expiredserra | Staff posted Aug 17, 2023 05:10 PM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
expiredserra | Staff posted Aug 17, 2023 05:10 PM
Hertz Electric Car Rentals: Reserve 2 or More Days,
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One tip - if you call the number on the back of any Visa credit card you have, they have pre-negotiated a flat rate of $80 for a tow up to 5 miles: https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/...enefit.pdf
The icing on the cake is how they still charged us for the entire rental period and they charged us for roadside assistance. Over $1,000 for 10 miles of driving. Plus the tow truck that ended up costing $200 out of pocket (which was a bargain)
All they offered us was a coupon for a free day on our next rental. Nothing else. Plus it was almost impossible to find an agent who would respond by voice.
* Your best bet is to blast them in tweets and they will finally get back to you and offer you, while nothing worth while unless you rent often.
However, charging at public chargers is about the same price as gas when you compare equivalent vehicles, i.e. F-150 Lightning to F-150 ecoboost. You're paying just as much and getting less convenience, and that's not an SD.
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Orlando has a ton of superchargers, then heading south from there if you're going to the coast first (say to hit Kennedy Space Center then down to Miami) you've got one like every 30ish miles along I-95 the entire way (some less than that near the major cities.
If you're taking the more inland route (Florida turnpike from Orlando to Port St Lucie and then down to Miami) the biggest "gap" between chargers is 60 miles- once, then 30-50 the whole rest of the trip- again all right along the major highways.
Further the "stop for an hour" garbage is like 2013-era FUD already debunked repeatedly in this very thread.
You get 150-200 miles of range added for a 10-15 minute supercharger stop- and have for years now.
While we are at it though--- Orlando to Miami is... only 234 miles.
So the idea you have to "keep stopping every 150 miles" on a trip that is only 234 miles total and you tell us you stopped overnight twice anyway is.... nonsensical....even if there weren't tons of options for those nights where you could've plugged in while you slept, which is increasingly common at hotels and airbnbs (and relatives houses if it's that kind of trip)..... so after the first 150 miles you could've stopped once for 10 total minutes and arrived in Miami with ~75 miles of range still available- and Miami itself has a ton of superchargers in it.
EDIT- I will say for folks who have never, ever, used an EV before there is ONE "You need to understand how this is not a gas car" thing that DOES impact supercharging times....
In gas cars you're used to "filling it up" each time you stop. Don't do that in an EV.
Just like a laptop or cell phone, the very top of the battery takes FAR longer to charge than the majority of the battery.
Hence if you for example had a long-range Model 3 with ~350 miles of max range on a trip-- you can add ~350 more miles of total range added by stopping twice for ~10 minutes each time, taking it from say 10% charge to 80% charge, than you add instead stopping once for 45-60 minutes going from 10% to 100% because it gets much slower at the top of the battery.
So the "had to stop for an hour" claim might be credible if someone hadn't done any research on how to use an EV efficiently and didn't understand you not only don't "have to" do that, you'd save a ton of time if you didn't.... except for all the other problems with the story mentioned like chargers being plentiful along the route described and the fact the whole trip is less than 250 miles end to end.
The displayed range at 100% charge is 229 miles, but apparently not for highway driving in the Florida heat. Hertz gave it to me 70% charged, and it was down to 50% by the time I got to 95 in Cocoa (33 miles). By Melbourne the nav said I could either stop to charge or I'd get to the next charger in Vero Beach with less than 10%. Hertz tells you not to go below 10%, so I had to charge barely an hour after picking it up. I charged it to 100% so it could manage two hours of driving at a time, and kept doing so throughout my trip because stopping even more frequently would be ridiculous.
I tried overnight charging but each morning the car had a "charging slowed due to overheating" message and only added 20-ish miles.
Maybe Hertz is just renting out lemons? Most people seem to love their Teslas, but my rental experience was really bad.
But for clarity, if I rent it for 48 hours, can I apply the code and get it for the price of 1 day? OR would I need to rent it for 3 days and pay for 2?
They bought another Tesla, this one dual motor. Guess it goes a lot further. They drank the Kool aid. Have fun with that, lol.
I will say, I have heard they are fun to drive. crazy acceleration.
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Clicked "Manager's Special"
Cost less than an Uber RT…$88 total.
They bought another Tesla, this one dual motor. Guess it goes a lot further. They drank the Kool aid. Have fun with that, lol.
I will say, I have heard they are fun to drive. crazy acceleration.
Source: Owned a Model 3. And now own a Model X.
However, charging at public chargers is about the same price as gas when you compare equivalent vehicles, i.e. F-150 Lightning to F-150 ecoboost. You're paying just as much and getting less convenience, and that's not an SD.
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I love my F150 Lightning and made multiple long trips up and down the east coast in the past 10 months and aside from accompanying extra time for charging, the EV vehicles are insanely reliable. The biggest downside right now is how towing affects range and current battery density limitations.
Either way, as of right now EV rentals are not ideal. If you can make an EV fit your lifestyle and understand it's strengths and weaknesses, the value can't be beat!
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