I’ve lost count of how many forgetable, soulless rental cars I’ve driven over the years. While I don’t expect much from most rental agencies, I’d always prefer to be driving something fun if given the choice. The very nature of the car rental business means that’s usually impossible. Most people rent cars to get themselves (and sometimes others) from place to place with enough space to move their luggage. And tiny sports cars don’t fit the bill.
Yet, there are at least two big-name car rental agencies that offer the small and decidedly impractical Mazda MX-5 Miata to rent. This is news to me; I always thought rental agencies bought up Mustang convertibles to fill that niche, since they delivered the same convertible body style but with more seats and more trunk space. To get anything even remotely as cool as a Miata, I thought Turo was the only option. But no! You can get Miata RFs—the retractable hardtop model—from Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Alamo Rent-a-Car right now. I only learned this thanks to a post on Reddit, where someone posted to the /r/Miata page about getting an ND from Alamo.
Curious to see just how cheaply I could get a Miata for a day, I went to both companies’ websites, but no matter which dates I picked, I couldn’t get the Miata’s category, “Compact Convertible,” to appear as an option. After a bit of research and some phone calls, I discovered just how strangely inconvenient it is to actually book a Miata from either of these companies.
Alamo Isn’t That Bad, But It Feels Like The Company Is Hiding The Car
Alamo Rent-a-Car proudly displays the MX-5 Miata RF as an option on its website under the Compact Convertible segment, specifying just how unfitting it is as a rental car from a big-name agency (you can carry two people, but only one piece of luggage—good luck!).
Seeing as how that post from Reddit I linked above mentioned the San Diego Alamo as the car’s source, I threw in that data into Alamo’s website. Alas, no matter which arrangement of dates I picked, the Compact Convertible category wouldn’t appear as an option. I tried dates as close as this weekend, all the way to next summer, sorting through weekend rentals, to one-day rentals, to weekday-only bookings. I also tried different cities, from Los Angeles to San Francisco to Maui to Atlanta. But no dice.
I suspected it might be possible that the car was removed from the website for the winter season, though considering San Diego’s always-perfect weather, that didn’t make much sense. So I simply called the company directly and posed as a customer looking to book a very specific category. To my relative surprise, the agent was able to book me in a Miata with no problem, confirming to me that the Compact Convertible segment was available in San Diego.
Weird, right? Why not just have the car available to book online, too? The representative couldn’t explain the discrepancy, so I’ve reached out to Alamo’s parent company, Enterprise Mobility, for answers (this company also owns Enterprise Rent-a-Car). The firm has yet to get back to me.
As for pricing, the rep told me a weekend booking from December 6 to 7 would cost me $108 before any fees or add-ons, or about $30 more than a Mustang convertible from Alamo on the same dates. Personally, I’m taking the Miata every time.
Enterprise’s Situation Is More Confusing
Like Alamo, Enterprise Rent-a-Car displays a Compact Convertible category on its website, even giving a… passionate description that would make any prospective renter jump at the opportunity to get behind the wheel:
Premium interior, superior performance – that’s what a compact convertible car rental from Enterprise can offer. Grab a friend, drop the top and enjoy a smooth ride wherever the road takes you.
While those sentences kind of undersell what is arguably the greatest sports car of all time, the rest of the page does right by the Miata’s impracticality, pointing out the lack of luggage space and two seats—just like Alamo. What I’m trying to say is, Enterprise is advertising this vehicle as available to rent. Yet, it feels impossible.
Trying to book a Compact Convertible from Enterprise online proved as fruitless as it did with Alamo. While I was able to get the car to show up as an option in search results, it was only listed as “Unavailable,” no matter the time, duration, or location I used.
I expected to get somewhere over the phone, like I did with Alamo, but instead, I was met with a similar lack of availability. I spoke to two different Enterprise representatives over the phone, who told me that while the branch did have Miatas at the location, they were, for some reason, not available for booking, no matter which dates I supplied. When I asked how I could book one, if not over the phone, they simply directed me back to the website. Sigh.
The only other way I can see being able to book a Miata through Enterprise is in person. I don’t live anywhere near an Enterprise location, so I wasn’t immediately able to test this idea.
I Have A Theory About This
This is purely speculative, so feel free to disagree. But I think Alamo and Enterprise don’t have the Miata available to book online because of its size and the car’s lack of storage space. It’s entirely possible people were booking this car while visiting on vacation, picking it up from the airport, and not realizing it wouldn’t be able to fit any of their luggage.
To stop people from constantly coming back to the counter and complaining about the Miata’s tiny trunk space, Enterprise marked the Compact Convertible category as always unavailable on their website, while Alamo removed it from the search results altogether. Again, this is just a theory. But it makes a bit of sense.
Going by some anecdotal evidence, it seems people only usually get rental Miatas by chance, whether because they’re offered it as an upgrade or because the car they booked wasn’t available. That original Reddit post I linked above, by the way it was worded, suggests the user didn’t know they were getting an ND until they got to the counter. This user on Reddit was expecting a mid-size car for their visit to Hawaii, but got a Miata instead. My colleague, The Bishop, told me he was offered a Miata on a recent business trip, driving from Charlotte to Atlanta, after the car he booked wasn’t available.
If I had to guess, these Miatas are likely just backup cars for when there isn’t much else for the rental companies to give out, and they’re rarely booked the traditional way because they’re not as easy to book as any other car (despite being the coolest cars on the lot). Maybe I’m wrong! I’d love to see what you think in the comments.
Either way, there’s a lesson here: Next time you book a car with Alamo or Enterprise, ask if they have a Miata on the lot. You might just get lucky.
Top graphic images: Mazda; Enterprise
The only time I was able to rent a “fun” car a 2019 Mustang Convertible was during the pandemic in Detroit
Enterprise has lots of interesting cars for rent, actually. Have only rented a car once, for a month while sorting out the totaled Civic, but they gave me a Charger. Tried to get me a Hellcat, but insurance wouldn’t bite. When we were walking in, said Charger was next to an Altima and I could hear my better half repeating “please don’t give us the Altima” over and over. The Altima went to the lady in front of us, and she looked like she was gonna find the limits of Big Altima Energy.
I, meanwhile, enjoyed the buttery smooth Charger and had fun getting it sideways on a wet on-ramp with no traffic around. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I actually liked it.
During the pandemic, the cheapest car the Enterprise near my house had was a Cayman.
You can also rent a MX-5 RF from Avis. I saw it parked next to a Mustang I was supposed to have. It was a blast despite the fact that I could hardly fit in it (6’2” 260lbs). The trunk area was notably beat up, assuming from renters who where trying to cram their luggage into the thing.
I’ve got a NA Miata and had a (very similar in most respects) NB too. Never had or driven a NC/ND. The Miata trunk is kind of small compared to a Camry or whatever, but it’s not unusably small. Soft luggage would be much better than hard-sided suitcases, so as to smush things a bit. I will admit the spare tire and battery in the trunk do take up some space, but I’ve got a LOT of crap into the trunk of a Miata, including a small Bosch dishwasher once:
https://imgur.com/a/EsMVjGo
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. 🙂
I randomly got one as a rental in Virginia, I’m guessing 1994? It was the first rental I had that could get up the mountain pass to the customer site at the speed limit..
I’ll be in LA for an extended period of time in the not too distant future, and I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a stick Miata from Turo. However, some online horror stories of bad hosts, and generally not loving the idea of driving someone else’s car has me very much on the fence, mostly leaning towards no. Renting a Miata from one of the big names, on the other hand, seems much more agreeable to my risk tolerance, but then I lose the stick. Does anyone have any advice one way or the other?
If it’s for an extended period of time I would definitely deal with the auto and try to do it from a company not from Turo, but I don’t like mileage limits and yeah just having someone else’s car for a while feels weird to me.