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Did you just buy a Tesla from Hertz Car Rental?
- Thread starter JWLV
- Start date
Since starting my BMS_u029/018 Facebook Group in Nov 2022, I've talked to a couple hundred 2012-2015 Model S owners worldwide that received either the BMS_u029 or 018 alert. Myself included after I bought my 2012 P85 and got the 029 alert 3 days after purchase when doing Factory reset.
This alert requires owner paid pack replacement/repair ranging from $7k USD to $21K. Even if you multiply that couple hundred by 3 we're talking 600, which is a low number, though still significant. Not the nerfing you are talking about that ended in a 2021 Rasmussen v. Tesla lawsuit settlement. Something totally different.
You guys need to go watch the YouTube video with Kim Java on the Uber driver and the model 3, he charged at a supercharger daily and had to replace his battery. Don’t recall the specifics as to range loss and high miles but out of warranty and paid out of pocket. Video came out last month.
Ok! I got some really good info to share. I was able to get my Tesla transferred to me! This only applies if you bought a Tesla from Hertz.
I'll go through what worked and what didn't.
What didn't work:
1. The Hertz Car Sales people are useless. They don't know anything.
2. The Hertz Emergency EV support line tried their hardest. But they don't have access to vehicles that are not currently an active rental.
3. Fidelity (the after-sales support company that Hertz uses) is more than useless. They don't know anything about Teslas, let alone how to transfer ownership. And they take forever to answer your call.
4. Adding a vehicle through the Tesla.com website did not work because it required me to change the vehicle name to a 3-letter code at the last step. Because Hertz locked my car in Guest mode it did not allow me to change the vehicle name. As such, the last step can never be completed. If you are able to change your car's name, maybe it'll work for you and you don't have to go through all the steps below.
What did work:
0. Make sure you already have a Tesla account. You don't need to have any cars or anything in your account. Just create an account at Tesla.com first if you don't already have one. Make sure you are connected to WiFi (tap the antenna icon at the top/right corner and connect to your home WiFi). Hertz Teslas do not have premium connectivity, so the car will not have access to celluar data. Anything that Tesla does on their side needs to be received by your car. So your car must be on WiFi to receive that.
1. Call Tesla's support line at 1-888-518-3752.
2. Choose vehicle support.
3. Explain that you bought a used Tesla from Hertz (3rd party) and your vehicle is in Guest Mode. You want to transfer ownership of the vehicle from Hertz to you.
4. The Tesla agent will ask for your Tesla account email, the car's VIN, and other information. They will send you an email requesting some more information, such as the VIN again, email address, home address, phone number, and you will need to attach photos of your driver license and bill of sale/registration/something that shows you own the car. Tip: Take good pictures with your phone. Don't send dark, fuzzy, out of focus pictures. Do it right the first time so you don't have to do it again.
5. Reply to the email and send all requested info to Tesla. The case number is in the subject line of the email, so don't change anything in the subject line.
6. The agent should receive it right away and start the process.
7. Shortly after you should get an automated email from Tesla saying that a vehicle was added to your account. For me, it took maybe 5 minutes and I got the email. I verified at Tesla.com that the car with my VIN was in fact in my account.
8. Thank the agent and continue to the next step inside your car.
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9. On the touchscreen, tap the car icon at the bottom/left corner.
10. Tap Control - Service - Factory Reset (you may have to scroll down if your screen is set to Large Text).
11. It'll ask for your Tesla login. Enter the email and password for your Tesla account.
12. The screen will go dark for a couple of minutes. Then you'll see the "T" logo as the computer starts up and eventually you'll see the main screen.
13. Since everything was reset, you might need your Key Card/Key Fob (your phone key was reset) and you can begin to set everything up again. Don't forget to set up WiFi first. While I was changing some settings, the screen blinked and the "T" logo came up like it just rebooted. I thought that was kind of strange. I don't know why it did that, but everything was fine afterwards.
I'll go through what worked and what didn't.
What didn't work:
1. The Hertz Car Sales people are useless. They don't know anything.
2. The Hertz Emergency EV support line tried their hardest. But they don't have access to vehicles that are not currently an active rental.
3. Fidelity (the after-sales support company that Hertz uses) is more than useless. They don't know anything about Teslas, let alone how to transfer ownership. And they take forever to answer your call.
4. Adding a vehicle through the Tesla.com website did not work because it required me to change the vehicle name to a 3-letter code at the last step. Because Hertz locked my car in Guest mode it did not allow me to change the vehicle name. As such, the last step can never be completed. If you are able to change your car's name, maybe it'll work for you and you don't have to go through all the steps below.
What did work:
0. Make sure you already have a Tesla account. You don't need to have any cars or anything in your account. Just create an account at Tesla.com first if you don't already have one. Make sure you are connected to WiFi (tap the antenna icon at the top/right corner and connect to your home WiFi). Hertz Teslas do not have premium connectivity, so the car will not have access to celluar data. Anything that Tesla does on their side needs to be received by your car. So your car must be on WiFi to receive that.
1. Call Tesla's support line at 1-888-518-3752.
2. Choose vehicle support.
3. Explain that you bought a used Tesla from Hertz (3rd party) and your vehicle is in Guest Mode. You want to transfer ownership of the vehicle from Hertz to you.
4. The Tesla agent will ask for your Tesla account email, the car's VIN, and other information. They will send you an email requesting some more information, such as the VIN again, email address, home address, phone number, and you will need to attach photos of your driver license and bill of sale/registration/something that shows you own the car. Tip: Take good pictures with your phone. Don't send dark, fuzzy, out of focus pictures. Do it right the first time so you don't have to do it again.
5. Reply to the email and send all requested info to Tesla. The case number is in the subject line of the email, so don't change anything in the subject line.
6. The agent should receive it right away and start the process.
7. Shortly after you should get an automated email from Tesla saying that a vehicle was added to your account. For me, it took maybe 5 minutes and I got the email. I verified at Tesla.com that the car with my VIN was in fact in my account.
8. Thank the agent and continue to the next step inside your car.
--------
9. On the touchscreen, tap the car icon at the bottom/left corner.
10. Tap Control - Service - Factory Reset (you may have to scroll down if your screen is set to Large Text).
11. It'll ask for your Tesla login. Enter the email and password for your Tesla account.
12. The screen will go dark for a couple of minutes. Then you'll see the "T" logo as the computer starts up and eventually you'll see the main screen.
13. Since everything was reset, you might need your Key Card/Key Fob (your phone key was reset) and you can begin to set everything up again. Don't forget to set up WiFi first. While I was changing some settings, the screen blinked and the "T" logo came up like it just rebooted. I thought that was kind of strange. I don't know why it did that, but everything was fine afterwards.
Thank You! I just bought one today and was trying to figure this out.
Correct. I did a couple of airport runs in Tesla's where the Uber driver said it was on a lease from Hertz.
Thanks for this. I'm seriously considering buying one of these for our youngest to go back and forth to school.
I tried with my 16 y.o. He claimed the kids would make fun of him and wants a new Civic for ~ this price
We just bought one as an extra family car, from an independent dealer but it was a Hertz rental. We also had to contact Tesla to get it transferred over, but they were very helpful and the process was fast.
The only hiccup was that we then had to do a factory reset before we could add keys (and phones as keys). Also, there is a strange message on the “Add a Key” screen that seems to indicate that Hertz can still control the vehicle if given access. We’re trying to get this removed and will not grant access, obviously, but folks may want to check this on their vehicle. Tesla is investigating. Overall, we are very happy with the purchase so far and I didn’t realize how much I miss the turn stalks in my Model S until I drove this Model 3!
The only hiccup was that we then had to do a factory reset before we could add keys (and phones as keys). Also, there is a strange message on the “Add a Key” screen that seems to indicate that Hertz can still control the vehicle if given access. We’re trying to get this removed and will not grant access, obviously, but folks may want to check this on their vehicle. Tesla is investigating. Overall, we are very happy with the purchase so far and I didn’t realize how much I miss the turn stalks in my Model S until I drove this Model 3!
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I tried with my 16 y.o. He claimed the kids would make fun of him and wants a new Civic for ~ this price
Wow...
I looked into this a bit further. Hertz and Uber still have an ongoing agreement for Uber drivers.
Here's the direct link https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/vehicle-solutions/hertz/tesla/
To summarize, the incentive for Uber drivers is a discounted rental rate ($334/week - approx $48/day), insurance and maintenance included. Uber will pay the driver a bonus of $1 per ride. And riders pay a little bit more for getting a ride in a Tesla. You gotta do a heck of a lot of rides to just break even at roughly $1500/month just for the Tesla rental plus whatever you spend on Supercharging fees. And at the end of it all, you still don't own a car.
But that might be a good thing for people who buy a used Tesla from Hertz. The drivers have to do so many rides everyday that they don't have time to screw around and mess up the car. And obviously they can't be driving fast and wild with passengers in the car or they'll lose their driver ratings quickly. So maybe in a strange way high mileage Teslas from Hertz might actually be taken care of better than the low mileage ones.
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My #1 reason...you will never know how many drunk/stupid people may have pee'd or barfed in that car.
How long did it take for you? The Tesla rep quoted me ~5 days. I'm trying to be patient but I'm antsy to play with things lol
You can't really think about it that way. Hertz cleaned it top to bottom before selling it. If you do worry abuot things like that, what about when you buy a house? Some houses are 100+ years old. You don't know how many people died in it, barfed in it, crapped in the kitchen sink, used the closet as a toilet, etc. It's all been cleaned. The answer is you'll never know, so why even think about it?.
Same day for us, but we needed to be able to use the supercharger so they escalated it for us.
Update on this, mine got update a couple hours after making my post. Mine also shows the Hertz Fleet authorization option.
With respect to the Hertz fleet authorization screen, Tesla has told us that the car may have to go in to a service center for them to remove if it doesn’t clear in due course. They did recommend waiting a week or two, to see if it clears before bringing it in. I highly doubt that it will clear without intervention, but it also doesn’t seem to impact anything, so that is what we’re going to do.
