Man that Hertz.

I miss the good ole days when Hertz was just having customers arrested and jailed for allegedly stealing cars they had actually returned.

Hertz paid $700+ Million for that lawsuit, and I don't think ever apologized or admitted wrongdoing.

I traveled to Pax River, MD for work a last year and chose a Tesla in Baltimore when it was offered 'cuz I'd only driven friend's Teslas up and down the freeway as well as a Turo Model S for a trip to Monterey (85 miles each way and we knew where the charger was down there).

My friends had a pair of P85 Model S and 3's. Holy Toledo that 3 ripped! Then the male spouse decided he had to have the faster one so he bought a Plaid. =8^0 I've driven lotsa fast cars as well as fast race cars. Nothing prepared me for the incredible acceleration of the Plaid. Completely off the scale.

At any rate my BWI Tesla Rental. I stupidly did not look at the route from Balti to Pax and discovered it was nearly 100 miles. The Model 3 was going to hafta be charged in Pax so I had to find a charger, arrange for my customer to pick me up for the local electron outlet so it could get topped up before the return trip. I returned it with about 30% and paid some fee for being stupid (there's always a fee for that...). Largely a pain in the ass except for driving it. I liked it and if I could convince the spousal unit we'd probably have one. Unfortunately my sales presentation has always fallen flat...

The other thing I noticed was that the entire inventory of Teslas at Newark that day was parked in the back not being rented. The only car that was in the available area had a lost key. 
 

I asked why the Teslas were all grounded and the inventory manager told me they had no charging ability on site and couldn't send someone to charge them, so they were all grounded. 

SV reX said:

I asked why the Teslas were all grounded and the inventory manager told me they had no charging ability on site...

I realize that decision-makers will sometimes make bad decisions, but "order a fleet of electric vehicles" and "no charging ability on site" strikes me as a large and very obvious one.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

I couldn't agree more. 

Slippery said:

 

The last time I tried this, the recharge fee at Newark airport was not $35. It was $50.  I expected to drive about 120 miles.

120 miles on a gas burning car that got 30 MPG would have cost me about $12, but I didn't know where the nearby charging stations were so I decided to pay it (because I wanted my girlfriend to be able to drive the Tesla). It was essentially a surcharge for renting an EV (which most travelers would hate)

Turns out it didn't really matter, because ALL their EVs were grounded. I had to fight with them to get my $50 electric refueling surcharge back.

Hertz can die a very slow and painful death as far as I am concerned. 

I went to Pick up my National rental in Kansas City a couple months ago and they were (surprise surprise) out of cars. They know how to take a reservation....etc. Anyway, no one else had one either. But Hertz hesitantly offered me a Tesla because they had a row of them and it was that or nothing. I considered the pitfalls of driving it for two days having no idea how or where to charge it (I expect that is a typical renters response ATM) and the counter lady did her best to talk me out of it. She had clearly Tesla rentals that had not gone well. I got a hotel and went back the next morning and got a double cab long bed Ram 4x4. As unsuitable a vehicle as I could have found but I knew how to fuel it up at least. 

I've rented a Model 3 from Hertz maybe 10 times. Each time the car was fully charged, and I returned it near empty. Was never charged for it. It's a pretty ideal experience if you're going to drive 200 miles or less during the rental period. 

All that said, there was some incredibly bad decision making from a business standpoint on this. Not surprised the CEO lost his job over it. 

IDK if this is a deal or not but....

I can't imagine what a well used rental Model 3 would be like based on this at 50,000 miles. To be fair it is an early example:

In reply to MyMiatas :

Not so much. The 30k buck Model 3's have 40-50k miles on them and the local to me comps on Craigs look like this:

18k miles and FSD: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/d/mill-valley-tesla-model-warranty-fsd/7722405961.html

9k miles for 35k bucks: https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/d/santa-rosa-2022-tesla-model-long-range/7728881745.html

The first link I clicked on for the SF Bay Tesla had this in the type."Salvaged I have all the pictures of accident small damage to rear passenger side"  and they still want 25000 for it??

In reply to MyMiatas :

Well, I'm a dope. That's just stupid. I'll edit it out.