Hertz - Newbie Question

Hey, I just signed up for #1 Club Gold, and I was wondering, if they put a car in my stall (lets say a Taurus for instance :rolleyes: ) that I would rather not drive, will they offer me another car in the class, or will they try to upsell me into something different?

Depends on what's available, they might even upgrade you (for free) if they feel like it.

There is no"rule" -- it really depends on what they have in inventory and if the agent feels like helping or upgrading you

As I probably say too often in this forum, I'm a Taurus hater. However, I often find one in my stall when I reserve a vehicle with Neverlost. When I ask for a swap, I've had the following experiences:
- Switch to another class car with NL at same price (Toyota Camry)
- Downgrade to midsize with NL at same price (Toyota Corolla -- I had reserved a C)
- Pay to upgrade to Volvo XC with NL
- Free switch to Ford Explorer with NL
- Free upgrade to Ford 500 with NL
- Free switch to another F without NL

Once, I reserved a midsize at BOS (no NL) and found a Kia SUV in my spot. I said no thanks, and it was replaced with another SUV in the same category -- Nissan Murano (though this is now in the FUN category) without charge.

It just goes to show that anything can happen.

If you don't like the car that is parked in the stall for you, you can go to the Gold Desk and speak to the person behind the desk. My best recommendations as far as getting the best results is to be nice! Ask them how their day is going, etc before you jump into the topic of getting a new car. This pays off especially well when you rent every week like I do as you get to know the people behind the counter, and they know you.

In addition, knowing the fleet and the classes that cars belong in helps, as does knowing specifically which car makes and models you are interested in so they can just look for those specific cars.

As others have said before, it really depends on what cars are available and what the person behind the counter will do for you. At this point, you have the following options:
1) Taking a different car in the same class
2) Taking a car in a higher class for free (if they offer it to you)
3) Taking a car in a lower class (they will update your rate for you)
4) Paying an upgrade charge (which you can usually negotiate how much) to definitively get a car you like. This is obviously assuming that option 2 doesn't include any cars you would like to drive.

Hope this helps... Finally, to help prevent you from getting cars that you don't like in the future, you can call up the GOLD Reservation desk (800 number) and request them to put car preferences (as well as dislikes) into your profile. You can also put preferences such as "non-domestic vehicles only" or something like that.

Ok, thanks for all the sugestions. I will be sure to call up Hertz and have them update my profile...