pbr6891

OVer the summer I picked up a rental at Hertz LAX ... 2020 Honda accord from the president circle lot with 30K+ mile ...

After a day of driving I am noticing the engine surging / loosing power while driving .. and eventually the dashboard turns into a christmas tree flashing many malfunctions (brakes, emissions, transmission, lane assist etc etc etc ... ) The car still runs but i decide to exchange it before anything worse happens ...

Go to the airport .. check it in .. with an agent (this is rare these days) mention the malfunctions observed and after a little while i drive off with a replacement car ...

I finish my trip , go home .... So far all good ..

Then the first weird sign occured .. I get an email from hertz about an accident/damage to my rental car .. I reply there was no accident just malfunctions ...
(in retrospect this was a tell tale sign of whats coming but at the time I really didnt think twice about what looked like a 2 sentence form letter with no clear action requested)

And now 2 months later it has become clear in the mail letter I just received .... And they suggest I hand over a credit card number to cover a 4000$ repair bill ...
No details whatsoever on what is broken .. just pay up ...

Only after calling hertz did I receive the full report that describe the damage found and the repair costs : they want 4000$ for a damaged bumper and a missing airbag ...

I believe I can hand over that headache to my auto insurance and credit card company (by mistake i used a credit card that is secondary for us based rental claims)

But the whole process and claims looks weird :
-for the exterior damage claim : if it was as visible as the pictures they provided (bumper trim around exhaust) then the employee checking in the car should have seen it and said something ... to me it seems like hertz lost their opportunity to complain ...

-for the missing airbag ... : as a renter what am i supposed to do when i rent ? run a mechanics 100 item check on the car systems before taking a car ? There was no visible effraction on the vehicle while i had it so I am pretty confident that the airbag was gone before i got the car and eventually the damaged wire harness may have shorted out leading to all the malfunctions alarms .. (When i picked up the car there was no malfunction lights on , in particular no airbag malfunction)
->so did i rent a vehicle without an airbag ? thats a weird feeling ....

Has anyone encountered cases like this (in particular the missing airbag) ? how did you handle it ?

I am a pretty frequent renter with Hertz and have been for 10+yrs and this is really my first really negative experience with them ...

Safe travels !

TXJeepGuy

Sounds to me like this was a car bought at auction. It was likely sold by an unscrupulous individual who bought a wrecked Accord and fixed it fast (without replacing said airbag) and presentable to flip. Hertz just happened to be the ones that bought it and got stuck with it. Unfortunately it went sour on your watch.

The first question I'd be asking Hertz is when did this car join the fleet.

notquiteaff

Does Hertz actually buy vehicles at auction?

I would have guessed that a previous renter harvested the air bag.

Auto Enthusiast

Yes, everybody does now. The chip shortage and large increase in demand left companies no other choice to replenish aging fleets.

m907

Don't pay a dime. I wouldn't notify your insurance company either.

TXJeepGuy

Also, in this particular case, auction is the ONLY way they would have gotten the car as Honda does not do fleet sales. Why? Because historically fleet sales have a huge negative impact on both customer perception and resale value.

notquiteaff

Interesting; I remember renting one Honda Pilot from Hertz, back in 2014. The reason I remember that particular vehicle is that I was driving through a blizzard and was really happy about the upgrade the Hertz agent gave me� until I later saw that I was charged for it.

mgaustin

I’m also a long-term customer of Hertz. Recently I had TWO horrible experiences with them, albeit overseas at Nice (NCE) airport. I I travel to Nice frequently. For two consecutive rentals (several months apart) I was cited damage on a rental. Provided proof that the damage was not mine, still received invoices for the damage. Months later the claim was finally settled (at no cost to me). It was referred to the claim service in the US which seems to be completely incompetent.
No more Hertz for me. Ever.

7Continents

I returned a car that had been in a minor accident and I did an accident report in the garage. Luckily a supervisor was right there and I asked her about a small scratch. She said don't worry about it and signed off on the accident report with a specific note that there was no damage to the Hertz vehicle. A couple of weeks later I get a bill for around $3k for repairs done on three sides of the car. I tried to fight on my own but all they did was wait 45 days and then have a different person harass me about it. AMEX shut the whole thing down.

KimchiExpress

Maybe. Just maybe someone broke into the car when you had it and stole the airbag (easy to steal and expensive to buy). Hence the vehicle worked when you drove it and then suddenly had issues.

Or one of the employees smashed the bumper moving it and ripped the deployed airbag out to cover it up.

Yah, rental companies amazingly blame good paying customers for whatever.

Please do not pay. The reason rental companies continue with these criminal practices is that some people just pay.

They have no proof. They received the car and checked it over and signed off on it.

Podcat

Do NOT turn this over to your insurance. This is a them problem, not yours. You should not pay anything for it, including through having your rates raised.

Tell Hertz to stuff it. Or use that time-honored phrase from every parking garage where anyone ever submitted a claim:

�We (I) find no evidence of damage caused by the renter (you).�

Finally, don�t rent from Hertz again. The once mighty outlet has fallen and is now NFG.

jlawrence01

I have had Honda vehicles as rentals frequently. Rental locations buy them directly through dealerships as opposed to corporate. It is a frequent practice when they need specific cars in specific locations.

supermoto1

So how are we supposed to protect ourselves from this ridiculous situation without getting a car inspection before you leave the garage? There really isn't a good answer and saying "rent from XYZ Company" is not an option. Time is precious so being able to leave your plane and get into a vehicle within minutes of entering the rental agency area is vital. I switched from Hertz to National when they let you just pick a vehicle from a certain lane ot area and had cheaper rates. Now National is just as high or higher than Avis or Hertz. I did rent from Sixt in LAX a few months ago and it was a good experience but they "nice" upscale vehicles were pretty best up. I dint like the set up of how you get your car or how the damage is notated bit I had to track down a supervisor, per an employee, if I wanted to document damages that weren't on their form. And their form is confusing. Luckily they put down all my comments and when I returned it they looked it over and sent me on my way and I didn't get any mysterious damage charges. So I don't know what the answer is. A credit card company needs to step up and just cover its users 100% with little hassle. Esp drivers with perfext driving records and zero rental claims.

The only reason I've rented from Hertz, National and Avis over the years is because the other rental companies have had a policy lnickel and dining it's customers over lame stuff that is either small or they try and charge you after you return the vehicle. I abandoned places like Enterprise decades ago because they will tell you scratches are fine but when you return it they come at you for everything they were ok with. Hertz and the other bigger companies didn't play these games, esp if you were a Gold or premium customer. They also used to have very low mileage new vehicles in excellent condition. That Honda should have never been placed in service with those issues and certainly not for elite renters.

m907

Simple, dispute all bogus damage allegations and don't pay. Threaten legal counteraction and be prepared to follow through. Arbitration is your friend.

Stripe

Similar situation: Returned a car to the Nice airport and was dinged 250 euros for a missing hatchback luggage cover. No recourse. They provided a thorough set of photos of the exterior at the start of the rental but nothing in the interior. It was on me to prove that it was missing when I rented the car. It was only a one night trip so I never even opened the hatchback. I appealed to Hertz corporate to no avail.