I will continue to insist that the unseen hand in most automotive transactions is currency. A weak Korean won and a strong U.S. dollar helped build Hyundai and Kia, whereas a weak dollar and a strong deutchmark killed Ford’s greatest product: the Merkur XR4Ti. While tariffs are taking a bite, the relative strength of the dollar over the Japanese yen could work to the advantage of some automakers.
Specifically, I’m talking about Mitsubishi. I haven’t written much about that automaker here in The Morning Dump lately, mostly because there hasn’t been much to write about. Now, with tariff rates down to 15% for Japanese automakers like Mitsubishi, fleet sales are suddenly in the mix again.
Toyota is smart, as I’ve said, and it’s also profitable. I doubt fleets will play a big role in the company’s strategy for the rest of the year, as the company has revised up its profit forecast (from ‘meh’ to ‘not so meh’). BYD is another company that’s smart, albeit new. It’s also starting to replace Tesla in certain markets in Europe.
What won’t replace Tesla is hydrogen, at least according to a recent forecast.
Currency Rules Everything Around Mitsubishi, CREAM
Mitsubishi is now a company that imports 100% of its cars, meaning that it is acutely at risk from trade war shenanigans. The recent lowering of Japanese import tariffs to 15% is maybe not as existential to a company like Toyota, which builds here, doesn’t discount much, and has a lot of higher margin vehicles. It is a big deal to Mitsubishi, and you can sort of suss out where the line is for the automaker from this Automotive News story:
When tariffs were at 27.5 percent, Mitsubishi dialed fleet sales down to zero, executives said.
“With the tariff now at 15 percent and considering the exchange rate situation, we’ll focus on fleet sales and company car sales for vehicles currently in stock that are profitable and meet customer needs,” Nakamura said, adding that talks are underway with rental companies.
“Negotiations are nearly finalized,” Nakamura said. “We expect to increase fleet sales toward the end of the year, which will help recover the volume.”
Fleet sales are usually to rental car companies and government agencies. Company cars these days are gas-monitoring companies, last-mile delivery, et cetera, and not as much traveling salesmen. These are bulk deals and come with bulk discounts, which means lower margins. If there’s a 27.5% tariff, then automakers like Mitsubishi have to sell to private customers at a higher margin to not lose money (or lose as much).
Somewhere between 15% and 27.5% there’s a zone where fleet sales are, if not profitable, more palpable. Given that the company is forecasting an operating profit below $70 million for the year, the margins are still probably as thin as the tires on my BMW.
But there’s another factor here, as the article points out:
Mitsubishi thinks the Japanese yen’s recent slide against the U.S. dollar enables exports to eke a profit, even with the 15 percent tariff rate, Executive Vice President Tatsuo Nakamura said.
CREAM! Mitsubishi builds cars in yen and sells them in sweet, sweet greenbacks. Back in 2020, a dollar bought you about 100 yen. Today, that same dollar buys you about 150 yen. So long as the yen stays down, there’s enough of a spread there to keep Japanese imports profitable enough to bleed inventory to fleets.
So, yeah, if you get a new Outlander at the Enterprise counter, you can bother the people waiting in line by using the word “arbitrage” a bunch of times.
Toyota Expects To Make $19 Billion, Which Ain’t Terrible
It’s purely a cultural thing, but I love that Japanese automakers always use this visual conceit of execs standing at a dais in front of a big screen. The lower angle always makes it look like they’re about to address the Imperial Senate or whatever. The dopey American equivalent may be an exec in Carhartt wearing a high-vis vest, like Paul Jacobson spends his off-time running the punch press at Hamtramck or whatever.
Anyway, Toyota is out with its latest numbers, and the big ticket items are a 900 billion yen ($5.8 billion) tariff hit and an expectation that the company will still make, like, $19 billion this fiscal year (which ends in March 2026). That’s way down from the $31 billion it made last year, but a positive number is probably better than what Nissan is going to do.
BYD Beats Tesla In The UK, Germany Is Not Far Behind
Last year, I filed a TMD from the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Britain, and I was impressed with how well the locals were taking to Chinese electric automaker BYD, which had one of the biggest displays.
[T]he whole BYD stand was full of people every time I walked by it, with potential customers checking out the various real vehicles on display. On one end were the Yangwang luxury cars and the Denza van. On the other side with the BYD Atto 3, BYD Seal plug-in hybrid, and the cute BYD Dolphin.
The nearby Honda stand had a few cars on display as well and did attract some attention, but only about half of the number of people were around Hondas as were around the BYDs when I checked.
I eavesdropped on a few conversations with British consumers checking out the various models and no one seemed to care or even mention the fact that they were Chinese-built/Chinese-owned cars. People were mostly curious about the cost and excited about the features.
That’s why I’m not surprised by this report from Bloomberg, showing that BYD is doing well in both the UK and Germany, and is supplanting BYD in both markets:
BYD Co. is building a lead over Tesla Inc. in the UK and is now neck-and-neck with the Elon Musk-led company in Germany, two of Europe’s biggest markets for plug-in cars.
In the UK, the Chinese manufacturer registered almost seven times more new cars than its American counterpart last month, the country’s automotive trade group said Wednesday. Year-to-date, BYD’s sales have soared more than sixfold, while Tesla’s have slipped 4.5%.
In Germany, BYD registered more than four times as many vehicles as Tesla in October, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. Through the first 10 months of the year, BYD trails by only 424 cars.
Is BYD gonna do it this year? I think BYD has the juice. Also, the CEO of BYD didn’t piss off something like half the German population.
Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles To Make Up… 0.22% Of The Global Light Vehicle Segment By 2037
I am totally fine to be wrong about hydrogen cars never being a thing, no matter how hard some automakers try to make it one. More ammo in my belt is the latest forecast from S&P Global Mobility, which is for FCEVs to still only make up a tiny fraction of the total population of cars in 2037:
Compared to BEVs and hybrids, FCEV uptake is expected to be limited throughout the next decade. Even by 2037, FCEVs are expected to make up only 0.22% of the total global light-vehicle market, while BEVs are forecast to account for more than 50%.
S&P Global Mobility forecasts FCEV demand in the light-vehicle segment to increase from 9,211 units in 2025 to 220,000 units in 2037. As of 2025, Japan and Korea dominate the light-vehicle FCEV market, generating 71% of total demand.
This limited adoption is reflected in S&P Global Mobility’s fuel-cell stack demand forecasts from March, June and October 2025, which have notably declined. The June forecast is just 9,341 units, almost 33% less than the March forecast, while the latest October 2025 forecast predicts demand to drop further to 8,079 units—approximately 38% lower than March and 7% lower than June.
Unlike EVs, which you can just plug into a wall, FCEVs require filling stations packed with hydrogen. It turns out, running these is hard, and now most fuel companies don’t seem interested in supporting the tech.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Alanis Morissette sold 33 million copies of her first album, which is something that might never happen again. She can do whatever she wants, so she did a languorous cover of “My Humps” by Black Eyed Peas, and it’s ridiculous, but I love it. The video is also extremely silly. Apparently, Morissette was in a writing funk and thought it would be a fun thing to do to get out of it. Deep respect. I do that sometimes. I’m like “I’ll do a Matt Levine” or a “Dan Neil” or a “Jean Jennings.”
The Big Question
What’s the best rental car you’ve ever gotten? What’s the worst?
Top photo: Mitsubushi/Hertz
Best was probably a brand spankin’ new Nissan Armada. I rented a Toyota Corolla or similar and they ran out, so I got a free upgrade to that. I didn’t have any tight inner-city parking to do, so the Armada was a pleasant, comfy, powerful upgrade.
Worst? Red 2020 Dodge Charger base model with the 3.6. It broke down on us with less than 30,000 miles. Puked all of its coolant out in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and overheated. I had to fill its coolant reservoir with a case of gas station bottled water (the country store had no coolant) and limp it an hour away to the nearest Enterprise after their roadside service quoted us 4+ hours before they could come help.
They exchanged it for a 2019 Toyota Camry with the loudest tires I’ve ever known. But, it got us the rest of the way home, so I didn’t care.
I’ve never had a good rental, but I didn’t hate the Equinox and the Passat was OK, so I guess that would be the best. Worst is a ’16 Kia Rio, which was also the worst car I’ve ever had happen to me and I’m counting a line of friends’ Malaise Era shit boxes, some of which should have been in a scrap yard, but inspectors were bribed or they just hoped the cops didn’t notice the very expired stickers.
I rent a lot of cars, in different countries & continents. The Best, knocked my socks off: 2025 5 door Suzuki Jimny, the one with the long wheelbase. BoF, transfer case, 5MT a true small truck. Absolute unit and it did well in really steep twisty wet gravel mountain roads as well as on highway and in miserable urban traffic. Drove it, a lot, for a week and change. Totally surprised the heck out of me, and I’m no slouch for badmouthing stuff. I’m 6’2″/220 and have only ever owned diesel Landcruisers since 1989, from a 40 series single cab p/up to 40 series LWB wagon, a 60 series hightop, three 80 series, and my current 2006 105 VX 1HDT. Over here these 5 door Jimneys run $20K-$25K new including tax. Very strong candidate to replace my wife’s Suzuki Vitara, if she lets me.
The Worst: Mitsu Mirage, hands-down.
Best rental was probably the Cadillac ATS I got a couple of years ago for intermediate car price. Worst probably the Malibu last year with the bad seats that messed up my back.
Best rental: A red, 2.0 turbo JL Wrangler 4-door Sahara in Colorado.
I did all the major 4×4 trails with it in the San Juan mountains.
It did great despite the stock street tires. And taking the roof panels off was such a blast.
Worst rental: a very beat up Ford Fiesta with the Powershift transmission. It shifted very rough and made all kinds of concerning noises.
I had doubts if it’ll make it to my destination and back. It did.
The best rental car was a Chrysler 300. Dark red, V8, and every option they had to offer. It doesn’t sound exciting but it was the perfect Interstate cruiser. The worst was a Pontiac Gran Am. Loud, poorly assembled, loud, under powered, loud, suspension made of rocks, loud. We actually bought foam ear plugs during our trip because of the constant road/tire noise. It had zero sound insulation.
Grand Ams tended to have issues with the wheel hub bearings. I’d bet money that was an issue if it was that loud. My grand am wasnt bad with road noise
Keep in mind I don’t splurge on rentals, so the best was a Civic in Hawaii in 2015. They tried to upgrade me to a Charger but I turned them down, explaining I preferred something smaller for city driving and fuel economy. Things were just getting better for us financially, and I was still driving the nicest Explorer I could find for $2000 in 2010, so the difference was crazy. After a few days, my girlfriend had to ask me to stop talking about it so much.
The worst was a Malibu in British Columbia. In Vancouver and Victoria, it was perfectly fine. In fact, overall it was perfectly fine, but I had a new car by then. There was no favorable comparison to be had there. When we went out to the cabin we rented on the West side of Vancouver Island, it needed a running start to get up the gravel driveway and out onto the street. The first time, I actually got stuck half way up. It made me be very careful when we would park to go hiking. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it was enough be worst in my uneventful history of renting cars.
When I was 15 (2003), though, my dad rented a Galant on our family trip to Seattle and hated it. I remember him raging about the turning circle and calling it a gutless piece of shit whenever we were in it. It surprised me because he’s always very respectful of things and careful to leave things are he found them, but I’m pretty sure there were a few times where he was punishing that car for existing. He pulled forward until the bumper crunched on parking structure walls, mashed the gas pedal, smacked into car stops and laughed… Never seen him treat a car that way before or since. I’ll send him this news just to wind him up.
The worst hire car is usually the best hire car. Earlier this year I rented a 1991 Peugeot 205 on Turo for a short trip in the Pryenees. Everything worked apart from the buzzer that goes off when you leave the headlights on.
Solo bump-starting a car is sketchy at the best of times but doing it in a parking lot half way up a mountain was certainly exciting.
I’ve only had a few rental cars. Best was the Chevy Sonic I put over 1,000 miles on. It wasn’t a penalty box, I liked the motorcycle-style instrument cluster, it was fun to drive, and efficient.
Worst was a 2015 Hyundai Elantra. The whole car, inside and out, was grey. The seats were uncomfortable and it didn’t have padded armrests on the doors. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s something I’m so used to having, even in my air-cooled Beetle. The only upside was it had tons of cigarette burns in it and already reeked of smoke, so I was able to smoke and not worry about a fee. I should note that I don’t smoke in my own car or in rentals, this one was just so abused already it didn’t matter.
Best and Worst rental (same rental) – business trip to Germany, rented a car from the Avis place next to the first factory to drive to the second factory – a little tough with the language, we had our choice between a small Renault and an E39 BMW 5-series. Took the BMW – got done with the second factory quickly and drive all through Germany, Austria, and Northern Italy for the next couple of days. Hit 220+ km/hr on the Autobahn. (Where we were passed by a Porsche like we were in reverse) Great experience – but one that led to an expensive BMW addiction that I recently had a relapse on after I thought I was done.
Best rental: Chrysler Pacifica – comfortable, quiet, quick, roomy, great visibility.
Worst rental: Toyota RAV4 – none of those.
The last rental car I had through work was a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross. I had it for two weeks and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why anyone would buy one over the competiiton.
If you wanted purely cheap you would buy something Chinese
If you wanted cheaper but a more known brand with a long warranty, you buy Korean
If you wanted Japanese reliability and predictability, you would buy Toyota
If you wanted the same as above, but stylish and nice, you buy a Mazda
That’s ignoring all European options too. It was just such a nothing car. Too large for the minimal interior space, low rent everywhere, an egregiously oversized handbrake handle, average fuel economy, boring to drive etc.
I recently drove one of these and you’re spot on. It’s a pretty rotten car, and I sort of assumed that in 2025, there was nothing simultaneously this bad and this lacking a reason to exist. It’s also seriously hideous.
The seats were fairly comfortable.
My rental for my recent Scottish Highlands road trip may be both the best and worst. Peugeot 2008 crossover. A decent enough looking car with adequate power and handling for getting the family around Scotland. But just trying to get the HVAC set right was a freaking nightmare. Bad enough that it was 90% screen based, but there was no text and apparently French logic involved in deciphering the controls!
If we throw dealer loaners into the mix, then the Volvo S60 that was a generation newer than my S60 that was being serviced was quite lovely, as was an Infiniti Q50 on loan while my G35 was being serviced.
I haven’t rented too many cars, and none of them have been all that bad. But I’m going to oddly enough give props to the Dodge Journey here. I was, at first, very bummed to have one for 10 days in Hawaii, as a Dodge Journey was about the least glamorous new car you could imagine in 2016. Hawaii makes you think Wrangler, or Mustang, or Tacoma, or whatever. But that Journey was a surprisingly solid vehicle, it was comfortable and spacious. Ergonomically, it was pretty solid, nothing weird to get used to. It was far quicker than it needed to be. Unlike most modern crossovers, it had a reasonably low beltline, not just good for visibility, but also for seeing you know… Hawaii. And while most would figure the 3rd row was useless, it was perfect for shuttling friends around Kona (we were there for a wedding).
Dodge Journey: You could do an awful lot worse for a rental.
“FCEVs require filling stations packed with hydrogen. It turns out, running these is hard, and now most fuel companies don’t seem interested in supporting the tech.”
Hydrogen vehicles were bullshit right from the start and anyone with even a basic understanding of the science and economics behind it knew that.
I really wish governments like the Japanese would give up on this stupid tech black hole that will never amount to anything.
“What’s the best rental car you’ve ever gotten? What’s the worst?”
By best, I’ll go with ‘exceeded expectations’… and that would be a 2014(?) VW Beetle that had the 2.5L Inline 5 with the slushbox. I liked it a lot more than expected and it was more fuel efficient than expected… it got the same real world fuel economy (about 7.2L/100L) as I got from a manual 2005 Focus Wagon I had up to that point (which had recently been scrapped… which is why I was renting a car at the time). And what was impressive was that while it got the same fuel economy, it had around 40HP more and was much smoother/nicer sounding.
As for worst, I’ll go with ‘fell short of expectations’… and that was a 1989 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit I rented for my wedding. It was expensive to rent, but in spite of that, it had some issues like a burnt out headlight, fuel door that wouldn’t open, hood latch that was broken and a few other issues. Plus from a driving perspective, while it had a 6.8L V8, it was a heavy car and acceleration/performance was ‘just okay’.
Handling was better than a Ford Panther car from the 1980s, but that’s not saying much.
Best rental: Tough one. This goes back over a decade when I was doing a lot of international travel and had gold status with several rental car companies. In Frankfurt, Germany at the Hertz counter. I had a few extra perks with Hertz due to a rather serious issue I had with them renting me a car that could have killed me and my passenger due to a defect. Long story short, I got my hands on a BMW M5. Away from Frankfurt, there are unrestricted sections of autobahn and that car was tested on them. A vacation memory that will never be forgotten.
Worst rental? Easy ones. There was the 1998 Chevy Cavalier with under 5,000 miles on it that had the transmission blow up on I-485 in Charlotte, leaving me on the side of the newly built part of interstate. There was the same era Pontiac Grand Am that, when I pushed the window toggle to lower the driver’s side window, had everything fall into the door. There was a 2025 Hyundai Sonata with the drowsy sensor that, for some unknown reason…maybe it’s my glasses…thought I was dozing so it went off EVERY SINGLE G**D**N MILE for 1,100 miles…each way. And the Enterprise at my destination was out of rentals for me to return home with a different car over a holiday weekend. I want you to imagine that. Every minute. 1,100 miles. Loud beeping and a display telling you to take a break. And there’s no way to turn it off. That drive was pure, total, unending miserable hell. I was no fan of Hyundais to begin with. That car put them at my pure rage top of the list and may I never touch another Hyundai/Kia car ever again.
best rental: Mrs. droid & I took a dodge caravan on the Lewis & Clark Trail, St. Louis MO to Astoria OR. it was the perfect tool for the job, essentially a big roomy suitcase happy to cruise at 80mph.
first stop was a hardware store to cut the two keys free from one another, put them onto individual key rings, and get spray bottles of windex and rain-x for the windshield.
worst: none, all of those suppressed memories have faded into meh-diocrity.
Best, Toyota Sienna Hybrid, mostly because it was for a trip from California to Texas and back with lots of stuff for camping, etc. A fine road trip vehicle.
Worst, again because of the use case, a Charger when our older Sienna was in the body shop. Not that horrible of a car, but we had asked for a minivan or similar because we have a housemate with limited mobility and she could barely get in and out of that thing. And I was using it mostly for commuting in heavy traffic, so no real chance to go fast.
Simultaneously Worst & Best: The rental 16′ box truck that my son and I drove 2,900 miles cross-country this past June. Worst because it was a 10 year old E350 with almost 300k miles, shift lever and ignition switch so worn out that being able to remove the key was hit or miss, loose front end that required constant sawing at the wheel unless there was a strong crosswind to counter-steer into, wiper blades that were worn out 100k miles and years prior, and moderate/high interior door seal wind noise. Best most importantly because it provided great father and son time together, and because despite the negative items I listed, the A/C was cold, it crossed the Continental Divide fully-loaded without issue, the brakes and transmission were great, 5 of 6 tires were new, it didn’t use a drop of oil, and got us there without an issue after 40 hours of drive time.
I’m younger so experiences will vary and I won’t outright say “best” or “worst” but in recent rental memory – meaning the past three-ish years…
Soul – ISG/stop/start implementation was the slowest and most annoying. Fine runabout otherwise.Sonata – couple unresponsive steering wheel buttons and a seatbelt buckle installed backwards. Fine otherwise but not crazy about the switchable virtual radio/HVAC control setup.Bronco – fender flares + track width extending wider when of view made it feel bigger than it is. Wind noise at speed. Smaller inside than expected but felt like my 4Runner but more modern. (for better and worse)Mustang convertible (2.3) – It was zippy but rainy weather and wet roads limited fun potential.Forte, Santa Fe, Altima – Unremarkable, which is a compliment here.Corolla Cross (gas) – Probably the best vehicle overall other than my knee running into the dash getting in. Toyota’s ISG/stop/start implementation was unobtrusive.Versa Note – It was Turo, so many more miles and years than the rest. It’s not fair but it was a complete penalty box. I assume CVT whine, worn suspension, etc. It got me where I was going but not worth the savings.Juke – In Greece, the lower performance powertrain was not noticeable in island and city-driving.
Funny you should mention Mitsubishi and fleet sales. I rented a car on a trip to Seattle two months ago and wandered the Emerald Aisle for a bit before settling on a very new Mitsubishi Outlander. I believe it was one trim level up from base and it…did not suck at all. It was very comfy and felt a bit better in real-world driving than the somewhat lacking power numbers might indicate. Frankly I would recommend it to anyone looking for “an SUV”.
The only strange thing I noticed is under mildly-hard braking it felt like you were dropping anchor. More shifting toward the front than I would expect.
Worst rental has to be a Yaris from Fox Rent-A-Car in Colorado. That cured me of a desire to cheap out on rental vehicles. Likely-used tires led to a tire explosion on the highway. Thankfully I was rescued by CDOT because it turned out there was no scissor jack even though I had checked for the presence of a donut spare.
Honorable mention to the clapped-out 75k mile Corolla Hertz rented me in Florida near the end of the pandemic. That thing had seen some HARD miles.
Ironically it was a 1990 Mitsubishi Mirage.
Twice.
I beat the crap out of them and they just asked for more. It was sort of amazing.
I’ve rented dozens of cars over the years and the ‘best’ one I ever got was a Cadillac XTS when I should have gotten a ‘standard’ car through work.
Every single Nissan I have ever rented has been terrible, but none worse than the white Sentra I got at the Jackson, Mississippi airport. It had 54k on it and smelled like weed smoke someone tried to cover up with cigar smoke and cologne. That was an unpleasant week of commuting.
Toyota knows that its empire will last longer than any given government excepting China.
They’ll just wait out whatever silliness is happening with a long-term plan. They’re the real adult in the room (and generally not doing whatever Stellantis and/or Nissan are thinking of doing).
Best rental car: A nearly new 2010 Chevy Impala that was… fine.
Worst rental car: Story time – 2004, first trip to Brazil. My fiancé helped my rent a car from some sketchy outfit advertising out of the Hotel Atlántico in Copacabana where we were staying for a few nights. I can’t remember the year, but it was a very well-used VW Gol with enough dings and dents that had they filled out a “previous damage” form, it would’ve just been a scribbling exercise. It also had a non-functional outer door-handle on the passenger side we were told was disabled for our own protection (so someone couldn’t car-jack us from that side).
To start, it was red. Normally a plus in my book, but it made my fiancé’s family incredibly uneasy when we showed up to her aunt’s place in it due to rumored nearby activity of “Commando Vermelho”, a rather notorious gang that we were told didn’t like non-members displaying their color (red/vermelho).
What to do? Road trip! Another of her relatives asked if we’d like to take it on a four-hour trip to a rented beach house in a small town a ways north up the coast from Rio. Sounded like fun! Let’s load myself, my fiancé, her aunt, aunt’s husband, their kid, and just for good measure what appeared to me to be some random other kid from the neighborhood, but was actually family. Maybe a cousin? Who knows, my Portuguese was limited to around 500 words at the time with comprehension close to non-existent.
The language barrier proved to make the trip a bit longer than it probably should have been. I missed several turns along the way because of that. My fiancé’s uncle was to be my “copilot”, and found it hilarious that I only understood “right/direita” and “left/esquerda” instead of whatever word he was using for “left” that sounded (to me at least) like the word for “right”. So, at nearly every left we were supposed to take, I’d end up either taking a right or starting to take a right. This led to something of a feedback loop of my wrong turns followed by him and his wife fighting, and finally him laughing while taking another slug off of his road-soda, a plastic bottle of cachaça. Dude was pretty tuned-up by the time we finally got there.
And the VW, trusty thing it was. Acceleration was non-existent which made sense given the 1.0L engine and five people load, everything rattled, the hood came unlatched at one point and caught on the safety catch, and it used a quart of oil on the trip. Also, I don’t know if the fuel pump was going out, there was a loose wire, we had some bad gas or what the deal was exactly because it would just randomly die. The first time I actually coasted off to the side of the road before restarting it. The next time I went to neutral, and the following twenty times or so right up to our return to Copacabana I just dropped the clutch for a quick restart. Every time I did that though the kids in the back would laugh, say something, and point. My fiancé later informed me they thought I just didn’t know how to drive a stick-shift.
The beach-house road-trip was quite the adventure, a fun coda following my earlier decision to propose to my Brazilian girlfriend shortly after arrival in her home country. It may have been the worst rental car ever, but it was rented on the best trip ever!