TWAflyer

National has just listed a new master rental agreement on their website. National has decided to squeeze more money from renters and not care about "customer service". This is what it says about filling up the gas tank:
(6) The fuel charge at the rate shown...

ginmqi

I saw that, thanks for the catch. Although interestingly, looking at their old 2017 MRA, it says the exact same thing.

In any event, if I need to fill up more than what I received the car for...I'll report back and see. But hopefully this practice will not be totally abolished even though it specifically states so in the MRA

BugsyPal

As with your other post do not think this is anything new.

Going back several years a counter rep tried to tell me National wouldn't credit me back for the "extra" gas (tank was 3/4's when taken out, brought it back full. One telephone call to manager and all was solved.

In fact ever since have not even needed to bring the matter up; upon return if agent notices vehicle has more gas in it than when it left, I receive a credit.

Now this might just be for places where I rent frequently enough that they know the look of me, or what; but there you are.

Also seem to recall years ago a sign posted at National counters in NYC pretty much outlying the above. This may tie into my comments in another thread about not returning a vehicle with "free gas". If National isn't going to credit/refund my money for giving them more gas than when I left, then why should I or anyone bother filling the vehicle beyond what is required?

RaoulM

The car I returned to Hertz at Manchester airport last night would have cost me Ł180 to fill up (about $250) according to the contract - I filled it close to the airport for less than Ł50. The per gallon rates that most car rental agencies use if you don't pre-buy the whole tank of fuel are often 3-4X the pump price.

danbrew

Wow. I'd probably revise my policy if I was getting hit up for that amount. Checked my last receipt - $8. Yeah, I'm ok with $8. Part of it is a negotiated rate, part of it is I don't typically use a lot of gas for an in/out trip.

txviking

Part of it is that US fuel prices are a fraction of those in Europe, due to (much) lower fuel taxes.

mapleg

Hmm..decided to look this up , and living in Canada used a Canadian website.

Here's what it said

E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), or a mixture of both. E85 should only be used in ethanol-capable FFVs. E85 has about 30% less energy per gallon so the fuel efficiency of a FFV running on ethanol will be 30% less than when it is running on gasoline


In any case, they don't sell it where I live.

cestmoi123

The negotiated rate must be a big piece of it, since my recollection is that the rental companies in the US are charging over $8/gallon to refuel your car.

Interesting, Hertz has a program at a couple of locations where you can bring it back partially full, and they'll refuel it at the market rate, and charge you a $7 flat fee. Silvercar does something similar, bring it back part full, and they'll fill it up, charge you market rate for gas, and a $5 fee.

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/produ...=fuel_plus.jsp

jackal

Ethanol has issues in cold weather, so it doesn't surprise me at all that they don't sell it up your way. I can't recall having seen it anywhere in Canada, and it's not common in the northern US, either, though I did have a station near me in PIT that sold it, and I also saw it several places in Iowa and Illinois (where I was shocked it was not >25% cheaper than regular gas, given the corn is all grown right there--one of the only places I"ve seen it priced acceptably was in Miami).

They actually tried this pretty much systemwide, IIRC, several years ago (2011ish, give or take? IIRC, the convenience fee was $6) but ultimately bailed on the experiment because no one was taking them up on it. So I'm a little confused why they're launching it again but only in limited places.

I think it's a much fairer way to do things. Even if you only get charged for one gallon, that's ~$2.50 plus a $7 convenience fee for a total of $9.50, versus the standard $9.99/gal rate that Hertz charges (which is what the two receipts I have handy, for LAS and GSO, show as the refueling rate).

But that's the issue: I think Hertz was hoping (back when they tried this in 2011ish) that more people would just choose to take advantage of it, so while they wouldn't pull down $50 in profit on a car returned short of fuel like they used to, they'd make it up in volume with a decent chunk of people choosing to just pay Hertz $6 or $7 or whatever to do it for them. But that demand didn't actually materialize, so Hertz ended up just making less money on the same number of people who brought cars back less than full. (Of course, the fact that people are probably willing to accept at $7 refueling fee without screaming and posting nasty stuff on social media whereas being socked with a $120 refueling charge for bringing the car back on a 1/4 tank is the surest way to permanently lose a customer and look bad in online reviews, but that apparently wasn't enough of a motive to avoid going back to the old way.)

jrl767

I had a one-day rental from Avis in downtown Victoria BC last summer; drove ~70 miles (topped off ~20km / 12 mi away), and pulled into the garage with the needle touching the edge of the F mark; email receipt showed up 15 min later with a $35 refueling charge ... when I went into the office the next morning (receipt in hand, showing time and place of purchase) and asked the manager about it, his reply was "you have to fill up within 10 km / 6 mi"

"uh, please show me where in the contract it says that"

"that's just our policy sir"

he offered to knock it down to $15 and I wasn't in the mood to argue any farther as we had a floatplane to catch

RooseveltL

One observation - I've seen rental car outfits use the cars for errands in between returns (obtaining food orders, or transporting between locations like Midtown to EWR) so while the last renter did return full the usage by staff decreases fuel guage. Also, depends on location of the rental agency and turnover of cars vs. staffing.

jackal

Been there, done that. Though outright taking a random dirty or ready car off the line solely for a food run was frowned upon (personal errands = use your personal car). However, a detour to get food when moving cars between locations was tolerated, and managers would occasionally grab random cars for "business-related" errands (guilty as charged, and preferably, the decked-out Hemi with heated leather seats ) when the dedicated crew van was otherwise occupied, but that's all only a couple vehicles here or there out of hundreds or even thousands being returned and washed and rented on any given day. Still, staff usage (legitimate or not) is definitely responsible for at least a gallon here or there from the occasional car.

3Cforme

Oh, it's available in plenty of stations in cold weather areas, including northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, and North Dakota.

https://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/et...locations.html

The difference isn't concern for cold-weather performance - it's promotion of alternative fuels under U.S. law by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

docbert

Sometimes this comes down to the vehicle rather than the driver...

Picked up a Sentra from Hertz a few days ago. Fuel was dead on the F line, which on some cars is as high as it goes, so I was suspicious it wasn't full, but it was full so I didn't mention it.

After driving about 40 mile the gauge was about 1/8th of a tank down, so it was fairly clear it hadn't been full. Pulled into a gas station and filled it up - but it only took just over 1 gallon, even though I topped it off once after it stopped. So at that point I was thinking it's just a screwy gauge, and the car had been full at pickup.

However even after refilling it, the gauge never got back up to Full - not even level with the line like when I picked it up.

Just before returning it a few days later I filled up. This time I kept topping it off once the pump clicked off (like they tell you not to). Every time I did that, it took another 1/4 gallon, eventually taking about 1.2 gallon more before I stopped pushing. At that point the gauge was above the F line, like you'd expect with most cars.

ginmqi

Certainly understandable and I can imagine doing the same thing/allowing similar thing if I were an employee/manager there.

Though I think it's always good to top off before returning the car to the customer lot if say more than a certain number of miles were driven for that purpose....especially if its a gas guzzler that was driven in stop-go traffic.

My current long-term rental is a Camaro RS with the V6 and its only averaging about 15mg on my 1 mile commute....lol

Very reasonable explanation. Another posted the same thing about a car, might have been a cheap NIssan as well, that just couldn't get above the F mark like all other cars do.