YES, Hawaii DOES have a problem with roaches in rental cars. If you car smells strongly of air freshener when you pick it up, suspect a recent roach bomb and ask for a different one. We learned this the hard way, and my poor ten year old son panicked at having to get in the first night when we discovered them. Our concierge was SHOCKED that BUDGET was not willing to immediately bring us a new car. They really had to battle with Budget to get it taken care of. (The rental agent tried to tell me it was our fault, that we must have left food in the car or parked it under a tree.)
I'd like to hear if some car companies are better than others for this.

SHOCKED!!???? oh my Bonnie...

its a BUG!!!!!!!! for god sake, get over it!!

And it's buggy here all the time. Comes with the turf....

It weas not A bug, but 15 or 20 of them on one seat, and they travelled into our hotel room on and in our bags. Do YOU think that is appropriate service for a car rental company????!!!

I don't blame you one bit Bonnie. That is terrible. I will remember this company for your experience. Even the bravest of people would have a problem with this I would think. Lets face it most people are afraid of bugs. It is bad enough for adults but your 10 year old must have horrified. Poor kid.

Same thing happened to us in early October in Hilo, BI. We rented an SUV from Dollar. We were not happy about having to waste time exchanging the car, but the rental agent took it in stride like it happened all the time. It's probably a problem they have to deal with all the time. We rented cars on Maui and Oahu and did not have any problems.

In many visits to Maui I have never had a bug problem with a rental car, and I have never seen a cockroach !

I would be concerned about a ten year old boy who is afraid of bugs. It sounds to me like this problem has been highly exagerated .

All rental car over here has that problem, and also many personal car too.

My ten year old likes to eat bugs.