Hertz - Transmission problem compensation?

I completed a 3 day rental using my 5* free day certs over the Christmas holiday. During the trip, after about 300 miles in the road trip, the Ford Taurus I was in displayed an error on the dash indicating "Check Transmission". I cleared the error by pressing the reset button on the dash console, but about 10 miles later the error appeared again.

I then called Hertz roadside as I continued to drive (I was 50 miles from anywhere in the middle of I-10). They basicly stated that I'd need to swap out the vehicle and told me how to get to the Plam Springs airport which was the closest Hertz location from where I was. The roadside asssitance agent verified that he'd called ahead and that the hertz station was expecting me and had a vehicle waiting.

The whole process took about 2 hours since I had to detour through Palm Springs, fillup the gas, return the vehicle, and then go inside and wait at the hertz airport counter line to pick up my next vehicle and wait while the hertz agent did some paperwork.

Luckilly the car was drivable and it didn't strand me somewhere, but a transmission issue at 16,000 miles seems like it'd be due to bad maintinence - even Ford's engineering isn't THAT bad. If I had a tire blow out or some other issue of nobody's fault, I would just take it as bad luck, but in this case I feel like Hertz should be expected to provide a reliable vehicle. If I wanted to risk a breakdown in the middle of nowhere, I coud take my own 8 year old car.

Now normally, I would have asked the agent for some type of discount when returning the vehicle as compensation, but since the entire rental was free with my certs, is there any compensation I can/should expect for a 2 hour delay? Does this even warrant compensation or should I just let it go?

I'd suggest letting it go - you weren't stranded, and Hertz did everything right to get you going again. I've had a couple of rental cars go bad on me, and my only "compensation" was that I didn't bother filling them up when I swapped them. I guess I'm up about 8 gallons :)

I just had one with a shock/spring issue in the front left wheel over Christmas. Like the previous poster, I just took it back and switched (probably took an hour of my time total) and didn't bother to fill it up on the return to get a new one.

I consider that I didn't get any hassle and that I got a new car right away and all the other things they've done for me over the last few years as sufficient compensation for an unfortunate circumstance.

If I have any mechanical problems at all I always mention them to the checkout person. This usually results in $25.00 off the rental fee.

I would use the Contact Us form on Hertz.com and let someone at corporate answer.

Rental cars are not cheap. I expect them to function properly and be maintained to a minimum level. If they cause an interruption in your trip, I would expect at least some of the rental charges to be refunded if not the whole amount.

I guess I'm up about 8 gallons :)

So thats probably what....70-80 bucks with hertz's "fuel service" rate?:eek: ;)