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

 

[mcsenerd]

My old school boss just rented a Model Y on a recent business trip and the lack of instruction/aid definitely only further ingrained his already negative preconceptions of driving an EV. It's too bad, because it's an excellent opportunity to get non-EV drivers introduced if done correctly...however, this is NOT correct in any manner.

 

[israndy]

What's the issue with lack of instruction? I imagine that if they are renting Teslas and putting a location in as their destination they would be routed to a Supercharger along the way, no? Is that how all EVs work? I mean, my wife's is from 2012 and doesn't even have a display other than the current radio station, but I mean cars you can rent today.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

My old school boss just rented a Model Y on a recent business trip and the lack of instruction/aid definitely only further ingrained his already negative preconceptions of driving an EV. It's too bad, because it's an excellent opportunity to get non-EV drivers introduced if done correctly...however, this is NOT correct in any manner.

This whole subject is a little off topic, but I wanted to chime in that I respectfully disagree. For example, if my wife rented a diesel car she would similarly have no idea how or where to fuel it. In fact, it would probably be more difficult to figure out fueling with diesel on a road trip than charging with a Tesla.

The rental car companies are race-to-the-bottom, low cost commodity providers. And, knowing what one is renting and how to use/fuel it more falls into the realm of personality responsibility (big boy pants) than the rental company's responsibility.

I don't mean this to be rude to you, but your boss probably has issues with a lot of similar things in life (which you probably agree based on your description of him as "old school").

 

[brkaus]

This whole subject is a little off topic, but I wanted to chime in that I respectfully disagree. For example, if my wife rented a diesel car she would similarly have no idea how or where to fuel it. In fact, it would probably be more difficult to figure out fueling with diesel on a road trip than charging with a Tesla.

The rental car companies are race-to-the-bottom, low cost commodity providers. And, knowing what one is renting and how to use/fuel it more falls into the realm of personality responsibility (big boy pants) than the rental company's responsibility.

I don't mean this to be rude to you, but your boss probably has issues with a lot of similar things in life (which you probably agree based on your description of him as "old school").

I might be the world’s biggest idiot then. I have a model s, a model 3, and a leaf.

For my rental I had to dig through the manual to even find the charge port hidden under the grill.

I was in a different state that had different EV networks so my apps didn’t work.

The genesis did not do any route planning, except suggest nearby chargers when I was on the charging screen. Didn’t say anything about speed/type. Looked like 240v and high speed DC were treated same.

I do use plugshare, so I knew how to find a charge station.

Avis didn’t say anything about what charge level I needed to return at or the cost.

I did enjoy the massage seats while charging.

Oh yea, I have a diesel truck. I’ve figured that one out. About 10% of the time I need to continue on to a different station if it doesn’t carry diesel. Am I missing something else with the truck? It only has 140k miles and it’s my second diesel.

 

[israndy]

Don't put gas in a diesel, that can be pretty catastrophic

 

[MY2021f]

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.

I plugged into a level 2 charger at my hotel once, and a family pulled up in some EV, maybe a VW. They plugged in and got out to stretch. They weren't staying at the hotel, they thought they were going to fast charge at 6 kW. There's definitely some need for instruction.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

@brkaus & @MY2021f , I agree more EV awareness and adoption is needed (and will come). I'm only suggesting it's not the rental car company's role. Even if they tried to take it on, they'd probably mess it up. In my opinion, the rental car companies can't even properly handle the customer service of their legacy ICE business.

As a general statement, people should be responsible enough to rent what they are familiar with. Sure, @brkaus knows how to fuel a diesel after doing it over 140k miles of experience. But the average person does not. I have a friend who tried to fill up his rented diesel (Turo) in the semi truck lane at a Loves (it doesn't work). Refueling a diesel is not intuitive to most of the car renting population.

Another example, is that people who prefer small cars and are uncomfortable driving large cars unusually do not rent a Chevy Suburban. No rental car company is going to give the renter extra instruction on how to parallel park a Suburban.

If you think rental car companies should be serving as EV ambassadors, then okay I respect that. I'm just suggesting the alternative that such a view may be unprecedented and unrealistic.

 

[SO16]

If rental companies are going to push an EV on to someone that didn’t request one, they should absolutely inform the renter about the EV.

If a renter does reserve an EV, fortunately videos are sometimes provided ahead of time. But if people are renting last minute, they may not be given this info.

 

[maksimfa]

I might be the world’s biggest idiot then. I have a model s, a model 3, and a leaf.

For my rental I had to dig through the manual to even find the charge port hidden under the grill.

I was in a different state that had different EV networks so my apps didn’t work.

The genesis did not do any route planning, except suggest nearby chargers when I was on the charging screen. Didn’t say anything about speed/type. Looked like 240v and high speed DC were treated same.

I do use plugshare, so I knew how to find a charge station.

Avis didn’t say anything about what charge level I needed to return at or the cost.

I did enjoy the massage seats while charging.

Oh yea, I have a diesel truck. I’ve figured that one out. About 10% of the time I need to continue on to a different station if it doesn’t carry diesel. Am I missing something else with the truck? It only has 140k miles and it’s my second diesel.

I don't know about others but I have rented with Hertz for quite a while.

EVERY TIME I reserved an EV, whether a Polestar or Tesla, I would get an email days ahead, with links to videos of how the Tesla works. Where to charge, how to start it, one pedal driving, etc.

I can totally understand confusion IF someone rented a regular car and then was assigned an EV. In the Hertz Gold Choice in PHL for instance, I regularly see Bolts as an option. I see Polestars 2 as Presidents Circle choices when we rent in EWR and many other airports.

I will say, on my last trip with an EV, I did stop at a supercharger and saw a family with a Model Y who had no clue where the charge port was... I saved them a ton of time. lol. They rented it at an airport location.

 

[brkaus]

@maksimfa Glad to hear Hertz / Tesla are doing a better job!

 

[maksimfa]

@maksimfa Glad to hear Hertz / Tesla are doing a better job!

I will say, over the last year, the experience has gone done though... most of the cars did not have charging cables last time I checked, not even a J1772 plug. Most people just supercharge. Now Hertz made it easier and just says, return it at any percentage and it is just a $35 charge, or $25 for Presidents Circle members. Definitely saves time not looking for a charger before the flight.

I do think that many people get into a car from the "pick any vehicle from this row" as we see with Hertz, National, and not sure on others now, and they sit into Polestar, Bolt, Kia Nero or others which basically look like regular gas cars... and then are surprised.

Renting a Non-Tesla is a pain though as finding level 3 chargers is far more difficult. Renting a Tesla is almost a no brainer...

 

[mcsenerd]

I think in addition to people actively choosing Teslas or other EVs ahead of time, there are also significant numbers who simply walk into the line of cars and see something like a choice between a Kia Soul and a M3 or MY…and just happen to end up in a EV. THOSE are the ones that end up with poor experiences, IMHO.

 

[whitex]

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.

Funny you should say "upgraded". When traveling to San Francisco last year, Model 3 LR was the cheapest rental at Hertz, other than the "mystery car" (i.e. we give you what nobody else wanted that day). I booked it, since that is what I wanted anyways, just found it funny that an Economy ICE was more expensive to rent than a Model 3.

 

[maksimfa]

Funny you should say "upgraded". When traveling to San Francisco last year, Model 3 LR was the cheapest rental at Hertz, other than the "mystery car" (i.e. we give you what nobody else wanted that day). I booked it, since that is what I wanted anyways, just found it funny that an Economy ICE was more expensive to rent than a Model 3.

The Manager's Special at Hertz PHL is a Chevy Bolt. Totally forgot about that. I suppose yeah, people are not prepared for that.

 

[gt2690b]

I will say, over the last year, the experience has gone done though... most of the cars did not have charging cables last time I checked, not even a J1772 plug. Most people just supercharge. Now Hertz made it easier and just says, return it at any percentage and it is just a $35 charge, or $25 for Presidents Circle members. Definitely saves time not looking for a charger before the flight.

I do think that many people get into a car from the "pick any vehicle from this row" as we see with Hertz, National, and not sure on others now, and they sit into Polestar, Bolt, Kia Nero or others which basically look like regular gas cars... and then are surprised.

Renting a Non-Tesla is a pain though as finding level 3 chargers is far more difficult. Renting a Tesla is almost a no brainer...

i will travel with my j1772 plug sometimes and have even traveled with my CCS adapter before if i plan on traveling somewhere off the beaten path.. now that i think about it though are all the hertz teslas CCS capable?

 

[israndy]

All modern cars are (well, CT will need a different adapter)

 

[Jim R]

All modern cars are (well, CT will need a different adapter)

I own a 2021 Tesla Model Y long range. NOT CCS capable. Part to make it capable was supposed to be available "late summer 2023". Still waiting. So "all modern cars..." doesn't include mine.

 

[israndy]

Have you been by Tesla and asked for the ECU? I just waltzed into the local shop and asked and they rang me up for it and handed it to me. The new 3/Ys use the same ECU as detailed in Retrofit CCS compatibility onto earlier (NA) Model 3 - DIY approach

You don't need a bundle of wires, just pull out the older ECU and install the new one

 

[Jim R]

Have you been by Tesla and asked for the ECU? I just waltzed into the local shop and asked and they rang me up for it and handed it to me. The new 3/Ys use the same ECU as detailed in Retrofit CCS compatibility onto earlier (NA) Model 3 - DIY approach

You don't need a bundle of wires, just pull out the older ECU and install the new one

It's not that simple. I need the CCS Combo 1 Adapter Retrofit with Adapter: $615. It's presently available for Model S and Model X, not for my Model Y.

 

[israndy]

Yeah, that's cause it's different for the S/X than it is for the 3/Y. The 2019 3/Y *had* CCS support before the global chip shortage, so Tesla kept making cars by leaving it out of the ECUs they were shipping them with. But the only diff is the CCS software, popping the one with the software in will add that functionality to your car. If you need an adapter you can then buy one from their store, you don't need service nor a kit...

The hardest part is getting the interior fabric out of the way enough to swap the ECUs