Discussion: Experiences Renting a Tesla Model 3 / Y from various companies

I have just come back from Florida where I rented a Model Y from AVIS from Orlando Airport. Here's what I thought about it all... I have a MY at home.

To start, I was surprised they were doing Teslas at all - I know Hertz do, but now AVIS as well it seems. I saw several MY's there and maybe a M3 too. The car had 92 miles when I picked it up, and I did around 700 miles during my stay.

All did not go well - although that is the subject of another post later on.

But in general:

You get one card-key in a relatively big clear plastic case. I did not get access through a phone and I could not assign my phone to be a key, so I was stuck with the card-key.

This means.... No walk-away locking, no auto-unlock, no pre-cool on climate, have to use the card-key every time to 'start' the card. Most annoying, but no different to a gas car I guess. How spoiled we are.

Supercharging was great... I guess Avis will bill me for it eventually!

Popped into Disney Springs one night, overjoyed to see some ChargePoint chargers... but they were CCS, so no joy there :-(

Avis do not have Premium connectivity, so no Satellite view, no streaming. Gah! And yes, I did connect to my phone as a hotspot to get around that, see my other posting in a few days.

Given that these cars are new, there are no ultrasonice sensors, which I found annoying, as I have them on my 2022 MY. It did have the trunk cover to keep things a bit more hidden and cool, so that was good.

Car came with the standard J1772 adaptor. No FSD obviously, and AutoSteer was disabled to start with.

Overall..... Good to drive 'the same' car as I own.....but annoyed to be back to 'basic' and having to set the car up as I wanted it.

So... thinking outside the box.... What does this look like for AVIS and Tesla? I think that Tesla and Avis need to do something about this 'basic' level of support and no App-access. It turns the Tesla from a tech-leader to an annoying expeience, which might put off future buyers. Avis probably don't want us using our phones as we can't then un-associate the phone, which is a security risk, but maybe Tesla needs to do something in this area for rentals?

There was (obvuously) no manual there - yes - I know why ! Not a problem for me as I have a MY... but what's a first-time Tesla renter supposed to do? It's not really a good experience, and that can hurt both Tesla and Avis. For the newbies, maybe a slip of paper saying 'Press here and here to see the manual'. If you know... you know.... if you don't... it's well hidden.

I don't know what Hertz do that's different, as I am Avis President's Club and so brand loyalty and all that.

Would I rent a MY or M3 from Avis again - yes! Great to get into a car that's almost identical to your own and drive through the night after a long journey. Discuss ;-)

"IMG_0765" by Robert T Bell is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

 

[israndy]

Cool, can anyone create a link to a thread in another forum? Or can anyone ask a moderator to do it?

 

[jjrandorin]

Cool, can anyone create a link to a thread in another forum? Or can anyone ask a moderator to do it?

its a moderator only feature (merging two threads basically). It really only works in this specific type of circumstance. Otherwise, merging threads together pretty much destroys the readability of both threads.

 

[MY2021f]

I ran into two renters on our last road trip. One didn't know how to lock the doors, and one didn't know how to charge. There's probably so much that's new that it's hard for them to explain it all.

 

[Occhis]

Yesterday during the investor meeting, they mentioned building the infrastructure to make loaner vehicles for Tesla Service centers have a seamless transition where your phone key, profile, and app usage transition to the loaner while in service. Not sure if that's something they'll open up to rental car agencies in the future, but it would be cool since it sounds like the foundations are there in the future.

See here: 2023 Investor Day

Loaners from my SC have been non-existent for more than 2 years. Likewise for mobile service.

 

[WhiteOnWhiteMY]

Loaners from my SC have been non-existent for more than 2 years. Likewise for mobile service.

I won’t say one way or another, but have had both a loaner and mobile service in the last 6 months of ownership. No problems for me

 

[Wattsisname]

Awesome list.
I would add at least one accidental turn on of the windshield wipers looking for the lights.

At least.....

 

[bodosom]

Loaners from my SC have been non-existent for more than 2 years. Likewise for mobile service.

I got a loaner Model 3 at my last appointment on 28-Jan-2023. The car also appeared in the app ... the day after I returned it. I assume the rental stores don't have adding a random phones in their work flow but they could get fobs.

 

[SVDNN]

Rented from Hertz with similar experience as above. But just rented from Budget (not my go to but city airport location had very high demand and Hertz & Avis had no cars..ICE nor EV). Tesla was not an option on the Budget online reservation but I saw they were available onsite and switched. They have programmed M3 key fob and charged $10/day for available "free" Tesla supercharging. And also had someone available to discuss use of the car if needed (was not necessary).

Although people have said cannot use phone app or premium connectivity, wanted to be clear for newbies ....that you can still connect phone to bluetooth in Tesla rental for calls and stream music etc from your phone.

 

[FultonMDUSA]

I have just come back from Florida where I rented a Model Y from AVIS from Orlando Airport. Here's what I thought about it all... I have a MY at home.

Supercharging was great... I guess Avis will bill me for it eventually!

Did Avis eventually bill you for your Supercharging sessions? Their web page (which may be in error) seems to suggest it may be included in your rental charges.

 

[fr@nkth3T@nk]

Rented 2022 MY-P 6 weeks ago on Turo while my ICE F150 was in shop. First experience driving an EV and loved it. One keycard, but could also unlock with Turo app if needed.

Went out of town for a week and rented another 2022 MYLR on Turo. One keycard, had to enter drive pin every time, locked in chill mode, speed limit capped at 79mph. Had this been my first experience with a Tesla I would have written them off for good.

When I got my truck back, I still couldn’t stop thinking about the MY-P, so I ordered one that night and should take delivery in next 2 weeks.

 

[aprusan]

This past week we rented a model Y from Hertz. We have a model 3 and Y at home and just thought why not drive a car similar to what we enjoy everyday.
When I heard that Hertz was renting Tesla cars,I thought it would really boost Tesla sales and EV adoption -and it may do that.However, my experience as a renter was not nearly enjoyable as owner. You don't realize how important the app is to the Tesla "experience" As a renter ( we couldn't utilize the app ) we used the key card to open the doors and then put the card by cupholder to start. The supercharger still worked well but you couldn't check your charging progress as you would on the app
Also, no remote window venting, no remote A/C. We have Google maps with traffic at home but the rental didn't have premium connectivity so music selections were few . We also didn't sync our phones or Spotify for fear of forgetting to log out or erase private data. This is all expected when one rents a car versus owning the car but I think renters will not experience the ease and the "magic" of a Tesla. Maybe there is a way to temporarily add a rental to the app but I didn't do that.
Lastly, be careful if you rent a Tesla from Hertz : the car was given to us with a 72% charge so we had to return it at 72% or better. The nearest supercharger to airport was a "high use/ busy" supercharger and would only allow 80% max charging. We drove carefully and without A/C to arrive at the rental return with 76%.

 

[MrSlowEv]

I also have a m3p ant home and decided to rent a model s plaid on vacation a month ago. I strongly agree that having complete mobile access thru the app as an owner is a huge perk to owning a Tesla. I found it inconvenient to use the key card. Returning the car with the same charge I got it with was tricky as well.. the closest charging station to the place I rented it from was about 15 minutes in the other direction. So that meant planing an additional 30 minutes into the drop off trip, in addition to the 25 minutes of charging time. I also had to charge over the amount of charge I was given to account for the charge it took to get back to the rental drop off location. All in all it wasn’t a bad experience, but if I was on the fence about owning an EV and was going to use this experience as the determining factor, I’m not sure I would be convinced based on convenience.

 

[AMPd]

This past week we rented a model Y from Hertz. We have a model 3 and Y at home and just thought why not drive a car similar to what we enjoy everyday.
When I heard that Hertz was renting Tesla cars,I thought it would really boost Tesla sales and EV adoption -and it may do that.However, my experience as a renter was not nearly enjoyable as owner. You don't realize how important the app is to the Tesla "experience" As a renter ( we couldn't utilize the app ) we used the key card to open the doors and then put the card by cupholder to start. The supercharger still worked well but you couldn't check your charging progress as you would on the app
Also, no remote window venting, no remote A/C. We have Google maps with traffic at home but the rental didn't have premium connectivity so music selections were few . We also didn't sync our phones or Spotify for fear of forgetting to log out or erase private data. This is all expected when one rents a car versus owning the car but I think renters will not experience the ease and the "magic" of a Tesla. Maybe there is a way to temporarily add a rental to the app but I didn't do that.
Lastly, be careful if you rent a Tesla from Hertz : the car was given to us with a 72% charge so we had to return it at 72% or better. The nearest supercharger to airport was a "high use/ busy" supercharger and would only allow 80% max charging. We drove carefully and without A/C to arrive at the rental return with 76%.

I’m pretty sure you can override that 80% max charge limit.

 

[GtiMart]

Yep, you should be able to override, but since you don't have mobile app access you need to sit in the car and wait for charging to start and the target to change before overriding it...

 

[EL CapiTRAN]

Rented a Model Y from Hertz in San Diego. My experience is mostly positive. As others have stated, not having app access makes the renter miss out on a lot of the cooler features of driving a Tesla.

1) no remote access to start the AC system. Luckily weather in SD was very cool so there was no need to pre-heat or pre-cool the car.
2) Phone key access for getting in and out of the car and allowing walk away lock. The keycard is stuck in a Hertz plastic case but you can remove the keycard and put it in your phone case so you can just tap the phone on the pillar and set it on the console. I brought along a card holder with a lanyard but never used it.
3) Connectivity. I knew this was an issue and since I use a hotspot in my car at home anyway, I just brought my hotspot along to use in the rental.
4) No glovebox access so some of your storage options have been taken away

The things I did like is

1) I know what car I'm getting so I know what to expect.
2) our AirBNBs had L2 chargers so charging up at the residence is pretty convenient and since we did some driving from SD to LA and back the free charging was welcomed.
3) Cost compared to mid sized SUVs was considerably cheaper. A midsize or fullsize car would have been cheaper but then there would not be enough storage for luggage for 4 people.

 

[cmy4x4]

Just looked at the Costco App for a San Diego rental and it showed Budget renting Model 3's for $555 a week.

 

[EL CapiTRAN]

Just looked at the Costco App for a San Diego rental and it showed Budget renting Model 3's for $555 a week.

Look out for additional charges after you return the car. They charged me a 9 dollar a day terminal fee. on top of my 521 prepaid for the week. Cheapest price I got was directly from Hertz with code 1244810. Additional discount for Visa card holders.

 

[Unclepaul]

Most readers of this forum know more about the rental Tesla than the rental company.

 

[Daekwan]

I just reserved a Tesla with Avis using Costco. The Avis site has this language:

TERMS AND CONDITIONS​

• One-way rentals are not permitted.
• Your EV must be returned to Avis with a battery charge level of at least 70%. If returned at less than 70%, you will incur a charging fee.
• If you require roadside service because you depleted your EV’s batteries, your EV will be towed to your renting location and the towing expense will be assessed to you.
• If you rented a Tesla EV, you will be able to access Tesla Superchargers to recharge Tesla vehicles without any cost to you provided, however: 1) any Tesla “idle fees”, as defined and charged by Tesla, shall be your responsibility (see Tesla’s website for details Supercharger Idle Fee); and 2) the provisions of “Battery Charging Levels at Vehicle Return” shall apply to you.
• TESLA VEHICLES MAY NOT BE WASHED AT AN AUTOMATIC CAR WASH. ANY DAMAGE CASUSED BY AN AUTOMATIC CAR WASH SHALL BE ASSESSED TO YOU PURSUANT TO THE “DAMAGE/LOSS TO THE CAR” PROVISIONS OF YOUR RENTAL TERMS AND WILL NOT BE COVERED BY LDW. IF YOU DO NOT PURCHASE LDW AND RELY ON YOUR PERSONAL INSURANCE TO COVER YOUR DAMAGE TO THE EV, IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE YOU INSURANCE PROVIDES COVERAGE FOR EV’S AND/OR EV COMPONENTS.

So does, "without any cost to you" mean free supercharging, or just Avis surcharge free supercharging? Cause it's difficult for me to wrap my head around the idea of actual free supercharging on an unlimited mileage rental!

Didnt know Costco supported this. Thanks for sharing.

Would you mind sharing your daily rental price?

 

[Richster64]

Did Avis eventually bill you for your Supercharging sessions? Their web page (which may be in error) seems to suggest it may be included in your rental charges.

No, they didn't... So this is quite handy for longer rentals or road trips

I hate to think what the constant supercharging is going to do to the rental batteries... but I guess that in itself will be a useful data point for Tesla too.