Rental car review, GMC/Penske 16' box truck.

For my move today I ended up with a beautiful yellow beast. A '15 GMC box truck with 33k on the clock. The van part was base model. Rubber floor, vinyl seats, crank windows, ect. The only negative to it was the fixed steering wheel blocked the bottom half of the instrument panel. The rest of it was pleasant enough. The CC worked and the AC was beautifully over powered. The dreaded GM uni-stalk has improved over earlier versions with the CC controls being on the wheel instead.

The gas engine had sufficient oomph to move itself and the cargo and returned a touch over 10 mpg. The transmission was smooth and the manual function worked nicely for engine braking down steep hills. The control was a perfectly located +- rocker switch on the shifter. I didn't play further with it as I can never get the feel for any clutchless manual mode, be it truck, flappy paddle, or video game. The brakes are responsive if a little grabby.

I'll finish in the morning.

In reply to Brian:

It's been a few years, but I used to rent Penske trucks at my previous job pretty frequently. They were typically larger Internationals with a lift-gate, but they were generally well-maintained and nice driving trucks.

it's funny.. big trucks and little trucks get the same mileage. I drive everything from Conversion vans to a monster peterbuilt straight truck.. All returned somewhere between 9 and 12 mpg

We moved last summer with a Penske 24' truck and it was great for 2400 miles with a trailer. Way better than the run down pieces of crap that UHaul has given us in the past.

I moved a week ago with a U-Haul 20' box truck because Penske was booked solid. I've had bad experiences with U-Haul in the past (both customer service and E36 M3ty equipment). This experience broke the mold - it was great customer service (including a call from U-Haul corporate to clear up a scheduling issue) and the truck was pretty nice. I was pleasantly surprised.

Recently I've been renting 3/4 ton trucks from Enterprise to tow our club autocross trailer. Trailer is pretty heavy (~9,000 lbs) and the first two times I got a 2015 Cummins. 4x4, crew cab, relatively basic truck but very nicely finished IMO. The biggest nit I can pick is that new vehicle stereos aren't even a little bit intuitive. That engine though!! 800 ft lbs FTMFW Hooked up to our heavy-ass trailer if accelerated like a beast, a bit of turbo lag off the line but then....whoosh. All while returning 15-16 mpg.

This last time however because they ran out of diesels I got the exact same truck with the Hemi (oooh, Hemi this should be fun). Not. Poor thing had no discernible torque and with the 6 speed auto it hunted constantly for a gear. It never settled down or felt happy. It lost speed on a decent sized hill and rewarded me with a stellar 9 mpg.

Upshot, if you tow on the regular, the Cummins spanks the Hemi every way possible.

Maybe the Hemi actually works in a 1/2 ton but in a 3/4 it was just sad.