Hertz - Price Gouging at DFW?

I just finished a business trip to Dallas--my first in fifteen years.

Are DFW's operator and the airport car rental agencies in cahoots with each other or what?

Hertz's charge for a Taurus for one day was $61 on my "contract" rate. Taxes brought the total tab to $91 without fuel or insurance up-sell.

This was the most expensive one-day car rental I ever made. Taxes and fees were the worst part of the deal--essentially 50% of gross.

Next trip to DFW I'm getting a car at one of the hotels on the northern border of the airport.

Iy is a bit crazy I will agree. It's just a way for the city to take advantage of visitors.
The charges are actually taxes passed by the voters to help fund the new arena.It applys to hotels also.

my last DFW rental:

RENTAL CHARGES
WEEKS 1 @ 184.99 184.99
EXTRA DAYS 4 @ 37.00 148.00
SUBTOTAL 332.99
DISCOUNT 10.00% -33.30
SUBTOTAL 299.69
AIRPORT FEE 33.27
VEHICLE LICENSE FEE 14.85
CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE 44.00
TAX 15.00% 58.77
TOTAL CHARGES 450.58 USD
AMOUNT DUE 450.58 USD


just over 50% on a $300 rental.


[This message has been edited by Seat1A (edited Mar 08, 2004).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jimolson:

This was the most expensive one-day car rental I ever made. Taxes and fees were the worst part of the deal--essentially 50% of gross.

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While this is certainly high it can't hold a candle to the one day rental I had recently in Amsterdam which came to approx 251 euros for a 24 hour period! Which BTW was on my companies corporate rate which I'm told is one of the best going!

Talk about taxes I think this included almost 100 euros in associated taxes and fees!!!

When you book a car for DFW, does the Hertz website accurately reflect a reasonably accurate approximate total cost for the rental?

For me, pet peeve #1 would be if the accurate total cost isn't reflected right at Hertz.com.

Pet Peeve #2 is that it's kind of dirty pool to NOT include those garbage fees in the base rental rate. I think when most people rent an automobile, they assume that it will be licensed properly and that the agency will have a customer facility at which to pick it up. I'm waiting for them to add on a Steering Wheel surcharge, Tire surcharge, Engine surcharge, etc.

Airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies are getting very BAD about using these fees. They are straight-up deception tools IMHO, used to deter customers from making accurate comparisons between competing products.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pinniped:
When you book a car for DFW, does the Hertz website accurately reflect a reasonably accurate approximate total cost for the rental?
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Yes, IME Hertz.com correctly displays the outrageous total including fees and taxes for DFW rentals. They are about 50% on top of the base rate. If I had to guess they are calculated on the rate BEFORE any discount; IOW the discount knocks X% of the base rental but nothing off the taxes and fees. Navigator is about $150/day all in, after my 10% corp. discount.