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]

Cheaper to just drive my own car there

 

[FultonMDUSA]

Cheaper to just drive my own car there

It always is. That said, I'm now sold on the advantages of renting a familiar vehicle, especially one I can customize with my preferred settings in a few minutes. As long as the pricing is not wildly different than an ICE, I'll be looking for Tesla rentals when I travel from now on.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

Following up to note that my Avis rental was great. I got an Austin built MY LR. I used Supercharging and was never charged by Avis (that being said, I believe this is because Tesla's are new to Avis and eventually Avis intends to pass Supercharging costs onto the renter).

A few nerdy notes:

• I originally rented a M3. Upon entering the vehicle, the car presented a warning that tire pressure was dangerously low. I looked and sure enough one tire was completely flat. Avis promptly upgraded me to the Y at no additional cost. (This is not really a Tesla topic, but an Avis experience topic).
• The Austin built MY LR was: (1) Far quieter than my '21 Y P is; and (2) Far smoother / softer ride than my '21 Y P. I've read about it but this was my first time experiencing the stark difference in person. The MY LR was much more efficient than my Y P, but I already expected that.
• If you are a user of the Avis app, know that it is not fully set up for Tesla rental yet. If you try to pick your vehicle in advance, it will only show ICE vehicles. For now, ignore the app and go to the counter. It seems Avis wants to have a brief conversation with EV renters about charging, return state of charge (80%), etc.

Avis now charged me for my 1 Supercharging session. ~ $13.

 

[THEbuz]

Great share, and I agree with your conclusions. No reason why TESLA couldn’t have ensured that app support will be available (optional, even) for users so that driver profile data can port over. Then, upon completion of the rental period, the user no longer retains app control over the car. 100% feasible there.

Not to mention, what a way to potentially win “
TESLA “converts” from among those folks who might land one when renting from Hertz who don’t otherwise speak “EV”. We TESLA owners already know what a superior driving experience it is.

 

[Baym4x]

Good info, I think the only EV I ever test drove was the MS. You hit every non-compliance EV on the market. That's serious. I just don't trust anyone but Tesla to release a car that can last, as none of them have had time to prove it. Plus they are all Gen 1 cars, my Model 3 is the third ground up redesign of a car, and it has proven to be quite reliable. I drove a VW when they were everywhere and even an OG hybrid when they took over the marketplace so I am OK with driving the "in" thing.

We were fairly fortunate to get to try out so many of them last year because stock was limited on everything. I only recently tried the ID.4 and an Ioniq 5 and had we not rented the Model Y, my wife’s pathfinder probably would’ve been replaced with a HI5.

I’ve got about 1000 miles on the MY so far and I’m loving it and haven’t even gone down the rabbit hole of accessorizing and personalizing yet. I’m angling to trade the Mach E in on a Model 3 but she’s not sold on that yet.

 

[Black306]

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.

Rented a 3 from Avis over the 4/15 weekend and haven’t seen a bill either. [knocks on wood] Have you seen a charge yet?

This is on their website:

8) UNIQUE TESLA TERMS: If you rented a Tesla EV, you will be able to access Tesla Superchargers, subject to availability, to recharge Tesla vehicles provided, however any charging fee or idle fee, expense and/or costs to access and utilize the Tesla Supercharges are charged to Avis and will be billed back to you at cost plus a 2.3% administrative fee – these charges may not appear on your final invoice and may be charged to your payment method later due to processing, billing and invoicing requirements; (see Tesla’s website for definition and details about idle fees Customer and Product Support | Tesla Support and the provisions of “Battery Charging Levels at Vehicle Return” shall continue to apply to you.

Tesla Car Rental [Model 3] - Book Yours Today

Reserve a Tesla Model 3 rental today. Find answers that include how to drive a Model 3, where to find Tesla charging stations, and more.

www.avis.com

 

[Richster64]

Rented a 3 from Avis over the 4/15 weekend and haven’t seen a bill either. [knocks on wood] Have you seen a charge yet?

No - I was never charged, it's two months now, so I think it was included at the time. Now that it's re-charged to the customer, I wonder if Avis will lower the rental price to take that into account? Hahahahaha as if!

 

[Brian-MS90D]

@Black306 I rented a Y from Avis during the last week of March and was charged for Supercharging last week (3 weeks later).

 

[Richster64]

I guess that unless tesla have something special setup for rental companies to track this, I expect there is some Avis employee tasked with sitting there and looking through the charge history on a phone or tablet in the Tesla App and finding who had the vehicle at the time and then recharging them. A totally manual process I guess.

 

[Smiley416]

Canadian M3 owner.. Had a small trip to Houston and found a great deal for a MY by Hertz that was actually cheaper than a ICE SUV equivalent.

Great experience all around, supercharged a few times and was billed almost immediately after returning the car. No extra fees tacked on.

I will say however that I felt extremely sad on the cars exterior condition. It was so scratched and swirled up. Oh well.

 

[Black306]

No - I was never charged, it's two months now, so I think it was included at the time. Now that it's re-charged to the customer, I wonder if Avis will lower the rental price to take that into account? Hahahahaha as if!

@Black306 I rented a Y from Avis during the last week of March and was charged for Supercharging last week (3 weeks later).

Finally got billed and the amount was more than I charged. Had to contact Avis to get it corrected. So it probably is a manual process; prone to errors.


Tip for renters: Take note of the supercharger expenses when you're done charging. Glad I did.

 

[Y_tho]

Tip for renters: Take note of the supercharger expenses when you're done charging. Glad I did.

Great tip. That, and also take note (like... take a pic of the screen) of SoC % when returning the car. This is what saved me from a $25 undercharge fee (well... the fee was applied, but then reversed).

 

[wwu123]

Interesting to read about the battery recharge fees from Hertz and Avis for not returning the car with battery >70-75% or so. My friend visiting from the East Coast just rented a Model 3 from Hertz in SoCal, then drove up to visit me in the Bay Area, and had somewhat the opposite experience. Basically, as he was driving north, he kept updating me that his ETA was getting delayed more and more - it seems like the car wouldn't supercharge beyond 50% battery level, and thus had to stop to supercharge a few more times than he'd planned.

Now I'm not sure if it was user error, as it was his first experience with a Tesla, and maybe any EV. When he got to my house in the evening, we immediately plugged him into my home charger to get a few hours of juice while we went out for dinner. But before leaving, I had him check the charge limit setting, and indeed it was set to 50%, so I slid it up to 90% for him. So problem solved - or so it seemed.

Since he wasn't staying at my house, he didn't get a full overnight charge, so a few days later he had to supercharge again locally. I wasn't with him, but again he reported back that the supercharger again stopped at 50%. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to go with him to a supercharger to see whether the slider had again ended up at 50%.

I assume he returned the car a few days later with less than 50% charge. Has anyone else experienced this? I can't see any reason why Hertz would cap supercharging at 50%, as that seriously limits the effective range of the vehicle. 80-90% maybe, for the health of the battery, but not 50%. Nor would I see any way they could cap it, short of having some agreement with Tesla on their specific fleet of vehicles to be treated differently at superchargers...

 

[Smiley416]

Interesting to read about the battery recharge fees from Hertz and Avis for not returning the car with battery >70-75% or so. My friend visiting from the East Coast just rented a Model 3 from Hertz in SoCal, then drove up to visit me in the Bay Area, and had somewhat the opposite experience. Basically, as he was driving north, he kept updating me that his ETA was getting delayed more and more - it seems like the car wouldn't supercharge beyond 50% battery level, and thus had to stop to supercharge a few more times than he'd planned.

Now I'm not sure if it was user error, as it was his first experience with a Tesla, and maybe any EV. When he got to my house in the evening, we immediately plugged him into my home charger to get a few hours of juice while we went out for dinner. But before leaving, I had him check the charge limit setting, and indeed it was set to 50%, so I slid it up to 90% for him. So problem solved - or so it seemed.

Since he wasn't staying at my house, he didn't get a full overnight charge, so a few days later he had to supercharge again locally. I wasn't with him, but again he reported back that the supercharger again stopped at 50%. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to go with him to a supercharger to see whether the slider had again ended up at 50%.

I assume he returned the car a few days later with less than 50% charge. Has anyone else experienced this? I can't see any reason why Hertz would cap supercharging at 50%, as that seriously limits the effective range of the vehicle. 80-90% maybe, for the health of the battery, but not 50%. Nor would I see any way they could cap it, short of having some agreement with Tesla on their specific fleet of vehicles to be treated differently at superchargers...

I don't think so. The Hertz MY I rented let me control the maximum charge as I pleased. I took it up to 100% even though I stopped charging at around 95%.

The agent told me during pickup that I needed to bring it back at 70% or they would charge something ridiculous like $40 USD as a penalty.

 

[Black306]

I don't think so. The Hertz MY I rented let me control the maximum charge as I pleased. I took it up to 100% even though I stopped charging at around 95%.

The agent told me during pickup that I needed to bring it back at 70% or they would charge something ridiculous like $40 USD as a penalty.

Avis is $35 if the SoC is between 10-70%. An additional $35 ($70 total) if the SoC is under 10%.

 

[israndy]

Well then you might as well shoot for bringing it back below 0%

("Why does that car keep circling the airport?")

 

[THEbuz]

Avis is $35 if the SoC is between 10-70%. An additional $35 ($70 total) if the SoC is under 10%.

TESLA needs to have a feature where you can take screenshots and have them automatically sent to your e-mail address on file with your TESLA account. Maybe the screenshot trigger could be when you press both scroll wheels at the same time but only like a simple click of both at the same time. Obviously, a long press of both scroll wheels triggers a hard boot of the vehicle computer.

 

[Black306]

TESLA needs to have a feature where you can take screenshots and have them automatically sent to your e-mail address on file with your TESLA account. Maybe the screenshot trigger could be when you press both scroll wheels at the same time but only like a simple click of both at the same time. Obviously, a long press of both scroll wheels triggers a hard boot of the vehicle computer.

How would that help in a rental? The car wouldn’t be associated with a personal account.

 

[THEbuz]

How would that help in a rental? The car wouldn’t be associated with a personal account.

I suppose it wouldn’t help in a rental—or with TESLA EV’s that are registered with TESLA as rentals, perhaps a pop-up could enable the user to enter his or her e-mail address where the screenshot should be sent. Seriously, though, rental car is the outlier. I think this feature would add value for most TESLA owners.

 

[Y_tho]

TESLA needs to have a feature where you can take screenshots and have them automatically sent to your e-mail address on file with your TESLA account. Maybe the screenshot trigger could be when you press both scroll wheels at the same time but only like a simple click of both at the same time. Obviously, a long press of both scroll wheels triggers a hard boot of the vehicle computer.

I don't understand the use case, or how this helps avoid rental fees. If a person checks you in when you return the car, just have them look at the screen (just like with an ICE car when they check fuel amount). If nobody is there (which is what happened in my case), just take a picture of the screen as backup proof in case of an inadvertent billing.

Also, you're assuming someone renting a Tesla has their own Tesla account. This doesn't work with non-Tesla owners who choose to rent a Tesla.