layz

I collected a car from LHR from the gold pickup area. When I took the car home I noticed that the location of the cigarette lighter meant I couldn't plug in a sat nav (I didn't have the sat nav on me when I picked up the car).

If I called Hertz would they let me drop the car off and change it for another one in the category, would there be a charge to exchange the car?

Also everytime I rent from LHR I never get an upgrade (Gold five star), I'd expect an airport location to have a decent upgrade availability. When I rent from Slough upgrades are hit and miss - but they have a smaller fleet so that's more understandable. I have the Amex Platinum discount code in my profile and also because of the Amex I don't take out the extra insurance, not sure if they count that against me.

EnhancedByCO

While I can't speak for their UK operations, I've exchanged cars in the US with Hertz several times, typically because of a mechanical issue, but once just because I didn't like the way the car handled. And only once has this been any sort of issue: it was when I tried exchanging a car that had been rented at a corporate location at a different, franchise location. However, in that case, because it was for a mechanical defect (one of the warning indicators had gone off), after initially refusing to do so, the rental agent spoke to their manager for a few minutes and they then exchanged it without further issue.

FearFree

Had similar experiences at US locations. Exchanged cars for a variety of reasons, usually a mechanical issue/strange noise and have never had a problem or additional charge.

exerda

I've never had an issue nor an extra charge. I changed out a car in FRA which had been rented in MUC--needed to add snow tires and didn't want to have to go back to MUC to do it. I've changed cars in the US several times mid-trip (TUS due to expired tags, SNA due to prior renter having smoked in the car, etc.).

Of course, YMMV.