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Questions for anyone that has rented a Model S from enterprise…

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Making a trip to Los Angeles (mainly Disneyland and Universal Studios) and need to rent a car to get back and forth between the two a couple times. My go-to had been Silvercar because I always want a decently powerful car for freeway merging/driving and I wanted to ensure I got a vehicle with built in navigation. Well now that I’ve owned a Tesla for two years (Model 3 and then upgraded to a Y) and Silvercar has made things more difficult (no longer renting/picking up at airports but instead dealerships with much more limited hours) I’m thinking of trying to go with a Tesla.

Surprisingly, the Disney Paradise Pier hotel’s onsite Enterprise location has their “luxury electric” category there! (Tesla Model S or similar… possibly an iPace? I’ll call to confirm they have Model S at this location.)

How does charging work? Do I have access to superchargers and do I just pay when I return the car, or is it included in the cost of the rental?

What about J1772 adapter, is that usually included with the vehicle?

How “full” is the vehicle usually when you get it? How full do you need to return it. (
If I can’t use hotel chargers, either at Disney or the Universal Hilton, it’ll suck if I have to return the vehicle at ~100% and use a supercharger for that. I don’t mind the time to swing by and charge it to 80%, but I really don’t want to sit there for 30+ minutes just to go from 80-100%, especially when I’m only driving about 80 miles total)

Is there any app integration now? Is there any way Enterprise gives you guest access or anything, and if you already own a Tesla, will that mess up the app by linking a rental?

This is still a bit more expensive for me to rent a Tesla instead of Silvercar, but honestly at this point I would feel more comfortable being in electric and I know the navigation is really pretty good and easy to quickly add in a location/read. (I do NOT want to be trying to learn how to enter an address into the Nav while driving because I picked the car up from valet and felt rushed out of a garage because a line of other cars, etc.)

The Silvercar is wildly cheaper per day, but because of the location I would be renting it for ~8 days (of which most that time it’s sitting in the parking lot and I’m paying parking fees.) Since the Tesla could be rented from the hotel I’m staying at the first night, and then the rest of the trip I’m literally across the parking lot in the Disneyland Hotel, I can do a one night rental, return the car, and rent it later in the week again for a two night rental. It’s still about $300 more, but that’s into the range of “sure, why not, at least I’ll be in a Model S!”

Also, does CA allow Tesla’s to be in the carpool lane still? Think the Enterprise rental would have access?
 
Sounds like too much work. With your rental strategy, rent a cheapo and keep the $300 for the parks. You'll need it for lunch.
I don’t like the “mystery game” of what rental car I’m going to get. I absolutely don’t want to be messing with my phone and looking at it constantly for navigation and I absolutely don’t want to deal with some window/dash navigation add on device that rental companies offer you.

Silvercar had been my “go to” because I knew I had a vehicle with decent pickup and go for crazy LA traffic and merging onto freeways, I knew it had built in navigation (even though the Audi system is… not the best), and XM Radio was just a bonus. However, Silvercar’s pickup/drop off process has got seriously convoluted and annoying. I actually think renting from the hotel I’m staying at (or within a couple hundred feet across a parking lot with walkways for people and stuff) will be easier on the pickup/drop off… just don’t know about the charging and stuff.

I literally need to drive from Disneyland to Universal studios Saturday (flying into SNA late Friday night and staying at the Paradise Pier Hotel) and back to Disney on Sunday.

I’m at Disney from ~11am Sunday till Thursday evening. Time the car would just be sitting unmoved in the parking lot while I pay ~$30/night to park it.

Drive back to Universal Thursday afternoon (swinging by Knott’s for their Scary Farm Halloween event on the way) and staying till Saturday morning when I drive back to Disneyland.

Four drives, a total of 150 miles (four ~38 mile segments). I honestly think hotel charging likely will cover me fine… unless it’s blocked, fully in use, or broken at the Universal Hilton. If I can charge to 100% overnight, even on a 75D that would likely mean returning the car with between 80% and 85% battery without any public charging…. Just would like some first hand experience from anyone…
 
Back when I did this with the family, the trick was as few moving parts and hassles as possible. Since your car will be for occasional use, consider roughing it without all the comforts you've decided you "need". Buy a $10 phone holder and you can use the phone nav, ditch the XM for a 40 mile drive, and still have $290 for lunch and a Rebel Alliance sticker. You remember how to drive an ICE vehicle, right? Pick one online, park the thing at the hotel, and enjoy your family.
 
Yeah I’ve been a big Silvercar fan but it’s no longer as convenient as it used to be.

Take a look at Turo - I’d never rent my car through it, but as a renter it can be great.
I’ve debated Turo, but after reading two different listings for Model 3/Y that had mostly positive overall results and seeing a comment auto-posted by Turo that a recent reservation had been canceled by the host with LESS than 24 hours notice… I’m not entirely sure I want to rely on that…
 
Making a trip to Los Angeles (mainly Disneyland and Universal Studios) and need to rent a car to get back and forth between the two a couple times. My go-to had been Silvercar because I always want a decently powerful car for freeway merging/driving and I wanted to ensure I got a vehicle with built in navigation. Well now that I’ve owned a Tesla for two years (Model 3 and then upgraded to a Y) and Silvercar has made things more difficult (no longer renting/picking up at airports but instead dealerships with much more limited hours) I’m thinking of trying to go with a Tesla.

Surprisingly, the Disney Paradise Pier hotel’s onsite Enterprise location has their “luxury electric” category there! (Tesla Model S or similar… possibly an iPace? I’ll call to confirm they have Model S at this location.)

How does charging work? Do I have access to superchargers and do I just pay when I return the car, or is it included in the cost of the rental?

What about J1772 adapter, is that usually included with the vehicle?

How “full” is the vehicle usually when you get it? How full do you need to return it. (
If I can’t use hotel chargers, either at Disney or the Universal Hilton, it’ll suck if I have to return the vehicle at ~100% and use a supercharger for that. I don’t mind the time to swing by and charge it to 80%, but I really don’t want to sit there for 30+ minutes just to go from 80-100%, especially when I’m only driving about 80 miles total)

Is there any app integration now? Is there any way Enterprise gives you guest access or anything, and if you already own a Tesla, will that mess up the app by linking a rental?

This is still a bit more expensive for me to rent a Tesla instead of Silvercar, but honestly at this point I would feel more comfortable being in electric and I know the navigation is really pretty good and easy to quickly add in a location/read. (I do NOT want to be trying to learn how to enter an address into the Nav while driving because I picked the car up from valet and felt rushed out of a garage because a line of other cars, etc.)

The Silvercar is wildly cheaper per day, but because of the location I would be renting it for ~8 days (of which most that time it’s sitting in the parking lot and I’m paying parking fees.) Since the Tesla could be rented from the hotel I’m staying at the first night, and then the rest of the trip I’m literally across the parking lot in the Disneyland Hotel, I can do a one night rental, return the car, and rent it later in the week again for a two night rental. It’s still about $300 more, but that’s into the range of “sure, why not, at least I’ll be in a Model S!”

Also, does CA allow Tesla’s to be in the carpool lane still? Think the Enterprise rental would have access?
The Tesla service center in Cathedral City (Palm Springs) gave me an Enterprise Model S while my Model Y was being worked on. It was a POS. Only three years old with relatively low mileage, but after driving my new Y the technology seemed ancient. I happen to live 500 miles from Palm Springs and so I was forced to make a 1,000 mile round trip to pick up my Y a week later. I had to stop about 5 times to supercharge each direction because the battery was so degraded (or because Tesla throttled the charging speed/capacity). At least the charging was free. I would suggest bringing your on J1772 adapter because this rental car didn't have one. It was also filthy. It was waiting for me on the lot at the Cathedral City service center and obviously had not been cleaned recently... dog hair, food scraps, wrappers and a discarded mask. This was obviously a "loaner" run through Enterprise. Hopefully renting a Tesla directly through Enterprise will offer a more pleasant experience. Also: you can only legally drive in an HOV lane with decals on your car. The loaner Model S had scars from previous, presumably expired, HOV stickers. I wouldn't expect to find stickers on your rental– but I'd say your risk of being pulled over for being in the HOV lane with a Tesla is almost nil. Plus, it's only a fine (about $500) and NOT a moving violation. Might be worth the risk.
 
Whenever I go to service (So-Cal) I am given a rental from enterprise, I guess tesla has a contract with them or something. I've never gone to a rental place and said i want a tesla for a rental car, because i never rent cars. But its still a rental and i still have to do all the stupid rental paperwork.

Supercharging is free, there is NO charge cable and NO J-1772 adapter, usually take delivery around 40-50% SoC. i have been given 75D, 100D and a couple 90D's. I have a P85D and even the 75D gets better range so i was never concerned with range but I've never been concerned with range on my car either and I've put about 122k miles on my car.

There is no premium connectivity so you're options are BT from your phone or use the FM radio if you know local stations ( i never do so i scan forever to find some rock)

Also there is no AP regardless of what level AP the car has installed you only get cruise control and its not adaptive cruise control either meaning if you set it to 90 mph it will keep going at 90 and not slow down for anything basically how most ICE cars were until a few years back.

No issues with navigation or anything however, since there is no premium connectivity you don't get the traffic rerouting so if you're gonna be in the *sugar* of LA prob best to look at google nav on the phone and compare to the car nav.

The car is always clean at least on the inside, a couple times the outside could use a wash but IDGAF about that and the inside was freshly vacuumed and cleaned always.
 
I’ve debated Turo, but after reading two different listings for Model 3/Y that had mostly positive overall results and seeing a comment auto-posted by Turo that a recent reservation had been canceled by the host with LESS than 24 hours notice… I’m not entirely sure I want to rely on that…
On the other hand, Enterprise probably has a limited number of Teslas in its fleet so there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get one.

I rented a Model 3 via Turo a few months ago and it worked out well. The owner gave my account access via the app, which I’m not sure the rental chains would do (but I don’t know). I had previously made an ICE car reservation with Enterprise, which I didn’t cancel until the day before the rental period just in case something happened to the Model 3.
 
The Tesla service center in Cathedral City (Palm Springs) gave me an Enterprise Model S while my Model Y was being worked on. It was a POS. Only three years old with relatively low mileage, but after driving my new Y the technology seemed ancient. I happen to live 500 miles from Palm Springs and so I was forced to make a 1,000 mile round trip to pick up my Y a week later. I had to stop about 5 times to supercharge each direction because the battery was so degraded (or because Tesla throttled the charging speed/capacity). At least the charging was free. I would suggest bringing your on J1772 adapter because this rental car didn't have one. It was also filthy. It was waiting for me on the lot at the Cathedral City service center and obviously had not been cleaned recently... dog hair, food scraps, wrappers and a discarded mask. This was obviously a "loaner" run through Enterprise. Hopefully renting a Tesla directly through Enterprise will offer a more pleasant experience. Also: you can only legally drive in an HOV lane with decals on your car. The loaner Model S had scars from previous, presumably expired, HOV stickers. I wouldn't expect to find stickers on your rental– but I'd say your risk of being pulled over for being in the HOV lane with a Tesla is almost nil. Plus, it's only a fine (about $500) and NOT a moving violation. Might be worth the risk.

I love your thinking on this! Time is money! LOL

I'm leaning more and more to just sticking with Silvercar and their convoluted rental pickup/drop off. They're a known variable for me (other than the new locations and drop off/pickup of vehicles) and the car is the right size, accommodating with the technology I want to best navigate through LA when rushed, and a bonus that the price is a bit cheaper (thanks Sapphire Reserve card)...

I really wish places like Enterprise were better with electric vehicles and posted the details of how it works when renting with them.... or honestly, I wish we had a Silvercar type company pop up that just rented Tesla vehicles now that 3/Y are "easier" to get. Hopefully in a couple years we'll see a copy of the Silvercar Model with Tesla vehicles. I would so love a proper startup to show up in the market renting Long Range Model 3/Y for ~$100 a day (less is better, probably could go a smidge higher and still get good take rate with customers), allow guest access to the app for customers, and track supercharging activity and just add it to the end of your bill. Come out with a slick app like Silvercar did and place themselves kinda near airports but off the property. Honestly as much as I hate LAX compared to SNA, I would fly into LAX if I could grab a Model 3 for a week for ~$700 or something and be able to have access to the Tesla via the app and a predictable reservation process that spells out vehicles will be charged to ~80% when delivered and supercharging is included and J1772's are included in the rental.

If anyone has some startup cash, this will be the future. I suspect any Tesla owner would jump at making use of a rental like that, probably a lot of people on the fence would to just try it out for a few days on a local rental, and any companies trying to be "green" and offset might encourage their business rentals to instead be electric. It worked for Silvercar.... (for those not aware, they were not always owned/operated by Audi. They started off independant with a partnership with Audi to source the cars and then some initial investment rounds by Audi after Silvercar saw some fast growth and finally bought by Audi when it looked like a great alternative to the normal rental car counter. I doubt Tesla would buy a rental startup, but in a world quickly moving green, I wouldn't be surprised if an existing rental company would purchase a startup in three or four years that was 100% green rentals and likely had a large market share of likely more affluent and younger business and leisure renters.)
 
Whenever I go to service (So-Cal) I am given a rental from enterprise, I guess tesla has a contract with them or something. I've never gone to a rental place and said i want a tesla for a rental car, because i never rent cars. But its still a rental and i still have to do all the stupid rental paperwork.

Supercharging is free, there is NO charge cable and NO J-1772 adapter, usually take delivery around 40-50% SoC. i have been given 75D, 100D and a couple 90D's. I have a P85D and even the 75D gets better range so i was never concerned with range but I've never been concerned with range on my car either and I've put about 122k miles on my car.

There is no premium connectivity so you're options are BT from your phone or use the FM radio if you know local stations ( i never do so i scan forever to find some rock)

Also there is no AP regardless of what level AP the car has installed you only get cruise control and its not adaptive cruise control either meaning if you set it to 90 mph it will keep going at 90 and not slow down for anything basically how most ICE cars were until a few years back.

No issues with navigation or anything however, since there is no premium connectivity you don't get the traffic rerouting so if you're gonna be in the *sugar* of LA prob best to look at google nav on the phone and compare to the car nav.

The car is always clean at least on the inside, a couple times the outside could use a wash but IDGAF about that and the inside was freshly vacuumed and cleaned always.
Ugh, for ~$350/day and no premium connectivity or charge cables that's probably going to be a hard pass from me. Thank you for the input!


For the other comment on the availability of the Model S, that was another slight worry on my part. I was going to try and call the location and see what they typically rented when people reserved at that level... I doubt they have that vehicle sitting at this location all the time but was hoping they could give an indication how likely the Model S would be... I do NOT want to deal with an iPace and the questionable charging, lol

Audi likely has me again. I'm pretty sure I remember how to drive ICE... though I'm sure all the vibrations will make me think something is wrong all the time ;)