For the past couple of months, I’ve been wondering if it has been my bad luck with Hertz or the rental car industry trying to stretch their cars a bit farther. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal assuaged my paranoia. Though Hertz claims their fleet age hasn’t changed, the owners of National, Alamo, and Enterprise Rent A Car admit that they’re letting their fleets age an additional 2,000 miles. My personal experience — I’ve received more 20,000+ mile cars from Hertz this year than ever before, and this is with some level of status in Hertz’s Gold Club.
I don’t care as much about the mileage as I do the state of the car when I receive it. The last couple of cars I received from Hertz at San Francisco Airport made me pull a T-shirt out of my bag so I could sit on something clean. Stained seats, soda residue on the center console, ashes in a supposed non-smoking car — I could take an extra 2,000 miles if Hertz would just clean the insides of the car once in a while.
Sticky Hertz cars is the lesser of two evils for me, though. I had switched over to Avis for 3-4 months. I liked the free Wall Street Journal that came with every car and the WiFi hot spots in some of their locations. However, my time with Avis came to an immediate halt when they called me about a damaged back-up light on a car I’d rented 11 months prior. When I finally received the paperwork, I pointed them to the line in the damage report where I had clearly printed “Light was damaged when I received the car.” I haven’t heard from Avis since. But nor have they heard from me or my credit card.
The rental car companies may think these actions are reducing their costs and improving their profit margins, but it’s actually costing them revenue — at least from me. The potential hassles and the disgusting cars are tilting me toward cabs and limos. Last year, at the tipping point where the cost of rental car was the same or maybe even a bit more than the cost of a taxi, I’d take the rental car. I enjoyed the flexibility of having a car, and even looked forward to finding a fun car in the Avis lot or under the Hertz Gold canopy. Now, though, I’ll pay extra to avoid them. The cost of throwing away my impromptu T-shirt seat covers is just getting too much.
4 comments on “Rent-a-Wreck, or at least Rent-a-Stained”
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I was quite impressed with our Enterprise San Francisco Ford Escape Hybrid. We were upgraded for nicely waiting while the attendant dealt with an angry late-return. While very plain and plasticky, it was clean, ran well and had 14k miles.
Not bad Enterprise.
Never fear, Mark. I have had success sending my complaints to Hertz customer service and I have received certificates for money off future rentals. Fortunately for me, I have had only a handful of such incidents with Hertz, they’ve been very good for me overall.
Now if I can get Northwest to get my bag home from Oklahoma the same day I get home, JUST ONCE (they were oh for two).
My experience with Enterprise has always been slow and very sales-y. I’ve been pretty happy with Budget. At many locations, you can simply get them to drop you off at the lot and “pick any car from area 2”
I haven’t had a car without a stained driver seat in more than a month. Weds night at Hertz in Dulles airport, I opened my Chrysler Sebring and just about choked. It reeked of smoke and had a cigarette burn on the driver’s seat (right between the legs; someone must’ve had a close call). The guy at the Gold desk was very apologetic and gave me a very nice black Acura, but how did that car get back on the line in the first place? Someone had to drive it from the return line to the Gold canopy. Unless they had a really bad head cold, they should’ve noticed the smell and pulled it out of service.