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

 

[greatauror28]

TIL that QR code printed in the keycard case is what syncs your profile to the rental vehicle!
I wished I knew this three weeks ago when I had a Hertz rental MYLR for 11 days!

I have the same experience everyone here had - using the keycard sucks big time! Good thing the Tesla was parked in a closed garaged at home as I've left it unlocked more times that I could count. Also, no preconditioning is a major bummer as recently it's been way too hot here in Edmonton. I was also told to return it with the same SoC when I got it (95%).

My rental was a 2022 MYLR with CCS enabled but I didn't get the chance to use it as I main used SCs. The car wasn't as clean as I'd like it to be and the differences of it VS my P was very noticeable.

Overall an okay experience - way better than being given an ICE vehicle. The rental was left in the bodyshop where I got my MYP fixed and the lady told me Hertz will pick it up from there which was convenient as it is another 10 minute drive from there.

 

[Hali08]

TIL that QR code printed in the keycard case is what syncs your profile to the rental vehicle!
I wished I knew this three weeks ago when I had a Hertz rental MYLR for 11 days!

I have the same experience everyone here had - using the keycard sucks big time! Good thing the Tesla was parked in a closed garaged at home as I've left it unlocked more times that I could count. Also, no preconditioning is a major bummer as recently it's been way too hot here in Edmonton. I was also told to return it with the same SoC when I got it (95%).

My rental was a 2022 MYLR with CCS enabled but I didn't get the chance to use it as I main used SCs. The car wasn't as clean as I'd like it to be and the differences of it VS my P was very noticeable.

Overall an okay experience - way better than being given an ICE vehicle. The rental was left in the bodyshop where I got my MYP fixed and the lady told me Hertz will pick it up from there which was convenient as it is another 10 minute drive from there.

Wow.. thats good to know. Ive rented with Hertz several times and hated the keycard experience.

 

[randompixel]

Cross-posting a review of renting a MYLR from Hertz

 

[MacO512]

Rented a M3RWD from Hertz back in February for 2-3 months. It sucks they only give you one physical key in an awkward thick plastic case and no app access. App is super critical for a Tesla so its a major pain not having that access.

The Hertz employees act like any Tesla is a 90k vehicle as well, were very difficult in trying to get a reasonable price to rent it that insurance would cover. This was the cheapest M3 Tesla sells and not as big as our MY that I feel insurance should have covered. Still required over a week of haggling with insurance and Hertz to cover.

Tesla profile doesn't allow moving your settings as Musk or someone tweeted would be able to do eventually.

Also had a small hit and run accident and Hertz wouldn't give me access to view the recording or open the glove box for the USB stick. Was on the phone for hours and in person for hours to try and get this the day after the accident. Eventually the file got trashed by the Tesla and lost without being able to zoom in of the license plate of the vehicle. I have a low res cell phone copy but if I could have got the actual file may have got the license plate. They required an attorney written demand or a police order to give me glovebox access. Police don't respond in Austin unless your calling 911 and at that point it wasn't worth me getting an attorney as the file was probably automatically deleted; costs were covered by insurance outside my deductible.

I now know with all 3/Y that you can just pop off the side panel by the glovebox and manually open a locked glovebox. Takes 20 seconds if you know how to do it.

Overall I'd grade it a D- for the rental experience. I won't rent any EV again, strongly suggest sticking to a gas vehicle. If you are able to later get app access as well as certain super charging payments are setup that would greatly improve the experience. Other reason to rent would be if you are considering buying the vehicle and just want a longer "test drive". Otherwise if you have the restrictions I had; I'd strongly recommend avoiding renting Tesla's or EV's.

 

[EL CapiTRAN]

Rented a M3RWD from Hertz back in February for 2-3 months. It sucks they only give you one physical key in an awkward thick plastic case and no app access. App is super critical for a Tesla so its a major pain not having that access.

The Hertz employees act like any Tesla is a 90k vehicle as well, were very difficult in trying to get a reasonable price to rent it that insurance would cover. This was the cheapest M3 Tesla sells and not as big as our MY that I feel insurance should have covered. Still required over a week of haggling with insurance and Hertz to cover.

Tesla profile doesn't allow moving your settings as Musk or someone tweeted would be able to do eventually.

Also had a small hit and run accident and Hertz wouldn't give me access to view the recording or open the glove box for the USB stick. Was on the phone for hours and in person for hours to try and get this the day after the accident. Eventually the file got trashed by the Tesla and lost without being able to zoom in of the license plate of the vehicle. I have a low res cell phone copy but if I could have got the actual file may have got the license plate. They required an attorney written demand or a police order to give me glovebox access. Police don't respond in Austin unless your calling 911 and at that point it wasn't worth me getting an attorney as the file was probably automatically deleted; costs were covered by insurance outside my deductible.

I now know with all 3/Y that you can just pop off the side panel by the glovebox and manually open a locked glovebox. Takes 20 seconds if you know how to do it.

Overall I'd grade it a D- for the rental experience. I won't rent any EV again, strongly suggest sticking to a gas vehicle. If you are able to later get app access as well as certain super charging payments are setup that would greatly improve the experience. Other reason to rent would be if you are considering buying the vehicle and just want a longer "test drive". Otherwise if you have the restrictions I had; I'd strongly recommend avoiding renting Tesla's or EV's.

My first tesla rental with hertz didn't have app access but I did pop the card out the case and just put it in my phone case so I just had to tap my phone to the door and to the console w/o having to deal with that fat plastic case. Now it seems app access is becoming more available as long as the cars have had their software updated. I have a trip coming up this month, next month and the month after so I'm hoping the app access goes smoothly.

 

[Zcd1]

I’ve been renting Teslas on Turo for a while. The host I’ve mostly been renting from gives me app access, which definitely improves the experience overall.

 

[Chewy13]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1703876067142824237

Hot off the presses.

 

[israndy]

Schweet!

 

[MacO512]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1703876067142824237

Hot off the presses.

Good for them, this felt nearly unusable without app access when I had one a few months earlier this year.

 

[gt2690b]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1703876067142824237

Hot off the presses.

How do I do this I'm in a Tesla rental now?

Is it going to connect my driving to my insurance score? If so I probably won't do it lol

Also does it matter if my home car is a Y and my rental is a 3?

 

[israndy]

Should be just like if you owned both a 3 and a Y at home and you connected to your cloud profile (your email address) on both.

If you didn't get the QR code from them when you rented it you probably won't have that feature on your rental. You just scan the code with your phone and the phone becomes your key until you return the car.

 

[gt2690b]

Should be just like if you owned both a 3 and a Y at home and you connected to your cloud profile (your email address) on both.

If you didn't get the QR code from them when you rented it you probably won't have that feature on your rental. You just scan the code with your phone and the phone becomes your key until you return the car.

the car i rented had not been updated in like 3 months.. i applied the latest software update (made a wifi hotspot fot it).. then installed.. then i had to delete all the profiles and "get in" the car one more time and the QR code showed up!

using the phone as key now huge win i was always worried the charger cutting off at the hotel and id be screwed in the morning

 

[kpanda17]

the car i rented had not been updated in like 3 months.. i applied the latest software update (made a wifi hotspot fot it).. then installed.. then i had to delete all the profiles and "get in" the car one more time and the QR code showed up!

using the phone as key now huge win i was always worried the charger cutting off at the hotel and id be screwed in the morning

Hertz should be doing all of the work you did
The average person wouldn’t and couldn’t take those steps
Come on Hertz step it up

 

[Mr. Nuke]

Any recent experiences from Budget/Avis? I think I've probably got a model 3 through budget next month out of SFO.

 

[Mr. Nuke]

Any recent experiences from Budget/Avis? I think I've probably got a model 3 through budget next month out of SFO.

Just to update this. I did get a 2022 build M3 LR with roughly 18,000 miles on it. It was listed as a 2/2022 build on the door frame, but I'm assuming it was less than a year old on delivery as the car had premium connectivity. The car had a mobile connector in the trunk. Not having app access was a little frustrating at the time, but overall it was a great experience. I got some free charging in at various wineries in Napa as well.

 

[kpanda17]

Just rented M3 from hertz
Went perfect
We scanned a QR and the vehicle automatically got added to my app
It worked for me
The Hertz people had no clue

 

[avs007]

Where was the QR? Just curious... I have a reservation next month...

 

[kpanda17]

Where was the QR? Just curious... I have a reservation next month...

Think on a card hertz gives you with the rental
Btw, we turned on the M3 to hertz
Way, way better rental experience enterprise
I’ll never use enterprise again

As for the returned battery state, this branch of Hertz stated they just want the same percentage we left with

Overall. perfect experience

 

[gt2690b]

Where was the QR? Just curious... I have a reservation next month...

See my post above.. it's on the main screen as soon as you get in if it's setup right

 

[brkaus]

Just rented an EV through Avis. Didn't pick it on my reservation, but they upgraded me to it free. Had a Genesis ev80. Very surprised by the lack of instruction on charging.

Had no problems as an experienced EV user (actually enjoyed it), but it seems like it's setting people out to get in trouble.