sync 3. Generally speaking Sync is offered on our base serial, is standard on the mid-series with an pick for the premium Sync iii, and Sync 3 is standard on the premium series."
What other automakers practice
Availability of infotainment interfaces with admission to Apply CarPlay and Android Auto remains spotty. Honda has done an splendid job with the 2022 Honda Civic, both for rental fleets and individual buyers. Other than the entry Civic LX, all trim lines (EX, EX-T, EX-50 and Touring) take Apple CarPlay and Android Machine, and merely on the Touring is navigation standard, which is fine with the many buyers who just need navigation occasionally. But when they practise, they'd like the brandish to be big and like shooting fish in a barrel to glance at.
The problem is, it'due south difficult to know which trim level awaits y'all. The odds the rental clerk knows about AirPlay / Android Auto compatibility would be next to nix, as are the odds they'll give you a bunch of keys and let you lot walk the parking lot until you find a car to your liking. So you're better off asking for a car make where you know you're likely to get what yous want.
For the 2022 model twelvemonth, companies non offering CarPlay or Android Car include BMW, Fiat Chrysler (Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Ram), and Toyota (Lexus, Toyota, the presently-to-depart Scion). Toyota has said information technology won't offer CarPlay or Android Auto for the foreseeable future; instead information technology will develop an open standard chosen SmartDeviceLink that is based on Ford Sync.
Among other automakers, those with at least some 2022 models with Apple tree CarPlay and Android Machine include Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Volvo. For GM, every make offers CarPlay on the majority of its models.
Bottom line: As of 2022, the odds of your rental car having USB for music playback are good. For navigation via your phone using Android Car or CarPlay, that'southward still a couple years off from existence universal. And that's why it'south worth request for a Chevrolet when you rent, starting with Malibu. But retrieve that cars in the rental fleet may still include some 2015 or 2022 models.
Source: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/233662-why-you-should-ask-for-a-chevy-next-time-you-rent-a-car-youll-get-the-core-tech-you-want
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