wlau

I have been having multiple issues with cars rented from SNA Hertz and I started to think it's more than just my bad luck, that Hertz is perhaps rigging the fuel gauge to move really slow, so they can bill customers for fuel even if customer fills up the tank.

I rent from SNA Hertz for work regularly. My company pays for fuel and has a policy that we must fill up the tank before returning a rental car, to avoid fuel charges from Hertz. There is a Chevron gas station at the entrance of SNA, about 2 min drive to the Hertz return lot. I would always fill up until the gas gun pops and then top off once or twice to make sure the tank is indeed full. However, even after the 2 min drive, the fuel gauge meter would still not return to FULL and sometimes can take up 30 min or more to return to the FULL position. The return attendants would refuse to mark the fuel as full even though I show them the fuel receipt from the airport Chevron that reflected more than ample amount of gas for the miles driven. I would then have to escalate to the duty manager to get the issue resolved. The return attendant would insist the car is not full but after the 30 min or longer escalation discussion with the manager, the gauge would show FULL when we re-check the vehicle. This certainly vindicates me but cost me a great deal of frustration and time and even caused me to miss one of my flights.

This issue has happened to my last 3+ rentals (of different make and model) at this SNA Hertz. My repeated escalations about this issue has caused friction between the station staff and myself. I even spoke to the station manager Ed, but he could careless, and asked what do I expect his staff to do if the gauge is not showing full. It's hard for me to argue against that but the fact the gauge takes so long to return to FULL is just a bit too convenient for his argument. I have never had a slow gauge in any of my personal vehicles. None of my friends or family had experienced it with their cars. For most of us, after you fill up the tank and restart the engine, the gauge would return to FULL or pass FULL in a matter of 5-10 seconds, not 30+ minutes.

This type of instances happen very rarely in the old days and usually ony happens to digital fuel gauges. However, this is occuring to almost all of my recent rentals at this Hertz, digital or analog gauges. I just can't imagine my luck is this bad at getting a stream of near-new car with defective fuel gauges... I even changed gas station but still have the same issue.

Has anyone else experienced similar issue as me?