Predicting for Neverlost availability?
 

I always request NL as I travel to a lot of small towns. I also carry at least 5 mapquest print outs (airport to hotel; hotel to client; client to dinner; dinner to hotel; hotel to airport...) as a backup in case there is no NL in the car.

Seems to me it's a crap shoot - you get in the car and it's either there or it isn't. Not even my reservation confirmation says anything more than that I've requested it

Any way to know for sure if the car will have it? Short of calling the local site for each reservation?? :confused:

Thanks!

Hertz ran a half-page ad in USAToday the other day touting NL, which could make the feature even scarcer, for awhile anyway - unless Hertz has increased the number of vehicles that offers NeverLost :confused:

Unless you are one of Hertz's very frequent renters, I would guess phoning the local site prior to pickup would be the way to go.

You should just buy a small GPS, like a garmin with the suction. We have one for our cars, but always take it with us on vacation. Its under 200 bucks and shouldnt be a problem for you to expense. I hope.

When I reserve Neverlost, my confirmation always states "NeverLost Navigational equipment has been confirmed." To me, that's different than "requested" - and I therefore expect it to be there. That said, I'm PC, so I'm not too concerned, and I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

I second tfong007's suggestion. If your rides are fairly short, then buy something that connects to your laptop (DeLorme GPS LT-20 / 99$) . I find it works great as a last minute resort. If you want something more dedicated (and more expensive), then look at a dedicated GPS unit that plugs into a cigarette lighter. If you get NeverLost almost every time, that's 10$-12$ a day. After about a month the GPS will pay for itself.

I've done a similar thing with a Sirius receiver. I typically rent cars for a couple of weeks or longer, so having my own Sirius receiver solves the problem of paying expensive Sat radio fees and I have the content I want. Worked great when I had an Avalon and now for the Impala.

Have you tried adding the preference for NL in your gold profile online?

Yes, it's in my profile - my understanding is that in some cities they simply don't have NL. I was in Nebraska last week and I don't think any of their cars had it.

I've never had a problem getting it at airports (whether major like LAX, or somewhat-less-than-major ones like SNA). But city locations are a different story; I managed to secure one once in Stamford by personally appealing to the manager, but have had no luck at all in downtown LA or any of those Orange County town locations. Hertz won't confirm the NL, and the staff at those locations have told me they never have them except when a car with one happens to be returned.
Incidentally, AAA rate is 8.95/day. Plus whatever ungodly rate of tax is assessed.

I just rented two cars in the NY area and both times (LGA and EWR) they were out of Neverlost cars. Talked to the manager at EWR and he said they get booked pretty quickly and usually go out on Mondays with business travelers and then get returned later in the week so they have a lot of them on the weekends. I waited around for 15 mins and he kept radio-ing his employees and finally a Ford Excursion popped up with Neverlost and I took it. I hate traveling without it. But like the OP, I print out maps as well as a backup.