CDTraveler

Picked up a rental car yesterday at MAN airport. They gave a Mercedes E-something - medium sized hatchback with automatic transmission.. It is a nightmare and a half. ~ 20 minutes after leaving the airport, it stalled at a stop sign - yes, folks, an automatic transmission car stalled. The engine goes completely off, but when you take your foot off the brake, it restarts and you can move forward again v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

I thought that was just a fluke, and as we then got on the motorway it wasn't an issue for about 30 minutes. After exiting the motorway, it happened again and became progressively worse to the point where it was shutting down the engine when I slowed down, making roundabouts or pulling into the stream of traffic dangerous because I couldn't count on the accelerating.

Because of a sim card issue, I don't have a working mobile (picking up one later today). In the meantime I've contacted Hertz Gold via chat - that was US based and completely useless. I've emailed Hertz UK - no answer yet. Taking the car back to the MAN location isn't an option - first, I don't think the d@mn thing is safe to drive, and second, we are 120 miles away and swapping the car at MAN would waste a complete day of our vacation if the car was even safe to drive (of course, if it was safe to drive, we wouldn't be swapping it).

Suggestions on how to reach a live person at Hertz UK who can resolve this problem without wasting a whole day of vacation? Phone, email or...?

TerryK

Find nearest Hertz location and swap for a new car.

CDTraveler

That would involve driving it, and I don't think that's safe to do.

TerryK

I don't think it was engine stall. Many European models have fuel saving feature where engine is shut when vehicle stops. Engine restarts automatically when you lift your foot off the brake. There is usually a green light indicating the vehicle is in drive ready mode.

It is possible that you vehicle has engine off speed set too high yet I don't think it is dangerous. IMHO, you can drive to a nearby Hertz location for exchange. That said, it only works if you feel comfortable driving it. If not, a tow truck will be the only solution.

CDTraveler

I did a Google search on this model car. Apparently it is notorious for stalling for 2 reasons, one related to wiring and the other due to an incorrectly set idle speed. Either way, the time for the engine to respond to the gas is so long that it is dangerous - either I'm going to get broadsided when it doesn't merge at an appropriate speed or rear ended when it won't start at a light.

ajeleonard

You obviously have internet access so why not phone them with Skype?

UAPremExecflyer

What is so hard?
In the five hours since you posted and replied, you could have taken five seconds and looked at the key fob and found the 24-hour emergency breakdown number and called and explained your issue.

CDTraveler

Device I'm using not capable of handling Skype.

Did you not read my original question?

I needed to deal with someone who get me a replacement car as well as handle the defective one. According to the person answering the breakdown line, they don't do that.

Getting a Hertz employee who actually could and would resolve the problem took 7 phone calls and about 3 hours of my day. Would have been nice if it could have been resolved with a single call, but Hertz UK doesn't seem to have much of a customer service focus. In fact, the Customer Service center rep I spoke with said "We don't actually handle customer problems" leaving me wondering what in the hell is they actually do do.


p.s the Hertz rep who actually did help me said they've been getting reports of similar stalling problems from quite a few customers

UAPremExecflyer

That is precisely what the emergency breakdown line handles. I had a car damaged in an attempted break-in. Called the 24-number and they sorted out a replacement and all the paperwork was ready at the switch over location.

rcspeirs

Sounds like perfectly normal behaviour of modern stop-start system to me.
If you don't like it, use the button to switch off the stop-start feature.

Dave Noble

I think that the 1st point is flawed since , if you didn't think it safe to drive, how did you get 128 miles

What you are describing does not seem to be a fault but a normal feature of many cars in the UK. The engine is supposed to stop when you come to a standstill and automatically restart when you start to pull away. This is not dangerous

In Mercedes it is called ECO start-stop. On the dashboard display , is there a green ECO logo

troyintn

I am in agreement, they want to automate everything but there systems are not good enough for it. The last 5 rentals The PC lot is empty, I am told take any car I want on the lot. They are all small I book a full size and have to walk all over to find one. Tried to call Customer service it keeps rolling over to reservations