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Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

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Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#461

Post by tempestn »

mulmen wrote: post #438
tempestn wrote: post #414

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do tend to agree that a lot of peculiarities of Teslas are unnecessary and/or bad, but for what it's worth most of the ones you listed are less of an issue for a vehicle that you own. Unlocking with the phone is convenient, you tie seat memory to the user, and you learn the button functions. (Some aspects are still definitely stupid, like the intermittent wiper function, the auto high beams, and autopilot on anythi…

Yeah but the Tesla implementations of these features still suck. "You get used to it" is a shitty sales pitch. Basically any other car with these features has a better implementation. Tesla does it different but not better . It isn't a matter of familiarity, these designs are just bad . My 15 year old BMW: Has seat memory tied to the key. I don't have to fiddle with a menu to save the setting. It just... remembers. H…

Oy, I wouldn't hold up a 2008 BMW as a paragon of usability. That early iDrive system was awful. Three different ways to differently manage climate temperature? Navigation straight out of the Macbook Wheel[1]? I could go on. The auto wipers were definitely better than the Tesla though.

I do largely agree with you re the Tesla, although the steering wheel controls I could argue both sides. They're multi-function, which allows you to customize their operation and do a lot more than you can with dedicated controls.

Edit: though I guess it's 2024 now. IIRC the 2009s had slightly less bad idrive.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#462

Post by nordsieck »

mbreese wrote: post #460
dcchambers wrote: post #453

Im bullish on EVs but I feel like rental cars are one of the worst places for the current generation of EVs. EVs are best for the types of driving we do on a day-to-day basis. Short commutes in areas we know well. Charge at home over night and 95% of the year you never worry about charging. Renting a car means I'm usually either driving long distances or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infr…

> or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infrastructure. When I’m traveling for work and need a car, it’s usually for smaller quick trips where I wouldn’t even need to refill a tank of gas. For these types of trips, a single charge on an EV makes sense. But otherwise, I agree with you. EV rental doesn’t make much sense to me for long trips or vacation travel where you’ll be driving a lot in a p…

> When I’m traveling for work and need a car, it’s usually for smaller quick trips where I wouldn’t even need to refill a tank of gas. For these types of trips, a single charge on an EV makes sense.

That might make sense a lot of the time. But there's plenty of exceptions - for example winter time in cold climates can transform a single charge rental into several charges needed. Even with just a few short trips taken.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#463

Post by davelondon »

I'm considering renting a Model Y from Hertz in Calgary for three months, but their pricing model is a complete mess:

23/01 -> 30/04 C$10,952.88 (C$111.76 / day)

... but pick it up a day earlier and it's C$4,000 cheaper:

22/01 -> 30/04 C$6,777.00 (C$68.45 / day)

Also:

13/01 -> 15/02 C$1,747.00 (C$52.94/day)

... but split it into two rentals and it's C$400 cheaper:

13/01 -> 01/02 C$727.00

01/02 -> 15/02 C$619.00

Total: C$1,346.00 (C$40.79/day)

Nothing makes sense.

Also, I need winter tyres. That'll be C$25/day extra... No discount for monthly rental. Doesn't make sense. I'm here with my money Hertz, but there's no way I'd deal with such a cluster-fuck.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#464

Post by phinnaeus »

squokko wrote: post #440
phinnaeus wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ooof. I own a Model 3 and was really looking forward to my Polestar 2 rental in NZ over the holidays. It felt like a massive downgrade in pretty much every way to me. The biggest thing was the responsiveness, it was on par with a standard ICE vehicle in terms of how sluggish it was. I was incredibly disappointed given that I would love to look elsewhere (from Tesla) for my next vehicle.

Not everyone wants Lamborghini acceleration. I find that riding in a Tesla makes me ill because of how fast it's always lurching forward.

Okay, you're welcome to buy a golf cart or something. You're also welcome to drive a Tesla and turn the driving mode to "chill" or "comfort". In a Polestar you don't have a choice -- their "sport" mode just turns off traction control. An electric car being incapable of responsive driving is objectively bad.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#465

Post by Ichthypresbyter »

pxx wrote: post #338
lend000 wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly recommend Turo. I tried it recently after a similarly terrible experience with Hertz. Never going to turn back to traditional car rental companies -- it's so much easier, saves you significant time, and is (sometimes) cheaper.

I have never seen Turo be anywhere close to competitive. Are you comparing to rack rates or something? I'll take unlimited mileage and the lack of weird car rules any day, also. I don't understand the other convenience factors either -- car rental places tend to be located on-site at the airport or the train station? It's also a lemon market for customers. Turo gets all of the people who aren't qualified to rent at t…

The USP of Turo is that you know exactly which car you are getting. So, for instance, if you're going somewhere snowy you can be certain that you will get a car with 4 wheel drive and snow tires (rather than the 2WD jeep on old summer tires that I have sometimes ended up with from airport rentals). If you are renting a car to move a large item, you can look up the measurements and be sure it will fit rather than be stuck with a cargo van or a car much bigger than you need.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#466

Post by Varriount »

dcchambers wrote: post #453

Im bullish on EVs but I feel like rental cars are one of the worst places for the current generation of EVs. EVs are best for the types of driving we do on a day-to-day basis. Short commutes in areas we know well. Charge at home over night and 95% of the year you never worry about charging. Renting a car means I'm usually either driving long distances or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infr…

This was the situation I found myself in recently. I would have been more than happy to rent an electric car, but charging infrastructure was a big, unknown variable.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#467

Post by m463 »

dcchambers wrote: post #453

Im bullish on EVs but I feel like rental cars are one of the worst places for the current generation of EVs. EVs are best for the types of driving we do on a day-to-day basis. Short commutes in areas we know well. Charge at home over night and 95% of the year you never worry about charging. Renting a car means I'm usually either driving long distances or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infr…

My experience renting a model 3 from hertz was both positive and negative.

At first, it was hard since I've never owned a model 3. Even if you are a model 3 owner, you are probably used to using your phone as the key.

They give you a keycard.

anyway, I didn't know how to lock the doors. finally I figured out the lock symbol on the central display and locked the doors. But when I got out, they were unlocked again. The trick was to open the door first, press the lock icon, get out and close the doors.

The easy way to lock the doors... Well, you can google it and find out, it is not intuitive, but easy once you learn.

Now renting a car that can drive itself was wonderful. I had to put a lot of miles on and it helped.

Finding charging is easy -- it is all built into the display. You can navigate and it will integrate charging into your trip. I was already familiar with this, but if you're unfamiliar it might be something to learn. There ARE superchargers everywhere, and L2 chargers everywhere else.

I had to do level 2 charging (J1772) and it I had to call hertz to figure out where the adapter was. (It was in a bag in the footwell of the trunk). Once I had that I could charge at hotels.

Hertz did spam me with lots of "get to know the model 3 before your trip" stuff. I should have read it a bit.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#468

Post by mattmaroon »

dcchambers wrote: post #453

Im bullish on EVs but I feel like rental cars are one of the worst places for the current generation of EVs. EVs are best for the types of driving we do on a day-to-day basis. Short commutes in areas we know well. Charge at home over night and 95% of the year you never worry about charging. Renting a car means I'm usually either driving long distances or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infr…

You actually can charge at the San Diego zoo, which I discovered last week when I (against my wishes) got an EV as a rental. It is terrible. The charger network is brutal for a non-Tesla.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#469

Post by recursive »

jackmott42 wrote: post #332
fsckboy wrote: post #322

I've been seeing a lot of headlines the last month about demand for EVs falling. Of course, it could just be a PR campaign by Big Fossil, I'm not in a position to judge that. I had another idea about it and I'm wondering what other people think: by buying Twitter/X, Musk has waded deeply into the culture war, and we see on HN plenty of people who just can't stand to see his name. It seems a sizable community, could t…

Definitely Teslas became less attractive to a lot of people with Musks behavior in the last year. But also interest rates are up, and EV enthusiast market may be saturated, so now you have to win over just regular people.

All EV enthusiasts were formerly normal people. A lot of EV buyers become enthused. I never used to really care about cars.

Re: Hertz to sell 20k EVs in shift back to gas-powered cars

#470

Post by jnalley »

m463 wrote: post #467
dcchambers wrote: post #453

Im bullish on EVs but I feel like rental cars are one of the worst places for the current generation of EVs. EVs are best for the types of driving we do on a day-to-day basis. Short commutes in areas we know well. Charge at home over night and 95% of the year you never worry about charging. Renting a car means I'm usually either driving long distances or im somewhere new and I don't know about the local charging infr…

My experience renting a model 3 from hertz was both positive and negative. At first, it was hard since I've never owned a model 3. Even if you are a model 3 owner, you are probably used to using your phone as the key. They give you a keycard. anyway, I didn't know how to lock the doors. finally I figured out the lock symbol on the central display and locked the doors. But when I got out, they were unlocked again. The…

>was both positive and negative.

I see what you did there...

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