themicah

I was in a crash with a Hertz car in 2018 in Florida. The car was not remotely drive-able (a state trooper had to use his squad car to shove my car out of the active roadway until the tow truck came).

After making sure everybody was OK and calling 911, my personal insurance (because other vehicles were involved), and Chase (I had rented the car with a Chase card), I called the local Hertz location. They sent out a tow truck to bring me and the vehicle back to the location, which wasn't far. I filled out an accident report and they gave me a replacement vehicle for the balance of my trip.

It took about two months before Hertz finalized their claim. They claimed about $4k of property damage, $275 loss of use, a $150 administration fee, and $1700 diminution of value. I did not have premium roadside assistance and Hertz dispatched the tow truck (they actually use AAA's dispatching system), but they did NOT charge for towing or storage. I'm not sure how they decide who gets charged for that and who doesn't (maybe it varies by state, or by distance of tow, or by the location's specific towing arrangements?).

Initially Hertz didn't send me a copy of the claim--they just sent it to Chase and my insurance company. But after a couple of weeks they couldn't agree on a settlement value and got me involved. You should know that in states that allow diminished value claims (like Florida), Hertz WILL claim diminished value, and neither Chase (which specifically excludes diminished value from their rental coverage) nor my personal insurance (which won't pay diminished value claims on "my" car, which they consider a rental to be) would cover diminished value.

Hertz was willing to negotiate, but they weren't willing to give up on the whole diminished value amount, so in the end Chase agreed to pay everything except the diminished value, and I had to pay $200-300 to put it to bed (Hertz gave up on the other $1400).

The irony of this is that if the car is declared a total loss, Chase will cover the whole thing. A few years ago a family member had a Hertz car stolen (also rented with Chase) and didn't have to pay a penny.* But if it's recovered and reparable, you can get stuck holding the bag on diminished value, which sucks. I'm not aware of any insurance that covers diminished value for rental cars, except the rental agency's own LDW.



*While that family member didn't have to pay anything out of pocket, Hertz's crappy computer system had a heck of a time accepting that the car was permanently gone. For months afterwards my family member would get automated phone calls reminding him that his car was overdue for return. Each time he'd call back to speak to an agent and they'd promise it was fixed in their system. He kept renting from Hertz, though, until one day he showed up at an airport (after dropping off another Hertz car earlier the same day at another airport) and was refused service because their system showed he still needed to return the stolen car. He eventually got it straightened out, but that was an unpleasant surprise.