Aloha Rent A Car — Attraction in Maui

DO NOT RENT FROM ALOHA RENT A CAR. We have been loyal customers of Aloha Rent A Car for years. Our family and extended family visit Maui multiple times a year—we own a home on the island and typically rent 4–8 vehicles annually from Aloha. After this experience, they’ve permanently lost our business. This trip, we rented a compact car and a Dodge Caravan. The van was older, which we were fine with. It made a strange buzzing sound when locking/unlocking the doors, and the key fob didn’t work. Not ideal, but no big deal. However, when we picked up the van, it only had 3/4 of a tank of gas. I recorded video and took photos of the gas level, along with a full walkaround of the vehicle in the rental lot. I even have footage of myself telling the employee about the fuel level, and she acknowledges it on camera.Fast forward two days into the trip—we’re driving up to the volcano, a half-day trip from where we were staying, and the van’s transmission starts acting strange. About a mile from the summit (after already paying $30 for park admission), the transmission gives out completely on a hairpin turn. We were stuck on the road without cell service, with a baby in the car. We let the van cool down and slowly got it off to the side of the road. Now, we understand that vehicles can break down—things happen. We even filled the van completely with gas earlier that day (mind you we received 3/4 way full). We weren’t angry, just disappointed to miss the volcano with our family and lose a full day of our trip. Once we regained cell service, we called Aloha and even offered to coast the van all the way back down the mountain at 5–10 mph, rather than have them come tow it. That’s how patient and understanding we were. They told us to come switch out the vehicle, which we did. The rental office was on the way back, and they had a gray Dodge Caravan waiting. We swapped our black van (with 7/8 tank of gas) for this gray one. Once again, the new van was given to us with only 3/4 of a tank, which I also documented with video and photos, including me showing the fuel level to an employee sitting in the driver’s seat. The first van was returned nearly full of gas as we had just filled it up on the way to the volcano. This second van was newer but still problematic. The key fob didn’t work, just like the first van, so we had to use the key, which set off the alarm every time we unlocked the doors. okay, no big deal. Worse yet, the rear hatch door would randomly open on its own. It opened while I was driving down the road, and I also came out of a store to find it wide open. We couldn’t leave anything in the van for fear it would fall out or be stolen. Despite all this, we stayed calm and understanding. We didn’t make a scene, we made it work, we didn't do a lot of driving so it wasn't that big of a deal. We didn’t demand compensation for the park entrance fee, the extra fuel we put into both vans, or the wasted full day. We just made it work for the rest of our trip since we weren’t planning on doing much more driving. The real issue came after we returned home, when we saw multiple unexplained extra charges on our bill. One charge was for the 2nd van not having enough fuel, it had over 3/4 of a tank (which is what it started with and we left the first van with a nearly full tank- so in short both vans had more fuel in them than when we received them -photos and videos are proof of this) When we called Aloha to ask about them about the "extra" charges, the manager began screaming and yelling at my brother-in-law on the phone. We have videos and photos of all of this: the gas levels, the vehicle conditions, the conversations with employees, and even a recording of the manager yelling. We never asked for a refund. We simply expected to be treated respectfully and informed of the extra charges after being so patient and cooperative throughout everything. Instead, Aloha Rent A Car treated us with complete disrespect. They’ve now lost the business of our entire extended family, who rents multiple times per...

Reading the other reviews, one thing becomes obvious quickly: people unreasonably expect inexpensive, older rental cars to be flawless, and they're not willing to take ownership for issues of their own creation.

We rented a "2014-2015" Subaru Forester, not just to keep our costs down for a two-week stay, but as I knew that the vehicle would suit our needs perfectly, and being older meant that it wouldn't be a scratch and dent-free source of constant worry or an obvious target for parking lot break-ins.

Although I'm a mechanic, I hadn't known to take into consideration that Maui's roads are much tougher on a vehicle than the roads at home. Aloha 2014 Forester #1 was rough around the edges (as expected) but totally functional. Unfortunately, it had a substantial wheel bearing noise that I wasn't about to humor for two weeks of our vacation. We quickly returned, and with no hassle were given 2014 Forester #2. Just minutes later, while checking the air pressures at nearby Costco (as a precaution - mechanic, right?), I discovered that it had a damaged tire. Oh well, back to Aloha/Maui...

My wife and I decided on the way back that upgrading to a newer vehicle was the way to go for the amount of driving we knew we’d be doing. Aloha not only quickly accommodated that, putting us in a nearly-new 2021 Forester without fuss, they refused our repeated offers to pay the difference for the upgrade. In hindsight, the newer vehicle is really what we should have gone for in the first place. Live and learn.

Everyone we dealt with at Aloha, from phoning about our reservation details, to the shuttle driver and the on-site office staff, were professional and friendly. I'd still say this even if we'd ended up in another battle-scarred 2014 Forester, or paid the difference for the 2021 we got instead. Airport pick-up was within 10 minutes of our call to say we were ready. Being able to drop the car at the airport for our late evening flight was super convenient and effectively gave us an extra half-day of time in Maui. 5 out of 5 for these folks, really.

Realistically, if you want a like-new rental car for a fair price, Aloha can provide it. If you choose to go with an older car, they can provide that, too. Just be prepared for the trade-offs for your savings; it'll have dents and scratches, it'll have obvious wear inside and out, and if it's an "SUV" like our first two Foresters, it'll have beefy roof racks with big red pads for carrying surf and paddle boards. You'll trade low key looks for usefulness.

My sole criticism here is that Aloha clearly needs to have their mechanics test drive returned rentals to ensure that stuff that may not be a safety issue, but is a sanity issue, gets caught and repaired before it makes it back out to renters.

(For what it's worth, friends on this same trip rented a newer Jeep Wrangler from a name-brand company at the airport, and I could hear the worn-out front suspension parts clanging over bumps from inside our car as they drove behind us. Clearly this island is hard on vehicles, and renting from a big company is no assurance that the rental will be in tip-top...

Rent at your own risk! We had rented a 2017 dodge caravan from them and 3 days into our trip the vehicle stalled, engine light was coming on and off, and the whole car would jerk when it was shifting gears. I called and explained the issue and they said to bring it in for an exchange. Everything was fine and they were super friendly. With our second van it was a 2018 dodge caravan. The day before we were returning the van it started to beep at us randomly, but we couldn't see any lights light up so we were confused on what was happening. We figured out they put black tape over where the engine light was coming on... On top of that the van was having issues accelerating over 30/35 mph. This was 3pm the day before we were dropping the car off at 7am. I called to let them know that we were having more issues with this van and how it was a little frustrating considering this was the second car we were having issues with. The woman I spoke with was extremely defensive and insinuated we were doing things to the vehicle, and overall not friendly. She said she would have the manager call us back, he called when we were unable to pick up the phone so I called at a later time. This is the part where my 1 star comes in. I called and explained the situation and immediately the assistant manager told me that we returned both cars and neither of them had any issues and we had a car the whole week so there would be no partial refund given. I explained how that was frustrating considering we paid for a service and we were not happy with our service. She then told me " if you don't like your bed at a hotel are you going to ask for a refund" and that I was yelling at her. I never once yelled, became stern and stood my ground? Yes, but I did not yell. She then proceeded to tell me that the car never stalled, even though it quite literally did. I explained how this was scary since I am pregnant and my stepdad is disabled and she told me we were "fine now aren't you". I tried to explain how we didn't feel safe and she just cut me off saying how the cars have no problems.

At this point I asked to speak with the manager and she said her husband wasn't available, then 10 seconds later put the phone down and I could hear her talking to him in the background. I then begin to cry because of how rudely she was talking to me and wouldn't let me speak. Her husband, the manager, comes on the phone and tells me that I'm yelling and that there will be no refund and then he slammed the phone down. Not professional at all, I've worked in customer service and this is no way to treat customers. Even if I didn't end up with a refund I was going to be okay with it, but because of how rude they were I felt I needed to explain our experience. I had high hopes for this local place but will be encouraging everyone to find somewhere else to rent because if there are any issues this is how they...