Yellowknife Car Hire

Cons: The Kayak Site did not indicate mileage limit of 30 miles (50 km) at time of reservation. The staff person at National did not indicate the mileage limit as well when I picked up vehicle. This is an insanely low mileage limit that should be told at time of reservation (did not happen) & time of pickup (did not happen). The staff person at Yellowknife (Cordy) was not helpful or supportive when I returned vehicle. I talked with a National customer service rep over the phone who was more helpful to see about this major issue. I fault Kayak for not indicating mileage limit at time of reservation and National for not indicating mileage limit at time of pickup.

Cons: The first "SUV" I got was a pretty beat '09 Explorer with 100,000km and very bald all season tires... In Yellowknife. In March. Oh and it almost left me stranded after the first night when it wouldn't start in whopping -20C. I got somebody to give me a jump and barely got it cranked over thankfully. I can understand maybe -30C+ or colder, but seriously at only -20C, cars put in to service in Yellowknife should be able to do this without too much drama. Then later that first day I got stuck in a driveway with maybe 2" of snow at the most on an otherwise plowed drive. it was pathetic performance for an "SUV" which I picked and paid extra for hoping to have something reasonably capable for the local conditions. With the bald tires I had to spend 20 minutes rocking it back and forth with pushing from a helper and digging the front tires out (of literally only 2" of snow on ice) to get it out on to the road. If any of my personal vehicles were in that state of neglect I'd probably burn them to the ground. I took the SUV back immediately and accepted a replacement compact (Chevy Cruz) since that was all they had in the lot. No price refund difference or anything, but I was happy to just get anything other than that car, and it did happen to have real snow tires on the front which were in good shape. I actually enjoyed the Cruz even though it was tiny since with decent tires it did pretty good on the ice and snow, it wasn't like I was trying to go off-road or anything, just needed to get around town. And more importantly it started when I needed it to without much issue. Tight fit for two with luggage in the back taking up the rear seat, but it worked.

Cons: There was no car available and National never received the reservation.