Pick up non-full, return full?
 

Hello,

I got a car at a Hertz location in Germany with the tank 3/4 full. They told me I could either return it 3/4 full as well, or return it with a full tank and they would refund me the cost of the extra fuel.

Never heard of this before - does it really work, or is it a scam trying to make me top up the car for free? How is this "refund" supposed to work in practice?

It works by them estimating how much it costs to fill up the tank and them crediting you that amount on your final bill. They are in charge of the calculation so the likelihood of it working out in your favor is not great. As @FlyinHawaiian said, you're better off returning it 3/4 full, but that can sometimes be a pain to time correctly. It's definitely one of my personal pet peeves. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the replies!

Here goes my hope of them refunding it at their own refueling rate (which is about 2.5x the cost of fuel at a gas station) :rolleyes:

Will return it 3/4 full then. Thanks to the mileage and consumption calculator built into most cars, it's actually quite easy now - you calculate exactly how much fuel you have consumed based on the mileage driven and the average fuel consumption shown on the dashboard, then add the estimated fuel amount for the way back to station (again, based on actual numbers) and put exactly that amount of fuel into the tank. This ensures the fuel gauge will be at the same position when returning as it was when picking up the car.

Good to know. :) It doesn't work in USA though. My local HLE doesn't have refueling station and cars are rented out with whatever fuel level came in. I often receive cars without full tank and was told no credit for over fueling. :(