Hertz Rent A Car

I booked the car online a few days before our trip, it was quickly done and there was no problem at all — which amazed me, since I had only bad experiences with car rentals in France and Canada before. The guy at Hertz was patient and cool, the car was nice and the rental was quite cheap ($ 58 for one day). There was only one major issue (which explains that I don’t grade 5 stars): they don’t have enough GPS to rent with their cars. We didn’t want to buy one and we couldn’t use our phone — so it was a big problem!

First, there are 4 listings for this location which need to be consolidated down to 2, for Rent a Car (anglophone) and Location d’Autos (francophone).
This appears to be Montréal’s primary downtown Hertz location, although there are others in the center. Clearly, it’s easier to pick up a car at YUL, the Montréal Airport, where there is a very nice rental facility at the base of the parking structure and a good selection of cars. However, one may not need a car every day of their Quebec vacation, so they might get a 3 day STM pass in the city and see the rest with a rental car.
The pluses: the location is great, being in an excellent neighborhood and near one of the better Metro stations, the people who work there are professional even when crowded and hectic, the cars are parked right there, there are good rates to be had, and there are some good mileage accumulation specials in conjunction with Air Canada’s Aeroplan program.
The minuses: the location has been short on cars on 2 occasions I’ve been there, albeit with a reservation, and I think they’ve gotten their cars slowly «fed» to them from the airport when this happens, and, in concert with this, the selection of cars isn’t that great.
Hertz has historically rented Ford products. This last time I was expecting a Fusion. Instead, I got a Camry. While this is not a car review, how is it that an American car has better road feel than a foreign car? The Camry I was given had over 70,000 km (over 43,000 mi) and there were some serious scratches inside on the rear sail panel. Therefore, if you get a higher mileage car, check it through carefully and document anything odd on both the exterior and interior.
I’ve had better luck with National on Rue Stanley, on a more consistent basis, but this Hertz location is very central, has good rates, and offers pleasant service.