[HN Gopher] Hertz sold a bunch of Teslas and it turns out they'r...
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Hertz sold a bunch of Teslas and it turns out they're all kinds of
trouble
Author : belter
Score : 42 points
Date : 2024-05-16 21:33 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (qz.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (qz.com)
| paxys wrote:
| I'm sure the author has a bunch of data to back up this big
| statement right?
|
| Nope, one anecdote from a buyer and one Reddit thread.
| harwoodr wrote:
| That said, I don't know that I would buy a car that used to be
| a rental... regardless of what type of car it was.
| bobthepanda wrote:
| Yeah, they're very intensively used, so almost certainly they
| need more work than your average used car.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| Not necessarily, folks are incentivied to keep the cars
| clean and undamaged.
| wildzzz wrote:
| Sure but there's no incentive not to be hard on the
| powertrain. Probably less of a problem now with so much
| drive-by-wire preventing you from drag racing a Camry.
| rdoherty wrote:
| Cosmetically maybe, but Hertz has very good incentives to
| do minimal maintenance and only fix things when very
| broken. The renter has little incentive to report issues
| like weird noises or anything mechanically broken,
| especially if it may have been caused by them.
| gumboshoes wrote:
| Here is one more anecdata point: we bought a used Hertz
| rental eightish years ago and it's been great. Nissan Versa
| Note 2014. There was a scratch on the dash and faint
| cigarette smoke smell that made it a particularly good deal.
| ethbr1 wrote:
| This definitely feels like a case of buyer beware.
|
| From the article: "quarter-sized hole."
|
| If you're buying a former rental car and aren't giving it
| an intense enough inspection to spot a quarter-sized hole,
| you're rolling dice.
|
| If you take the time to methodically go over one... and
| reject a few... I'm sure you can find a pretty great deal.
| mminer237 wrote:
| In my view, with a rental car you can at least know they got
| regular maintenance. I know they're driven harder, but the
| fact that they're getting oil changes puts them above the
| average mystery car for me, even if they're not ideal.
| rock_artist wrote:
| I donno about the US. But rentals in Europe aren't always
| treated well from my experience.
| ganoushoreilly wrote:
| I don't even know if that's true, i've had a couple times
| where i was given vehicles with check engine lights on.
| Fortunately they swapped them for another vehicle that was
| .. possibly better?
| ben940830298432 wrote:
| Are you sure they get oil changes. I've ran into a few
| rental cars that didn't even get basic things like
| windshield wipers. I can't imagine a lot of those companies
| would take them out of service to change the oil on time.
| skhameneh wrote:
| That's not true.
|
| My wife and I had to exchange a rental because it was
| producing excessive exhaust, the alignment was so bad it
| pulled, and an engine service indicator was on.
|
| Rentals are frequently driven hard and may not get basic
| routine service (that should happen more frequently due to
| being driven hard).
| Repulsion9513 wrote:
| I haven't worked in the rental car world but I used to work
| for a place that rented moving trucks and RVs (and was also
| the area maintenance provider for them) and... No. They did
| not get regular maintenance, at least not on time.
| mongol wrote:
| My old car was a rental and I didn't know it. Bought it from
| a car dealer, with about 20000 km on the meter. It had broken
| suspension that I found slightly after but could be fixed
| while under the 3 months warranty.
|
| The funny thing is how I found out. One day it was a very
| special type of frost outside. The frost crystals formed in a
| pattern on the back window, spelling out the name of a local
| gas station. Some residual of a removed sticker. It must have
| been a rental from that gas station.
|
| Still, apart from the suspension problem that was fixed for
| free it has been very reliable.
| trhway wrote:
| Meanwhile on NPR they have just been telling today how wonderful
| and cheap and loved in Europe and Australia the Chinese EVs for
| which US has just made a new prohibitive import tariff.
| fullshark wrote:
| That tariff was the best endorsement I think I've ever seen for
| a foreign car. Turns out the secret sauce in creating cheap
| electric vehicles isn't a 10x battery improvement or
| technological breakthrough but the same secret sauce in making
| every other durable good cheaper in America the past 20 years:
| labor arbitrage.
|
| Can't make that work in America with the UAW.
| rootusrootus wrote:
| I will be amused when corporations successfully push software
| development so far away from the US that unions will be the
| only way we won't be stuck with poverty wages.
| fullshark wrote:
| I didn't mean to bad mouth unions, merely state the
| reality. If electric vehicles are much less sophisticated
| than ICE cars, and the cost of the battery never goes down
| significantly due to the cost of rare earth materials
| (especially if you want to sell at the volume
| environmentalists aspire to sell at) then the way they get
| cheaper is through labor arbitrage and there's no real
| alternative.
| DiabloD3 wrote:
| This isn't a Tesla issue, (un-)fortunately.
|
| Hertz constantly is getting sued for something. They once sold
| cars that did not have certain features that were considered
| standard on all versions of that particular car, including some
| _mandatory, by law_ safety features and did not notify the owners
| that the cars Hertz _specially ordered_ did not have them.
|
| Somehow, it was legal for Hertz to rent these cars out to
| potential victims and did not notify all the people who drove
| those around that they were potentially death traps... and then
| sold them to more potential victims.
|
| IIRC, they lost in court, but Google is busy memory hole-ing news
| more than a couple years ago.
|
| They also got recently prosecuted for calling the cops on "stolen
| vehicles" that were in Hertz's possession _and had rented them
| out again, and had the new driver arrested for the crime of doing
| business with Hertz_. This was not an isolated incident, and
| happened hundreds of times. This one _has_ visited the HN front
| page a few times.
|
| Don't do business with Hertz, they will call the cops on you.
| Don't buy used vehicles from Hertz, they will not be safe to
| drive.
| belter wrote:
| The case you are referring to on the missing safety features is
| probably this one, renting recalled vehicles:
|
| https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/consumer-pro...
|
| > Don't do business with Hertz, they will call the cops on you.
|
| Even that is not enough:
|
| "Hertz Is Even Sending People To Jail That Never Rented Cars
| From Them" - https://viewfromthewing.com/hertz-is-even-sending-
| people-to-...
| drewcoo wrote:
| > "Hertz Is Even Sending People To Jail That Never Rented
| Cars From Them"
|
| Well that's just good business for Hertz. Now there's no
| down-side to renting from them. Except for unsafe vehicles,
| of course.
| EE84M3i wrote:
| Is https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rental-cars-missing-airbags-
| hit... what you were thinking of? It's missing side curtain
| airbags, but it's Enterprise not Hertz.
| DiabloD3 wrote:
| No, and I forgot about this one.
|
| Let me rephrase what I said earlier: never buy a used car
| from any car rental company. _Any of them_.
| bcrl wrote:
| Poor repairability is definitely a Telsa issue, and Rivian, and
| other EVs. Eventually manufacturers will get their acts
| together, but that's not the state of the world today.
| Supposedly BYD's modular batteries are better, but that option
| is not readily available to those of us in north America today.
| chironjit wrote:
| Not in the US but bought a second-hand Toyota from a Toyota
| dealer that I later found out from the service manual was a Hertz
| rental in its previous life. Its been trouble free for the 8 or
| so years we've had it (it's now with another family member).
|
| Funny enough, I bought that model because I used to rent it from
| another company and so I "knew" how the car would be.
|
| So, not saying Hertz is a not a shitty company, but I wouldn't
| say rental cars aren't a good buy
| iamleppert wrote:
| If Tesla makes bad rental cars, what does that say about their
| upcoming robotaxis?
| belter wrote:
| > upcoming robotaxis?
|
| They are currently hiring man in spandex.
|
| Edit: My bad, they will not hire, they will reuse this one:
| https://youtu.be/TsNc4nEX3c4
| lm28469 wrote:
| The ones which are coming "in two years" since I left uni in
| 2012? They're as imaginary as back then I assume
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| The issue has to do with buying used rental cars (regardless of
| brand), not Tesla cars. Rental cars get a lot of abuse compared
| to a single-owner car.
| robbyiq999 wrote:
| Hertz is above the law. Which other company can print felony
| arrest warrants?
| chris_wot wrote:
| Why does anyone trust Tesla? I'm genuinely curious.
| ripjaygn wrote:
| This story is about one anecdote and passing it out as a
| pattern. For example Consumer Reports found Teslas have the
| least maintenance and repair costs among all brands.
|
| https://www.kbb.com/car-news/consumer-reports-names-cheapest...
|
| Edit: Predictable downvotes without replies for referencing
| unpopular facts.
| jedberg wrote:
| Not surprising. I have a friend who rents Teslas when he rents.
| He always fast charges and always to 100%. He also drives it
| _hard_. "It's fun and it's not my battery!".
|
| I'm guessing most people who rent Teslas operate the same way.
| skhameneh wrote:
| A few things to consider:
|
| 1) Rental EVs could be acceleration and charge capped to reduce
| excessive strain on the drivetrain.
|
| 2) Some customers may be seeking an EV without artificial
| limiters.
|
| 3) Rental companies could charge more for removing performance
| limiters.
| mvdtnz wrote:
| This is just an article about a Reddit thread. Apart from being a
| misinformation factory, Reddit is home to fanfiction masquerading
| as fact. Do not take any unverified information on Reddit
| seriously.
| fxtentacle wrote:
| Hertz: We're selling them because maintenance is too expensive.
|
| Buyer in the article: It dawned on me that maintenance was too
| expensive.
|
| No surprise there.
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