Chk6

I'm going to be renting for 10 days and wanted to check group consensus regarding Hertz vehicles with adaptive (or intelligent) cruise control and hopefully lane keeping functions. My trip is long, and I've become accustomed to using both on my daily driver. I'm booking in full or premium class.

By the way, I was surprised to find both features on a 2017 Corolla which I was provided a few weeks ago (a downgrade from full, due to lack of availability).

Thanks for your thoughts.

j.bell

I think your only option will be if you are at a choose-your-own style facility and look in a ton of cars. I haven't found that it correlates with car class, and I am pretty sure that the only remarks that they can see in the computer is if it has satellite radio or not.

91StealthES

I've had a CTS, Escalade and Q70 that have had the features through Hertz. It is definately hit or miss for you to find a vehicle with the options.

rapiddave

The 2017 Avalon, Highlander, Prius, Yaris, and Corolla all have TSS-P (includes adaptive cruise and lane keeping) or a variant of that standard.

https://fleet.toyota.com/ftc/public/...20Features.pdf

IME, the QX80, Chrysler 300C, and some of the GM full size SUVs also have those systems. Adaptive cruise, lane keeping, and automated emergency braking really do make long drives shockingly easy.

jackal

Once upon a time, probably three or four years ago, I rented a Volvo S60 from Hertz in Vancouver that had both options.

The car basically drove itself. And this was before anybody but Google had any news about a self-driving car. Though it didn't do too well when the pavement markings had faded...you still had to pay attention and be ready to grab the wheel.

Since that time, I have probably rented 50, or who knows, maybe 100, cars from Hertz (mostly PCARs as a PC). I have not once had either adaptive cruise or lane-keeping on anything. Granted, the majority of those reservations have been filled with Chevy Impalas, but still. I've had precisely zero.

So if that gives you any indication of your chances, there ya go.

That said, a family member recently picked up a Corolla from the UC aisle in MCI and it apparently had adaptive cruise control (or at least the car braked when the car in front supposedly slammed on its brakes!). I guess I need to stop turning down Toyotas.

vr67

Got a 17 Chrysler 300 from IAD a few weeks ago. Adaptive Cruise and Lane Assist felt like I was in some sort of Sci-fi movie. It was super cool and convientent, but did sometimes get annoying while I was driving through traffic.

platbrownguy

Picked up a 300C at DCA that had this feature, and I thought it was supremely bizarre.

I can see how it would be nice on a long highway trip, I suppose. I tried letting the car "drive itself" but then it got mad at me and told me to put my hands on the steering wheel (!) -- I guess it's okay with making small corrections but doesn't like being burdened with keeping the car in its lane through curves. Who knows.

I'm pretty good about signaling lane changes, but sometimes the self-drive thing would prematurely bounce me back into a lane when I was trying to get out of someone's way, and it seemed like it was doing that perhaps a split-second before I was about to signal my lane change anyhow (the signal, evidently, calls off the self-driving function).

I categorize this with features that should be made easy to disable, along with things like side-view mirrors that "rotate downwards" when you throw the car into reverse.

Rental_Guy

Besides most 2017 Toyota models, Hertz recently has been purchasing Nissan Maximum SL trims with those features.

91StealthES

I just had a 2017 SL, but it didn't have lane assist or adaptive cruise. It did have BLIS, leather, Bose, heated seat/wheel, and leather.

Rental_Guy

Interesting, I guess some have it and some don't

jim32190

Maxima's don't come with options, what you get in an SL trim level is what the next person gets as does the next; that's really strange you didn't have the adaptive cruise. There should have been a little button above the Set/Resume tab which adjusts how close the Maxima gets to the car infront.

91StealthES

That's what I thought too. The Altima SL was one of my options for my company car and it had them. I am 99% sure ACC was not on the rental, though I've been wrong before.

wadewei

I am a huge fan of Adaptive Cruise Control, especially on longer trips. My first encounter with ACC was on a Hertz corolla from a non-airport location.
However over the past year I've had no luck at all renting any other Hertz vehicles w/ ACC. I search the entire PC aisle at LAX and MCO and ended up with a XTS every time, which google fooled me into thinking it has standard ACC. I asked half a dozen Hertz agents at the airport if they know of any vehicles with that and I am willing to pay extra. None of them seemed to be familiar with it.
Do you guys know of any models that is likely to have ACC?

On a side note, both times I grabbed XTS, it turned out to be a nice ride, kind of low on power though below 40mph despite an 3.6 v6 engine. It's one of the more common options at my base airport (LAX) in terms of semi-luxury vehicle, the other being Q50 3.0t, which I fully intend to try out next time. Any comparison between both of them?

LJ7006

xeron72

The only good thing about the Q50 is the engine. The Q50's that Hertz has come with the base audio system and it sounds really bad when compared to the Bose system in the XTS. The transmission is also slow to shift in the Q50. It's also slow in the XTS, but the XTS isn't marketed as a sports car so I give it a pass. The interior quality and features between the 2 is an easy win for the XTS. The Q50 lacks Apple Carplay/Android Auto and the 2 screen setup is clunky and slow to use. Hertz's Q50's also don't come standard with heated seats or a heated steering wheel (unlike the XTS). The XTS is no sports car, but it is a great highway cruiser.