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Just reserved a M3 from Hertz
- Thread starter Zacster
- Start date
So here is my experience now that I'm back in NYC. First off, Hertz didn't have my name on the Gold Member board so I had to go to the desk. At least with almost everybody now a Gold Member there was no line and they took care of it all there, rather than having to do it on exit from the lot in the car. The car itself was a blue SR+ with about 300 miles on it, and was charged to 90%. I adjusted the seats, created a profile for myself and we drove off. What impressed me was how many Teslas are out on the road in LA.
I ended up using 2 superchargers while I was there, one at Santa Monica Blvd and 15th St, not the one by the 3rd St promenade that was right by my hotel, and the other in Grenada Hills. The one in Pasadena near my other hotel was in an indoor garage, as was the one by the 3rd St Promenade. Even though the one I use in Brooklyn on occasion is in an indoor garage I just find it more trouble than it's worth to use them. I was able to pull up and charge at the 2 I used but by the time I was leaving there was a line of cars waiting. Both were also much faster charging than the ones I've used in NY. I wouldn't be happy if I had to wait in line to get to a charger, that just adds that much more to the stress of the day.
I tried to set up my phone as a key but I couldn't. I had to use the key card to lock/unlock. I also tried to set up my phone for remote access and it wouldn't do that either because the car isn't on my account. I was otherwise able to set up anything I wanted. I was going to try to login to Tidal but at that point I just wanted to get going and it wasn't important. The one thing I couldn't remember how to set up was the side view camera on reverse. It isn't in the setting AFAIK but you just swipe up when in reverse. So many things are set and forget that I forgot. Things like parking chimes, warning levels, you just never touch again.
The funny thing is the car had a software release with the old interface, but the next day when I took it out a software update brought it to 2021.44.xx and then the next day 2022.4.5.
I ended up using 2 superchargers while I was there, one at Santa Monica Blvd and 15th St, not the one by the 3rd St promenade that was right by my hotel, and the other in Grenada Hills. The one in Pasadena near my other hotel was in an indoor garage, as was the one by the 3rd St Promenade. Even though the one I use in Brooklyn on occasion is in an indoor garage I just find it more trouble than it's worth to use them. I was able to pull up and charge at the 2 I used but by the time I was leaving there was a line of cars waiting. Both were also much faster charging than the ones I've used in NY. I wouldn't be happy if I had to wait in line to get to a charger, that just adds that much more to the stress of the day.
I tried to set up my phone as a key but I couldn't. I had to use the key card to lock/unlock. I also tried to set up my phone for remote access and it wouldn't do that either because the car isn't on my account. I was otherwise able to set up anything I wanted. I was going to try to login to Tidal but at that point I just wanted to get going and it wasn't important. The one thing I couldn't remember how to set up was the side view camera on reverse. It isn't in the setting AFAIK but you just swipe up when in reverse. So many things are set and forget that I forgot. Things like parking chimes, warning levels, you just never touch again.
The funny thing is the car had a software release with the old interface, but the next day when I took it out a software update brought it to 2021.44.xx and then the next day 2022.4.5.
Mattopotamus
Member
I'm sure you will be able to login under any app with your information. It is probably like doing a test drive on the model 3. You will have to use the key card.
I trave a lot for work...106 days last year with Marriott and 20 or so with Hilton so I rent a lot. I would never rent a Tesla...work is paying for the rental and I want the convenience of gas and go. NOW if I was paying well...
Looking forward to your update...
Looking forward to your update...
It sure is a PIA. I was in Santa Monica, had to go to Chatsworth 3 times, then was in Pasadena. And of course LAX. It is just a long way to anywhere you go and is a lot bigger than it looks on the map. We did the drive from Santa Monica to Brentwood to Beverly Hills to Hollywood and then Griffith Park just as a driving tour and I was exhausted. And then on to Chatsworth... We would never do that kind of trip in New York and even taking in the tourist spots they wouldn't be that far apart. I found that all of the places we were are within a block or two of a Metro station but it would never occur to me to use it even though my first thought in NYC is to take the subway.
m a x i m u s
Member
Haha, well to be fair this is like going from Manhattan to the very eastern tip of LI or something. I think comparing moving around Manhattan to moving around Santa Monica is a more apples to apples type distance comparison. Of course the cause of the PITA problem is people live all over the place in SoCal, so it’s off to the freeways we go!
boriszima
Member
Agree on this for sure!
While LA is spread far apart, it is likely a city/county with most Tesla Chargers as absolute number of any major US City, I think there was an article by Electrek sometime ago about it. Anyways, it is nice to see some good experience with getting EV from rental places.
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
Yeah, I still remember getting stuck in traffic from Disney to downtown, where I was staying, that took me 4 hours. Not as bad as getting stuck on the beltway overnight in a snow storm, but I was going insane. Its normally such a short drive.
Steadicam eh? Are those still only for beefy young guys or can you drive one of those into your golden years?
I don't know about that. In LA I can just point my car at the destination and let it do the thinking. Stop and go traffic is almost completely alleviated by AutoPilot for me.
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israndy
Supercharger Hunter
I really thought that new software feature where you can add a car to someone's Tesla account so they can have control of it would be for Hertz to use, perhaps they haven't got it figured out just yet, or perhaps you have to express that you ALREADY have a Tesla for them to let you use your phone as a key for their cars. Perhaps that's how they are going to do the charging for charging, have you make a Tesla account and assign it to their car for the duration of the rental.
Hopefully someone will rent one next month and report so we can find out. If I had known about the free charging I'da rented one on the East Coast, but there isn't a week left in the month
Hopefully someone will rent one next month and report so we can find out. If I had known about the free charging I'da rented one on the East Coast, but there isn't a week left in the month
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I'd be surprised if you could find one here. I don't think Hertz has it all figured out yet themselves. It wasn't that big a deal to use the key card and since the weather was pleasant enough I didn't need to preheat the car remotely like I do here where it is either too hot or too cold.
dgpcolorado
high altitude member
I've been wondering how paying for Supercharging will work as well. My guess is that the cost will go to Hertz and they will add it to the renter's bill. Allowing those of us with Tesla accounts to log-in could be a nightmare if we didn't get logged out! And what about customers who don't have Tesla accounts?
I'm pretty sure it would just be a chargeback to your Hertz bill the same way they charge you for gas if you don't fill up. Since there is no interaction at the return to settle the bill they can easily add it to the final charge if they wait a bit for the update.
israndy
Supercharger Hunter
I was referring to having Hertz log you into their cars as an additional user and then revoking your access when the rental is over:
You don't need a Tesla to have a Tesla account, but they can always just hand you the keycard if you don't wanna use your phone
They don't want to be bothered. They have all of these people that handle the car and I'm sure they don't want to train them all, or look for the key. They tell everybody to leave the key in the car and that's what I did.
I rented a model 3 standard range from Atlanta airport Friday night, returned last night. First time driving a Tesla.
First off it cost about $200 ($125 base price $20 airport fee $40 insurance $15 taxes)
Hertz was super cool, demonstrated all of the features to us, answered all questions we had never driven a Tesla before so we very much appreciated that. The rental process was quick and easy and there were a ton of Teslas available 5 stars for Hertz.
As for the actual Tesla itself it took about 5 minutes to get used to the one pedal driving mostly and after that it was pretty intuitive. Very comfortable really liked the visualization screen which showed the road and cars around us. Charging was super easy, (went to two super chargers) and was extremely cheap. I think the first time we went from like 53% to 90% and it cost like $2.75. Second time we went from 35% to 80% and it cost like $7 don’t quite understand the variation in rates but either way extremely cheap.
Only complaint is we got some atrocious range it stated 260 miles and we probably weren’t even getting 160 miles on a full charge. I’m assuming it was because of the relativiely cold temperatures (mid to high thirties)
Anyhow all that to say it was a good time
First off it cost about $200 ($125 base price $20 airport fee $40 insurance $15 taxes)
Hertz was super cool, demonstrated all of the features to us, answered all questions we had never driven a Tesla before so we very much appreciated that. The rental process was quick and easy and there were a ton of Teslas available 5 stars for Hertz.
As for the actual Tesla itself it took about 5 minutes to get used to the one pedal driving mostly and after that it was pretty intuitive. Very comfortable really liked the visualization screen which showed the road and cars around us. Charging was super easy, (went to two super chargers) and was extremely cheap. I think the first time we went from like 53% to 90% and it cost like $2.75. Second time we went from 35% to 80% and it cost like $7 don’t quite understand the variation in rates but either way extremely cheap.
Only complaint is we got some atrocious range it stated 260 miles and we probably weren’t even getting 160 miles on a full charge. I’m assuming it was because of the relativiely cold temperatures (mid to high thirties)
Anyhow all that to say it was a good time
Oh yeah and on the way back we were playing around in the settings and put the car into valet mode not knowing that it was basically a self destruct button that you can’t undo. So for the rest of the trip we couldn’t use navigation or go over 70mph which wasn’t a big deal because I rarely drive faster than that anyways but the no navigation was annoying. Not sure why that feature exists haha
If you learn to drive your car smoothly range evens out. I would guess that as a new Tesla driver you had a little fun with it and that really eats range.
Mrbrock
Active Member
Saw 50-100 at Hertz flying into SeaTac yesterday but interestingly you can’t rent one from there.
Must be perspective of where you are from... I used to live in LA... When you wrote this, I was like, "Dude, those places are all pretty close to West Hollywood, lol"
