Buying a Car from Hertz Car Sales

Cars, Reviews 7 Minutes

This is the seventh and final post in my recent series about our journey to used car ownership. If you missed the other parts of this series, head down to the end of this post for the complete list. I’ve had a fantastic time sharing our story with you and hope you’ve found it useful!

Last month, I introduced the subject of buying rental cars in general, and I got a better-than-expected response from all of you. The vast majority of the 40+ comments seem to echo the encouragement I noted that people who’ve owned rental cars before have about the process.

I noted some of the major pros and cons of rental car buying. Let’s quickly recap:

  • Pros: Better price, recent model years, the ability to “try before you buy,” hassle-free buying, a warranty, and buying the “cream of the crop.”
  • Cons: Rental cars may have been driven hard, car selection is limited, cars are basic trim, high mileage, poor aesthetics, and a lack of a long-term warranty.

For more details, check out the original post. Today, I’d like to focus specifically on the Hertz Car Sales program (formerly Hertz Rent2Buy) and share my comprehensive review with you. I’ll discuss in detail the whole car-buying process and things we specifically liked and disliked with Hertz.

For those of you considering Hertz Rent2Buy and on the fence based on what you’ve read online, this might help you to make a decision. I definitely wish there was a comprehensive review like this one when I was going through the process!

Background

As I’ve talked about these past weeks, we experimented with one car for a while, and finally decided to sell our old car on Craigslist and look for something new to buy. We milled over the new vs. used decision for a few days, and discovered a new alternative–buying a rental car.

I actually found out about Hertz Rent2Buy through eBay, because the company lists a lot of their cars that way. I was curious about the program, so I decided to check out some of their used car values and how competitive they could really be.

Luckily, Hertz was offering the exact model we were looking for (Mazda 5!).

The Process

The Hertz Rent2Buy process is a fairly straightforward and no-hassle way to buy a car. Here is more or less how things went down:

  1. After selecting the car we wanted, the next step was to check if Hertz has those models available. They were available locally, and there were a handful (about 10-20) specific cars to choose from.
  2. We picked the specific car we wanted based on the model year, mileage, color, and other minor details. The price is non-negotiable; however, there are coupon codes floating around the web–we got $250 off the price. 
  3. Once we had the exact car we wanted in sight, “reserving” the vehicle was a matter of a few clicks, including picking a date/time for pickup at the rental office.
  4. As instructed, we waited for the confirmation call from Hertz, which came the day before our scheduled rental. The call confirmed the car was ready for pick-up, gave us up-to-date mileage, and discussed minor damage present on the car (a couple of small scratches).
  5. Finally, rental day came. We drove to our local airport, where Hertz is located here, and headed to the rental counter. The gentleman who helped us had never done a Rent2Buy transaction before, but he quickly got help. We were able to view the car before making a final decision, and then filled out the rental paperwork within 10 minutes.
  6. Next was the fun part–a three-day test drive, where we could put the car through its paces without a salesman in the back, or pressure to hurry. See the next section below for more details on the test drive.
  7. Once we decided to make the purchase, it was once again a matter of going online and clicking through a few simple screens. We were also able to submit a financing application on the spot.
  8. The process continued and we received a call from Hertz the following day to go over our purchase and financing. All of our paperwork was FedEx-ed to us overnight for our review.
  9. Once the paperwork arrived (and there was a lot of it), it was time-consuming, but simple to get through everything. All the papers were correct, and were well-noted with post-its on what needed to be signed, filled out, etc. Most importantly, there was no pressure to “hurry up and read” like at the dealership. I took my time going through the papers.
  10. The down payment had to then be wired to Hertz from our bank (there were other options available, but that was the simplest). Once this payment was in, the rental period was stopped and all of our rental fees were scrapped.
  11. We then had to have some of the papers notarized and shipped everything back in a pre-paid FedEx envelope.
  12. A few days later, we received a call from the financing company to finalize that end of the deal.
  13. Things were quiet after this as the title company and financing company both worked on their ends to finalize everything. About two weeks later, we received the final car registration and our first bill.
  14. As one last final hoo-rah, we swapped the rental plates with our own, and shipped back the originals to Hertz. The following week, we received a refund check for unused portions of our registration fee (we transferred our plates, which cost about $10 instead of $300).
  15. We are now the proud owners of a fairly new 2008 Mazda5. Good deal.

Thoughts on the Test Drive

I have a couple of tips for the test drive that I think will make the whole experience different than any other car-buying process you’ve ever gone through:

  • Have the car inspected by a trusted mechanic or a friend in the business. Don’t pay excessively for an inspection, but a nominal fee is worth it for peace of mind on your purchase.
  • Listen to the car well instead of blasting the radio all day. Is the engine running well? Does the A/C work quietly? Is the suspension making noises over bumps?
  • Use the car in as many ways as possible (drive to work, go to the beach, shop for groceries, etc.), and put it through its paces. Does it function well?
  • Try all the systems on the car, including less-frequently used items, like the windshield wipers and high-beams.

You have three days to test-drive your new car. Don’t let this awesome opportunity pass you by.

What Did We Think?

Here are specific observations about the process and the deal:

Plus Side

  • The car itself was a little banged up in terms of aesthetics, but it wasn’t anything detailing or shampoo couldn’t fix. It was in excellent mechanical condition otherwise, and our mechanic signed off on it with flying colors.
  • The price was easily $2,000-$3,000 less than comparable dealer prices and even Blue Book value. That’s a 15-20% savings on the purchase price in our case. And it also means that even if we have to put some money into it (care, detailing, etc.), we will come out ahead. 6-month update: We still haven’t had to put any money into it.
  • The paperwork and the whole process went along very smoothly (with the exceptions noted below). In other words, it was really easy to buy this car.

Minus Side

  • Since the mileage changes so rapidly on the rentals, Hertz “standardizes” the sale mileage as the last known number prior to the rental. Convenient for them, since it’s about 500 miles less than when we actually got the car, and their 2,000-mile warranty kicks in at their mileage. Wasn’t worth arguing over, but that’s pretty crappy.
  • It was tough to reach my Rent2Buy service rep by phone or email. At times, I felt like I was being ignored. At the same time, I knew that if I had an urgent issue, there were other agents I could contact at the same phone number.
  • We were called three times by an automated system claiming we were “overdue” on our rental return. Trying to reach the extensions department was a 30-minute ordeal, but it ended up that the Rent2Buy people, an entirely separate department, had to close out our rental. No big deal, but it was annoying.
  • After the purchase and initial paperwork, things kind of went quiet. We did get an email saying our stuff went to processing for a title, but I wish I was kept in the loop a little better overall. We weren’t entirely sure when to transfer license plates, etc.

Even with some of the hassles, I was very impressed with the whole experience, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to buy a used car. We love our new ride, and it’s definitely an excellent value for what we decided to spend on it.

Rent2Buy is a relatively new program, and I’m sure they’re still working out the kinks. As they get going, I have a feeling this will become one of the most popular new ways to buy used cars. Quote me on it.

Update: I recently published a follow-up post that combines many of the comments people have left under this review. Check it out here: Hertz Car Sales Update.

Photo by Ken_Mayer

This is part of a seven-post series on our new car journey. Below are links to posts that have already been published as part of this series:

  1. Our One-Car Experiment and Car Decision
  2. How to Sell Your Car on Craigslist
  3. Using Consumer Reports to Select a Car
  4. Would You Buy a Rental Car?
  5. Should You Buy a New or Used Car?
  6. Is An Extended Car Warranty Worth It?
  7. This post!

Published by Peter

Published

125 thoughts on “Buying a Car from Hertz Car Sales”

  1. We purchased a car from Enterprise Used Cars (cars that were previously rentals) two years ago. Overall we also were pretty satisfied with our experience. We did have some mechanical issues that needed fixing (even after our mechanic reviewed) and Enterprise was great about taking in our car, giving us a rental and making the fixes. The mileage wasn’t horrible on the car and we were able to get a two year old vehicle for a reasonable price (also non-negotiable). I would encourage others to shop this opportunity. Definitely!

    1. Thanks for sharing your story! You mention Enterprise took in your car–did they have a similar warranty on the rental purchase to Hertz?

    2. HertzRentToBuy – buyer beware!! It is a gamble.

      I was looking to buy a prius. The reps had confidently reassured me that there was no possible way the car could have been in any accidents. After waiting 3 days for the car to be ready, I took the car to the local Toyota dealer who then found major damage to the front of the car that had been cheaply repaired to just cover up the cosmetic damage!!!! I called the 800 number and notified the manager of this. She did not care! I called corporate office – they did not care. In short – if you buy from Hertz – you are taking a gamble. You could get a great car or you could get a wreck that has been fixed just enough to look like it is in good shape. Be very careful!!!

      1. Good thing you took it to the dealership. I see Hertz Rent2Buy is advertising a lot online, but they need to improve quite a few things.

      2. I agree with you. The customer service from the Hertz call-site is terrible. I ended up buying the car because it was a 60 mile trip to bring it back and my husband had to have emergency open heart surgery during the three day trial period.

        Hertz sends e-mails to you and then the call-site people act “put out” if you call them to respond. I spoke to one or two polite employees, but most acted annoyed and could care less if you bought the car.

        I’m sure Hertz pays by the hour. My suggestion would be to change to a commission based pay system. Perhaps money would motivate these employees to show some manners!

  2. We had a one year warranty (or 12,000 miles…I think that is what the miles were), whichever came first, for various mechanical issues (I don’t recall all that was covered at the moment, but it was very fair and reasonable in my opinion). The man that we worked with here in the Chicagoland area was truly awesome. Very respectful, knowledgeable and real nice to work with. People at the used car agency were nice too, but not as easy to work with when it came to determining if our issue fell into the warranty period or not.

  3. The one time that I’ve bought a rental car (a pretty good experience) the car had already been purchased by a chevy dealership, so we weren’t buying the car directly from the rental agency. It does certainly sound to be a bit more involved of a process with the rental car agency according to your story. In the end it sounds like you got the car you wanted at a reasonable price though. Congrats!
    .-= Money Smarts´s last post: Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps To Getting Out Of Debt =-.

  4. I plan to buy rental car like you through ‘Hertz Rent1Buy’. I want to know other fees except for “listed car price” and “sales tax”. When you buy a rental car, how much did you pay for extra fees?

    And below sentence you wrote means that you save the money by doing yourself ?
    “The following week, we received a refund check for unused portions of our registration fee (we transferred our plates, which costs about $10 instead of $300). “

    1. Daniel,

      Thanks for your question! Here is the complete list of all charges I paid:

      Sales Price
      Discount (-$250): my coupon code
      Title Fee: ($550 in my case)
      Tax

      Period. End of story. 🙂 No hidden fees, no dealer fees, no delivery fees, nothing.

      To clarify the title fee–to get new plates in Florida costs about $350 (which the title company assumes they’ll have to do). When you transfer plates from your old car, it’s still the title company that does it but it only costs like $10, so they refunded me the difference after the transaction was complete.

      Best of luck with your experience!

  5. Pingback: Memorial Day Savings | Money Smart Life

  6. Where did you find your coupon code? I have been looking on the Internets and haven’t found one that is valid yet. Any idea where to look? Thanks.

    1. The coupon code I used was tweeted by the staff at Hertz (@hertz_rent2buy). It’s possible that this promotion has ended, although I’ve seen other promotions since then. If you’re not in a hurry, I suggest waiting until the next deal comes along.

    2. Hi Noah, we have discount coupons almost regularly posted on our newly designed website http://www.HertzRent2buy.com and also on our new Facebook Fan page. Please join us on Facebook by searching “Hertz Rent2Buy” and be a fan. We’ll hope to also promote new coupons just for Facebook fans that you can’t get anywhere else. We currently have $500 Off of Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry vehicles. And you can add that discount on top of our already lower than Kelly Blue Book prices which reduces your total cost. The best part is that there is NO HASSLE when you are buying from Hertz. Three day test drive will give you a piece of mind. Try it!

      1. Ok- I read these posts the other day and decided it was enough to give it some time and a try- I was hit by a hit and run last week and my matrix was totaled- Anyway my apt. is wed in Boston- I plan to buy as I want the same car I lost- and will be curious to see if there r embedded scams- I plan to use the labor day special $1000. off list- but lets see if that is true- the sale goes till Sept 9 and your rent start is the date for this discount- first apt they had to rent was the 7th of Sept and they said that would qualify- I will report back to the group and hope others will too- I called the Hertz agents- one in Texas was really helpful and walked me thru the steps and pros and cons- like talking with my dad-anyway I will have no idea if this is what it claims to be until I go thru the process- thanks for the postings as it helps me take the first step after a bad accident- I have a business and my associates r interested in this transparent approach to a vehicle purchase- that’s how we run our shop too-they might try it if it is what it says-

  7. Thanks for the postings about your experience purchasing a former rental car.

  8. I’m looking into purchasing a car from Hertz Rent2Buy and was wondering what kind of down payment they require. Thanks.

    1. There was never any “minimum” mentioned when dealing directly with Hertz, but I never did ask. Any down payment discussion would probably have to take place with the financing company, which is separate from Hertz (mine happened to be Chase).

      I can tell you that I put a little over 10% down and got a rate better than the best-case scenario I envisioned. My guess is you could do 5% with no problem. It all depends on the car price and credit score, of course…

  9. I would add to the minuses that if you decide after testing it for a few days, that you don’t like the car for whatever reason, you still have to pay the rental fee, unlike test driving a car at the dealer. I also bought a Mazda5 from Hertz and had various minor complications (the check-engine light came on due to Hertz not putting the gas cap on tightly for one). I complained about this and other issues I was having and could not get any response by email. When I talked to a representative on the phone (Donna S.), she gave me a great story and promised to give me $300 back for my troubles, which satisfied me. Well, I’ve never seen the $300 and still don’t get a response to my emails. Make sure to get any promises in writing. As a positive, the local Hertz rental office where I rented the car from was very professional and accommodating. I also bought a Ford at a local dealer and that was actually a LOT smoother and easier. I would only suggest Hertz Rent2Buy as a last resort.

    1. I looked for several local dealers that could beat the price of Hertz, and none could by a long margin. But I echo your sentiment that you should get everything in writing–sounds like their promises fell short with you,.

      1. Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have said to consider them only as a last resort. We are happy with the car so far and consider it a reasonably good deal. Mazda5’s are hard to come by where we’re at and decent used cars are, in general, hard to come by. I think you wrote a good, detailed article on the process. If Hertz had handled a few things differently with me, I would have been happy with everything. Instead, I’m still a bit peeved at them.

  10. I rented a Mazda5 via rent to buy and was very enthused to pick the car up from the Union, NJ office.

    It was three day late to be ready and once I picked it up had serious issues. Passenger Airbag deactivation light would come on regardless of the presence of a passenger. Also the front bumper had some slight alignment issues. I was told the vehicle should be accident free. I suspect otherwise.

    With the relative low cost of new 2010’s being offered, we’re reconsidering new.

    1. I suppose there will always be a few bad apples in the bunch, like any other used car purchase.

      Honestly, I don’t think Hertz would risk putting accident vehicles in the pool and ruining their reputation, but then again I could be wrong.

  11. Do you know if the Mazda manufacturer warranty transfers over? We are planning on buying a Mazda5 via HertzRent2Buy with 31,000 miles on it – Mazda has a 3 yr 36,000 mile basic warranty with roadside assistance.

    1. To my understanding, a Mazda manufacturer warranty is fully transferable without any additional paperwork required.

  12. great info .. I am going through the process now …. had the Honda Civic for 2 days now … would like to purchase and I am waiting for “Donna” to return my call concerning financing….. seems to be a lot of possible “glitches:” along the way to full ownership. I have my promo code (200 buck disc. ) from twitter. From what i understand .. they will NOT provide service records for vehicles, original warranties from manufacturer are NOT transferrable. Hertz offers there warranty.
    I still could bail on this and just return the car tommorow and be done with it(after my 3 day rental fee). I will see what she says when she does return my call …… Thanks for the heads up …..

    1. Very true…other manufacturers may not have the same kind of warranty arrangement as Mazda.

      The Hertz warranty is useful as a “just-in-case,” but in our situation we opted to purchase a separate warranty. At just under $2,000 for 6 years and the harsh climate we drive in, I have a feeling it will pay off. (We spent at least $4,000 on my last car’s repairs in 4 years).

      I had the opportunity to share some of my concerns directly with the Hertz team a few months ago, and their communication was on the top of the list. They definitely need to do a better job returning emails and calls.

      Best of luck!

    2. Update : I opted to purchase the car on Sept.3 … so far a very smooth transaction …have my financing set up along with my payment slips. Donna said I will have my registration & plates in 7-10 days ….so far so good … a nice car and almost a done deal . Will update when transaction is final ….. … Thank you ….. Don

  13. WOW! We love this blog post at Hertz and we posted on our Facebook page. Hi! My name is Gulsah and I work for Hertz. Thank you for writing this very clear article on how to be a smart second-hand car buyer. Even the savvy shoppers hesitate buying a rental vehicle as they think that cars may be in bad shape. At Hertz Rent2Buy, we screen all vehicles, and hand pick the qualified cars for sale process so that the buyers can own a really good car and recommend us to their family and friends. After all, word of mouth marketing is everything these days. We understand the hesitation and we decided that we can be more helpful if we can provide more helpful information to consumer, therefore we launched our Facebook Fan page where fans can ask questions, learn about the process and get promotional savings coupons ($250 and $500 off) for select vehicle models and fleet. Please join us on Facebook http://bit.ly/appqit or simply follow us on Twitter by searching @Hertz_Rent2Buy or @Hertz accounts.
    We recently (last week) re-designed and launch our new site where users have a better search functionality and navigation available to them. Please visit http://www.HertzRent2Buy.com and learn more on the 3 Day test drive and buying process. Your questions are welcome on the site or Facebook Fan page. We hope to save you more $$$$ during your used car search!
    Gulsah @ Hertz

  14. Gulsah…I have an appt. to test drive a Mazda3. Is true that Mazda manufacturer warrantees are transferable with a purchase from Hertz? (mileage is under 20,000)

    1. As far as I know, yes. The Mazda manufacturer’s warranty should be fully transferable. Of course, you should make sure in the Mazda warranty manual that’s in the car.

    2. Cathy, thank you for your question and I am very sorry if I am late on getting back to you. The manufacturer warranty comes with the car, not with the owner, so if there is still time on warranty, when you buy the car, you’ll have that transfered and in-effect. We launched the Hertz Rent2Buy Facebook Fan page and fans are welcome to ask their questions as we tend to monitor regularly. You can reach out to our marketing people, business team with your questions. We are very happy that Mr. Kulicki is kind enough that he tries to respond to all questions.
      Gulsah @ Hertz

  16. Hi Wojciech,

    I was wondering what the interest rate is? We would like to buy one of these cars. Also, do you know of any discount codes for October? We are not buying it until a few days after the promo code expires. Thank you!

    1. Hi Vanessa,

      Our interest rate was in the high 4’s, but it will obviously vary since we bought 6 months ago and rates vary with credit scores, down payment, etc…

      I don’t think Hertz pre-releases any specials, so you’ll have to wait until you’re ready to buy to search for codes!

      1. Thanks for your reply! We have booked a car, and we are excited. We are not sure what our credit score is, but my husband does have a good salary. The people at Hertz said to wait until we are renting it to discuss financing, but we are curious as to how leniant they are with credit scores? We are really hoping we qualify!

  17. I am in the process of buying a car from Hertz RENT2BUY for the first time. I was going to finance with my own bank in Ohio. They would not finance the vehicle because the title is in Florida, the car is in Kentucky, and I live in Ohio. Something about the title must be 250 miles or less from my home address. However, I found a bank that does business in all three states and are willing to finance. Most banks turned it down and it took a while to find a bank that would do the deal.

  18. Does anyone know of any current coupon code? I am in the process of buying a Toyota Yaris from Hertz. I feel there are still glitches in the program-haven’t loved my experience. Only one key available (yet hertz charges the renter $200 for a lost key-where is the replacement key for my car?) , car wash was broken-got a dirty car on pick up. First car reserved was delayed by 8 days-had to search online for another one-the person calling with the bad news could not help to locate another one-it has to be done online. It is all very disconnected with the hertz program-the local rental car location staff are not familiar with the sales program-the booking agents can’t answer sales questions (and can’t actually book the rental because as stated earlier it needs to be done online), the sales dept has to google the phone # for the local rental lot. Not loving my experience so far. I plan to buy-I like the car, and it is a very good price. I wish I had the option of test driving other cars and that my rental fee of $200 could go towards purchase of any car test driven-unclear what the policies are on this-doesn’t seem to be much flexibility as they are in business to rent cars first and sell cars second. The hertz rent to buy program needs an overhaul. But back to the immediate inquiry-anyone have a coupon code? Thanks

  19. Thanks for this. Do you happen to know the min income amount for being able to finance and buy?
    I was looking into this program and have talked to a few people on the phone and nobody can tell me this simple, important detail. I don’t want to waste my time driving 45 minutes to this place, test driving for 2 hours and then more hassle and find out I am not approved.
    It is ridiculous that their *credit application* is not available online until you pick up the car. Why waste everyone’s time with that if you don’t get approved?

    1. Cris, I don’t know that info either, but I do know that Hertz uses Chase for most of their loans, so calling Chase may yield better luck with an answer.

    1. I believe that only the cars available at the specific pick-up location you’re looking at are available for rental there. You can always try nearby locations!

  21. Thanks for the great info Wojciech.. How many exact days did it take to complete the whole purchase process? Would it make the process faster if I did’t go through financing but making the payment in full up front? I’ve found a right car but I’ll be fly out from the US on Nov.29 so I’m worried if the process would take longer. My understanding is that they don’t do this off-line, correct?

    1. Brian,

      It took about 3-4 days to get the paperwork, which is sent overnight, and then you can overnight it back. So when it comes to Hertz, you could conceivably be done in a week or less. Since you’re paying up front, there’s no financing delay.

      Your only issue that I can see will be titling your car and getting/returning license plates. That part took about 3 weeks. Since I don’t know your particular situation with your mail/where you will be registering your car, I suggest you call Hertz to verify that info if you want to commit!

  22. I just wanted to tell my experience today with the Hertz Rent To Buy Program. I learned about the program via internet search and was excited about the deals. The particular car I wanted was about 2 – 3K cheaper than the dealership. I researched the program more and found your blog, and after reading your blog I decided to reserve the particular car of my interest which was a 2009 Nissan Altima with app. 30+K miles. I received a call from Hertz Sunday afternoon, and a lady left a voicemail stating for me not to come pick up the car until I had received a call that the car was ready. I was scheduled to pick up the car before 11:59 AM Monday. When I woke up this morning I went online to check my rent2buy.com account and there was a message up top stating the car was ready. So I conducted a chat message online with a online rep. and she told me the car wasn’t ready, and then I called the national number and the national office told me the car was ready. So by then I was very confused to whether the car was ready at the pick-up location. I live 45 minutes from the airport so I did not want to make a unproductive trip and the car not be there. At any rate I proceeded on to pick up the car. When I arrived the customer service agent that handled me first was very friendly, but did not know much about the program because she had set me up as a straight rental instead of the rent2buy program even after telling her several times that was what I was there for. To her defense the program had only been rolled out for 2 weeks in Charlotte. Her manager came out and she was a older lady who was not as friendly and seemed to not to care one way or the other. They had a hard time locating the car and finally they brought it up front. From the window inside the lobby the car looked nice, but once I got outside to the vehicle I was disappointed! The car had been keyed (scratched) from the driver’s side door all the way to the back of the trunk. There was a dent above the left side frame above the left tire. The right side had been keyed (scratched) from the passenger’s side door all the way to the back door. The interior was worn badly, and had cigarette burns on the cloth interior through out the vehicle. There was trash still in the vehicle, an empty water bottle sticking from under the driver’s side seat. The car was vibrating. Both me and my friend leaned against the door and the car was visibly vibrating. I was so upset, as this was not the condition I had expected. You can not tell the condition of the vehicles online because Hertz’s uses stock photos. Come to find out the location at the airport was supposed to tell the national office of these defects to communicate to me, but the Airport location management said that the condition of the car was typical for a car with 30K miles on it. I was baffled at that statement because last time I checked 30K miles was not a lot miles, and on dealers lot I’ve seen cars with more mileage in better condition than this hapless Nissan Altima. This past summer I sold cars during my off season as a Tax Accountant as the described condition of the car was not typical. I went back into Hertz and asked for my money to be refunded, and one of the CSR reps said to me quietly, ” I don’t blame you.” Then he said let’s see if we can find you something else. Well the problem with that was the local office does not know which cars are in the rent2buy program and I would have to go all the way back home and look online again and take a chance on another vehicle that could possible be in the same condition. I did not want to gamble anymore as time is money, and distance is gas money! So I asked for a refund. Well get this, the same unfriendly manager at the Airport told me that she could not give me full refund that I will still have to pay for 1 day. I looked at that lady and I told her that I had not even driven the car off the lot and why should I still be charged a day. She stated well they put this car on hold for you. I said yes but even then I should only be out the $10 reservation fee. I told her I’m going to call the national office of the rent2buy program and once I had them on the phone the gentleman I spoke to said that she should refund me all of money and that was plain wrong. I told her that and she said I would have to take it up with the rent2buy program and they would be responsible for refunding me the remainder of my money which was $92.68! I called the national rent2buy program number again and explained to them that in this economy I don’t have $92.68 to just give to somebody and I expected to be refunded all of my money back as I had not even driven the car off the lot and the car was in terrible condition. The national rent2buy representative apologized and said that the local airport location should have been honest with the condition of the vehicle and they would have communicated it to me in order to give me the option to choose something else. He profusely apologized and stated I would get my money back. He also wanted me to speak with the program’s supervisor Chet, who I plan to follow up with. I was so excited about the program as I had already started telling friends and family and sending our email alerts. I had even planned to do a feature article on my blog at http://www.trinahargrove.com, and I still plan to write about it but the program will not get a favorable recommendation from me. There needs to be some type of overhaul done as it is not fair to customers not to have full disclosure about the condition of the vehicle before embarking to rent the car. And further it is unfortunate to get all the way there and not like the vehicle and then not have the option to entertain other vehicles. Had I’ve been told the car had the dent about the left tire frame and the car had been keyed down both sides of the vehicle I would have reserved another car. At the dealership if you don’t like the car you see online or advertised upon seeing it in person at least you get the chance to look at something else without having to go all the way back home to your computer and reserve another car. I will not be entertaining this method of car buying as it seem suspect to me, as I’m now left wondering if these the Hertz damaged/wreck vehicles that are trying to get rid of. This car was so horrible I wouldn’t have even rented it! Sorry for my post being so long but I wanted to share my experience.

    1. Trina,

      What a horrible experience! I definitely agree that there’s some overhaul and better communication needed. Personally, Hertz called to tell me about scratches on my bumper, which weren’t even a big deal when I actually saw them, so the fact that they messed up this badly with you sucks.

      I also think your counter experience needed to be much better. It definitely seems like Hertz and Hertz Rent 2 Buy are two separately operating companies that shouldn’t even share a name from the way they interact with one another. No one seems to be able to help when it comes to the other and vice versa.

      I really hope Hertz can fix these issues soon or they will start losing great and excited customers like you! Thanks again for sharing your honest story.

    2. Hi Trina,
      We read your comments yesterday and immediately brought to the team leader’s attention. We are expanding and the NC operation’s just kicked-off. We are very sorry to hear that your experience was poor and we understand. We’ll make this up to you and fix the issue. Thank you for your detailed comments which helps us understand the problem and take actions on it quickly. We contacted the location manager and talked to him further about your experience. Our Hertz Rent2Buy team member will contact you shortly to listen to the issue and perhaps offer you a solution to fix this. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience will do our best to help you further. We are sure that we can find the perfect car for you. Many of our customers have successful and pleasant purchase experience and we want the same for you. Please accept our sincere apology and we’ll be in touch very shortly with you via phone.
      Thanks
      Gulsah @ Hertz

    3. As I mentioned in my post back in August, we bought a Mazda5 from Hertz Rent2Buy. I wondered if my negative experiences with this program were unique, but now I see they weren’t. I rent cars often from Hertz in my business travels and I would say that the car we bought was dirtier than most I have gotten from Hertz. It almost seemed like someone was using it as their personal car (not being cleaned regularly), though it had scratches on the back bumper and marks in the interior from suitcases being dragged in and out. After complaining to Hertz about my bad experiences, I was also offered a solution by Donna S. at Hertz Rent2Buy. That was that they’d give me back $300 for my troubles, but I was told it might take a while. Well, it’s been 3 months and she won’t return my emails (it seems they avoid putting anything in writing). So, I would advise people to be careful about accepting any “offers” from Rent2Buy team members.

      I agree with your comment regarding the dealer experience. If you happen to get lucky, I think you can get a good deal from Hertz Rent2Buy, but if you don’t, it can be a big (and possibly costly) inconvenience. At the dealers, you can test several cars and walk off any time without any out-of-pocket expense, though certainly finding a reputable dealer is also a challenge.

      I should say that so far, we’re enjoying our car and if they had followed through on their offer, I would feel less negative about the whole experience. I’m hoping I don’t have any unpleasant surprises in store down the road.

  23. We have a somewhat unhappy story to share as well.

    We were excited about the rent2buy program, and took Kia Spectra 2009 for test drive/rent from San Francisco airport. We liked the car quite a bit, but it had cigarette burns inside scratches here and there, and the front bumper had pretty bad cracks. I suspect somebody drove it to the ground on the hills of the city. We were willing to live with these defects, because, after all, we thought that the pre-tax price of $9000 was pretty reasonable.

    Since we wanted to be really careful, we also pulled the Carfax of the car, and it didn’t indicate any accidents or other problems. We were happy, and were almost about to buy the car, but still decided to take it to a mechanic. The mechanic inspected the car throughly. He found a number of smaller problems of the car that we would classify as normal wear and tear, but there was also a big one: the car had been in a accident, and the rear bumper had been repaired/replaced, so was part of the side panel of the car, and most likely the trunk lid too. Apparently there was no serious damage to the frame.

    This was very sad news to us, since we had really liked the car. Once we swallowed the disappointment, we thought that we could still give it a shot, if Hertz would adjust the price accordingly so that the lowered re-sale value due to the accident was taken into account. They sell pretty much all of their Kia Spectras with the same $9000 pricetag, so I would assume that a one that had been in a accident would be a little bit cheaper.

    I called the rent2buy number, and I was surprised to find that the person who picked up the phone was not interested in negotiating the price at all. Instead he said: ‘apparently you don’t like the car at all, I’ll go ahead and cancel it’. I went back the airport and returned the car, and tried to speak to people there. I spent about an hour being bounced around from person to person, and finally I was given a phone number I should call. I called there the next day and the response was the same: no negotiation — he wasn’t even interested to hear our offer. I keep wondering: who will buy this car with $9000? I’d think only a person who does not know about the history of the car.

    We ended up paying $190 for the three day rental and $139 for the mechanic and $40 for the useless Carfax report.

    The moral of the story: if you try rent2buy, be aware that Hertz uses their own garage to repair the cars, and don’t report to Carfax, nor tell you about accidents. So, book the mechanic on the first day you test drive the car. Saves you a lot of money.

    1. Wow, I was definitely under the impression that Hertz only used the “cream of the crop” for their Rent2Buy program–I guess that’s no longer the case (at least in this situation).

      I think your negotiation approach was exactly right–how can one car be priced the same as all others when it has been in an accident? In my opinion, it shouldn’t have been in the program to begin with, but if you’re going to sell it, something needs to be done with the price to reflect the damage.

      We also booked a mechanic the first day, but the news was obviously much better than for you. Sorry it didn’t work out!

      1. Update: Carfax returned our $40 when we complained about the inaccurate report, so things are a little better now. Still hunting for a reliable car though.

  24. I read through the review and comments, and I’m interested in at least further researching this. I currently own a used truck that was a rental from Enterprise. However, a used car dealer bought it at auction, so I didn’t get the 3-day experience.

    I’ve commented how I want to sell my used truck (bad city gas mileage) and buy a used Nissan Rogue on another post from Wojo, mostly because there’s more room and MUCH better mileage.

    However, my girlfriend’s family has convinced her to buy only new. She wants a Chevy Equinox crossover (or the GMC equivilant, the Terrain). The new design started with 2010 models, and it’s much nicer and rated higher at Consumer Reports. But I have yet to see a Chevy or GMC dealership offer the kind of prices I’ve seen for similar vehicles from Mazda and others.

    She’s looking at spending (without a down payment, though we’ll probably put $2500 on it) around $22-25,000 on a 4-cylinder. Now, technology has changed and 4-banger SUVs or crossovers are great and there’s no need for a 6. But her parents are convincing her to go V6 because they feel an SUV’s 4-banger engine will die quickly. So now add another $3-5,000 on the deal!

    I’m trying to convince her to wait. I know her current car is falling apart, but she drives all of 3,000 miles a year (seriously–her job is 4 miles round trip and I drive most everywhere else). If she can wait until mid- to late-2011, we’ll likely find a great used one, or rental, 4-cylinder for likely $16-18,000!

    I just don’t want her (and I) to end up with a $450-500 payment.

  25. Those of you looking for the current HERTZ RENT2BUY COUPON CODE will find it added to the bottom of the post. 12/11/2010.

  26. Hey everyone,

    Looks like December is the best month to buy a new or used car, and like every other month, it’s good to buy near the end of the month. In fact, if you can go out on New Year’s Eve, you’ll likely get a great deal. I remember going to a CompUSA on NYE, and it was busy with people getting great deals on electronics.

    http://real-us.autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1634/the-best-days-to-buy-a-car-in-december/

    That’s a short article I saw today on Yahoo.

    Heath

  27. One more thing… Enterprise Car Sales is giving you Kelly Blue Book value plus $500 for your trade-in:

    http://tradeswelcomed.com/?q=ecs

    I saw that today, too. The only thing is, the prices seem to fluctuate higher and lower vs. Hertz Rent2Buy, and the cars seem identical to one another (including mileage), so it makes little sense. Also, if you’re looking for a specific car, it may not be available locally, and Enterprise will hit you with a shipping fee.

    Heath

  28. So you live in South Florida? Where abouts? I’m in Broward and will likely be in the market for a new car due to an accident I had last week. I’ve been keeping an eye on Craigslist and Ebay and the results that consistently pop up in both in my price range with better mileage than I expected are 2009 Kia Rios from Hertz Rent2Buy. From the reviews I’ve read it appears that their biggest issue is customer service (namely, holding a rental car in place for you without renting it out to someone else) but I was curious as to which location you purchased your vehicle from as it seems your experience is more favorable than most. Also, any recommendations on where to take the rental for an inspection?

    1. I’m on the West Coast and rented from the Ft. Myers International airport location. I did have some of the same issues as others (clueless rental desk staff, etc.), but overall nothing to the degree of some of the previous comments. I think it’s going to be hit or miss no matter where you go, since it seems some of the mishaps are happening at the national level.

      Anyway, you shouldn’t have too much to lose, since anything under 2 hours is supposedly a free rental. For inspections, we had a friend of the family look at it (he’s a mechanic for Ford), but I’m sure any reputable car shop would look at it for a nominal fee (well worth the $50-$100 if you like the car and want to buy it!!).

      Let me know how it goes if you decide to go through with it!

      1. That’s the idea, to try to get an inspection done within that 2 hour test drive period, as I agree it’d be completely worth it. However I’m completely cartarded and am not sure which place would give me the best bang for my buck on an inspection in time for me to return it without a commitment.

        Like you, some minor cosmetic flaws on the bumper and such won’t concern me all that much as long as it runs in perfect (if not near-perfect) condition. While some of the negative reviews have concerned me a little, for the most part people like you seem to think that when they manage to find a car that runs well it’s worth the investment. That and my mindset is if you’re going to try to save as much money as possible on a used car there’s always some sort of risk involved, but I’d certainly trust Hertz over a shady local dealership.

        I’ll be sure to update you on my experience if I decide to go that route.

      2. Ian,

        I live in Broward, too. There’s a shop called Davie Garage (http://www.daviegarage.com/) off Davie Road, south of 84 and the colleges. I think they’d look at it for a low price. I don’t know where you live, but check out Google for auto shops near you.

        Also, visit http://www.cars.com and check out the prices of Rios within 75 miles. Many of them at reputable used dealerships (check the South Florida BBB, Better Business Bureau to make sure they’re okay) are former rental cars. I bought a used rental pickup truck at Auto Show Sales and Service off 441, south of Broward Blvd. (http://www.autoshowflorida.com/).

        Auto Show doesn’t have Rios, but they have an 06 Sorrento for $10,000. I saw other Rios for under $9,000. If you go with Hertz Rent2Buy, I’d love to hear your South(east) Florida experience!

        Heath

      3. It’s not that I’m particularly looking for a Rio. Just checking all the sites (autotrader, cars.com, craigslist, ebay) for cars that don’t have a lot of mileage for under $10k Hertz’s Rios kept popping up. There are some similarly priced ones in my area, but with almost double the mileage. There’s a handful of them at various Hertz locations with around 22k miles for only $8700 or so, and no matter the make or model haven’t been able to find anything better than that at nearby dealerships.

        And yeah, 2 hours would definitely be cutting it close, but if I have to look around at different rentals at different locations I’d rather not spend a whole lot on various fees in case their inspections don’t check out. I’ll likely have to call up places near the specific Hertz locations to see what they can do for me.

      4. Getting it in 2 hours might be tough, but you could definitely try to make an appointment. Looks like Heath has some specific suggestions–awesome!!

      6. Yes, CR was actually how we decided on the Mazda5. It was the top-rated “van” style car on their site, and (if I remember right), the only car in the all-time Top 10 list that was under $20,000 new. They definitely tell it like it is, but a lot of it is personal preference, too. The review videos are helpful to see the functionality of the car.

      7. I also read the user reviews, too. I really wish I had spent the time reading the user reviews on the low-end Mitsubishi Raider (aka, a reskinned Dodge Dakota)–it didn’t get 18 mpg in the city, but 12! ARGH! The V8 model had a special function that gave it something like 26 mpg on the highway.

        Btw, I just got the Nissan Rogue I wanted. Nice stylings, a real backseat and great gas mileage. Plus, CR gave it a good review.

        Heath

  29. Update: I haven’t had a chance to write as the holidays have me busy, but Hertz corporate reach out to me immediately from reading my post. The supervisor over the entire program was very nice and everyone that I have dealt with has been very helpful. I took a break from car shopping and plan on going ahead with the process once I get through my busy tax season (I’m own a tax office). My advice to everyone is when you start the process have in your mind that it is going to take time to find the right car for you. All good things come to those who wait, right? When you arrive at the rental place to see the car I would ask to look at the car even before allowing them to charge your card for the 2-hour rental. That way if it is not to your liking you are not out anything but time and gas. I was told by one employee that it took one manager from Hertz four viewings before he found his car. Just know ahead of time that it might be a time consuming process, but when you do find the right car you are likely to find yourself a good deal. I am very pleased at the way Hertz handled my situation. And now knowing what I know on how to proceed I think it will be a win-win for us both.

    1. Thank you for the update Trina! I agree completely with your tips, we made sure to check out the car inside and out before we signed anything. And you’re absolutely right–if you want to save the thousands of dollars we did, it might take a bit of effort on your part (though Hertz hopefully gets their game together).

  30. I have a question about HertzRent2Buy—no one seems to have covered this:

    Consider the Scenario:
    1. Reserve my car at HertzRent2Buy.com
    2. Pick up the car for 3-Day rental
    3. Likes the car, then decide to buy
    4. Click: “Purchase Car” and opt for Hertz to help find Financing
    5. Next day, gets call from Financial Rep
    6. Loan process begins
    7. 1 week later, loan process came back denied
    8. Must return car back to Hertz,
    9. Return car back at original location

    Now my question is: Will I get charge for the 3 days and an additional 1 week??
    Assuming you have to pay for the 10 days, it seems like an unfair and unreasonable way to buy a car. Am I right?

    Downpayment is required or optional?

    Thanks

    1. Ken, You’re right, that would be unreasonable, and unfortunately I don’t have a clear answer for you. My personal experience was that our financing was done the day following when we decided to purchase the car (Hertz must have a direct line to the lender approval system), so there was no wait for approval.

      From what I understand, once you decide to purchase and send in a down payment, Hertz stops all rental charges immediately as the process carries on.

      Also, I think the down payment will be up to the financing company, not Hertz. I would imagine it depends on your credit and the car value, so it would be case-by-case. My guess would also be that no down payment loans would have higher interest costs.

    2. While that might be unreasonable, I have a hard time imagining it being any other way considering you’d still be in possession of their car (assuming you’re unable to purchase it). You might want to get a feel for what you might/might not be approved for going into it by speaking to someone from your own bank, getting in touch with their loan providers (listed on their website as being Bank of America and Chase Bank), or calling up their customer service department and getting a feel for the process. As Wojo said, if they have a direct line to the lender approval system they might be able to tell you what you need to know before you go in there.

      1. Always go in with an idea of your credit, and see if you can get pre-approved. Great credit at your bank can get you a great interest rate.

        I hope they don’t charge you the additional 7 days. But it’s a bit sketchy; I’d almost think they should have you return it, but hold it with a small deposit, like $100-$500.

        heath

  31. I made an appointment with Hertz Rent 2 Buy for a 2 year old Ford focus with 20,000 miles on it. The time they scheduled was for 5 days later (the week between xmas and News Years). They called me that morning to confirm and told me the car had over 50,000 miles on it!! I checked my original email from Hertz and it had 20,000 miles. That is a whole different car and I was no longer interested in it (lets see if I can get my $10 back). I was disappointed (and annoyed) because this set back my car purchase by 5 days and my old car had died so I was carless. I ended up going to Enterpirse Rental and buying a car from them. My car that died (Ford Escort) was bought from Enterprise over 8 years earlier with 23,000 miles on it (it died at 114,000). My husband’s family has bought over 5 cars from Enterprise and the advantages are: one the web site you can view a free car fax instantly to narrow down your search, it comes with a 12 month, 12,000 mile warenty, you have 7 days to return it (minus $200 charge), while you wait they have it inspected and register it so you can drive it off the lot. Also, the cars have a lot less mileage (I ended up buying a 2010 with 16,000 miles on it -a fair amount -I didn’t want to buy a 2009 with 50,000 miles). From the Hertz program, I couldn’t figure out if the car was inspected (NYS inspection required) and how long it took for you to be able to drive the car after you pruchased it. But what really annoyed me was the milage discrepency. Also, Enterprise gives out a $100 referral fee.

    1. That is really odd–it seems like they were trying to sub in a completely different car/year in place of the one you registered. Thanks for the info on the Enterprise–it’s one of the programs I looked at, but decided to go with Hertz in the end.

    2. How many miles did the car you get have and for how much From what I’ve read (your comment included) Enterprise seems to back up their cars a bit better, but the selection in my area is absolutely horrid. They don’t have any cars available with less than 30k miles on them, and most are are pretty old. With my old car done I’ve got a rental car from them, and they haven’t done anything to instill any confidence in me. They seem to hardly have any cars in their fleets, and my rental car has already had a flat tire. Not to mention it’s a 2010 car that already has close to 39k miles on it.

      1. Ian,

        Check out some of the well-rated used car dealers in our area of Broward. I bought a 2009 Nissan Rogue from Auto Show Sales and Service, off 441 and Broward.

        Heath

  32. it good that this was a easy going story, but i am here to tell you about the other side of this coin, i purchased a car from hertz in nov 10 and its jan 22 ’11 and i have yet to recieve my registration. i financed through hertz so didn’t have to worry about wiring things back and forth, from day one noone called or communicated with me i was constantly calling to get info on the status everything from the secetary quit to paper work being lost was the answer so keep in mind that the experience can be very frustrating also.

    1. I can’t remember exactly how long we waited, but I think it was about 30 days. 2-1/2 months sounds extreme, but I guess if the paperwork was messed up, it would explain it. It sucks though that they haven’t kept you updated…being up front with mistakes will be the key to this company’s success.

      1. It took me 2 1/2 months to complete my sale from Hertz as well. October til the end of Dec. I had problems w/Hertz, w/my finance company, and then I was a bit delayed due to wanting to take advantage of the upcoming promotion code at the beginning (worth waiting the extra week for), and with the holidays at the end. Neither Hertz nor my finance company kept up with me, I had to keep calling each one to find out that paperwork had not been sent from one or the other etc. At the end, Hertz was telling me that I had to return the car, I had to call them to make sure the repo man was not coming, afraid to wake up and find the car was gone out of my driveway. Finally the finance company sent the check. It was a nightmare-but I love my car and could not have gotten a better price and I got a great financing rate. Well worth the headaches–and there are many. Know that you are in for a disorganized frustrating long haul if you purchase from Hertz.

  33. I bought a 10 Mercedes GLK350 last month in Louisville KY through Rent2buy and can honestly say the process went very smoothly. The vehicle was in excellent condition for 28,000 miles and the price was unbelievably low, only the cargo cover was missing and the comments are correct, there is no negotiation on missing or broken items. Prior to this I rented a Mercedes C300 for a day from the Hebron KY location and thanks to driving it for a day found it was too small for my needs. After agreeing to purchase the GLK, as they aren’t yet able to do business in Ohio, I was able to drive to the Cincinnati airport (1/2 hr away) which was better than going back to Louisville (1 1/2 hrs. away) to sign the paperwork and I was not offered any extended warranties or add-ons because of that, which was nice. It took about 3 wks. to get the plates but it had Florida plates on it and I had insurance so it could be driven in the meantime. I returned the Fl. plates to Hertz and got a small refund check afterwards on an overpayment of something related to the purchase process. I sold my old car to CarMax for what I thought was a fair price too, so I would definitely recommend Hertz and CarMax to anyone.

  34. Hi, So this blogs wonderful. Im interested in doing Hertz rent2buy program. When I spoke with them they told me that they don’t keep cars that have been in accidents. They told me they dont provide carfaxs or autocheck reports that i could buy them myself. When i went on ebay motors Hertz has some of their cars listed on their with Free AutoCheck reports and i noticed that quite a few of them said they have been in one accident. Now, i called Hertz again and they said cars they continue using that had been in a accident would have had been in “fender bender” type accidents. But, they said they fix them up so you would never know if it had been in an accident. So, does anyone know any other info about cars from hertz that have been in accidents? This is my first car,and ive gone to sooooooooooo many dealerships, and spoke to so many dealers who have just made me fed up talking with them and their lies they try to tell me about their wonderful cars.lol. And, the Hertz process from the looks of it sounds like less of a hassel, but maybe I’m wrong.. oh im doing the R2B in California. Thanks

  35. I’m in the process of TRYING to buy a Hertz Rent2Buy 2010 Corolla. I do not need financing and maybe that’s the reason, but they don’t seem to care whether I buy the car or not. They told me for almost 4 days that they were detailing the car and it was almost done. Then, they called early yesterday morning and said it was ready. When I arrived at the rental counter at 10:30 AM to pick it up, the guy there said, “Oh, it says here that it’s being detailed and will be ready at 1 PM.”

    After having my mechanic check it out, I decided less than 24 hours after picking the car up that I wanted to buy it, so I called the only number I have for them (the toll-free number) and they told me to log in to hertzrent2buy.com and click on the purchase link. I got a form email asking me to scan in my driver’s license and email it back to them. That was early this morning. I have heard NOTHING since. I’m supposed to return the rental tomorrow, so now what do I do? I sent another email and I also left their (now closed) office a stern message.

    If you have a short fuse for non-customer-focused customer service, as I do, this process might be more aggravating for you than it’s worth. However, I couldn’t find a used Corolla that I liked at the local dealers, so Rent2Buy is what I decided to do. The price is about the going rate for the listed price at local dealers, no higher, no lower.

    1. That’s really frustrating. They need to get their customer service moving better.

      heath

  36. 05/04/11 – Horrible experience with Hertz Rent 2 Buy yesterday in Denver, Colorado. Signed up for a RAV4. Arrived at lot in North Denver – – a place where Tony Soprano would feel comfortable performing a “hit.” About to drive it out, front window wouldn’t work. Called Hertz – – was told “as is.” What a joke.

    Don’t waste your time. The car we looked at had a burn mark on the rear seat, many chips on the paint job and badly scratched rear trunk. Looking at a brand new vehicle with better financing without all the hassle. If you like gambling and losing….choose Hertz Rent To Buy.

  37. Here’s an update on my 2010 Corolla purchase from Hertz Rent2Buy. Unlike some other posters’ experiences, this car is in pretty good shape, just a few scratches here and there. However, once I wired them the money on May 5, it’s still been a comedy of errors, and I still have no title, no registration, no plates for Arizona. It’ll be funny until I get pulled over for having expired California plates (only good until end of June) while driving in Phoenix with Arizona insurance.

    In any case, Hertz Rent2Buy sent me a “30 day customer satisfaction survey” via email today. (Must be an automated email; today is Sunday, May 29, 2011, Memorial Day weekend.) They wanted to know how I liked the title and registration process. Title? Registration? Huh? Below are the comments I sent back to them.

    Note that there are some individuals at Hertz who are very, very customer-focused. I mentioned them by name in my comments to Hertz because they deserve kudos. They are trying to treat the customer right in spite of the lousy processes they have to deal with.

    So, here are my comments as sent to Hertz Rent2Buy. Based on what people are saying on this blog, next time I’ll go to Enterprise’s used rental car lot and buy from there.
    =================================

    See my answers on the last survey sent to me for my opinions on the purchase process. After I filled out that survey, I quickly got a call
    from Jared who was very concerned about the negative responses I gave. He has been very responsive and helpful with my questions. In
    addition, the car had some problems which Jared arranged to have fixed
    at no charge to us. The people at Hertz’s repair facility at Sky
    Harbor Airport, John Tyke and Barry Kiel, were very helpful and
    responsive as well.

    As for title and registration, in the first package of documents I
    received, all legal paperwork had a purchase date of “May 5, 2100”. It
    appears nobody proofread the docs before they went out. A second
    package was overnighted to me; it arrived on the first day of our 3-day
    vacation. Four days later I received a stringently worded email
    warning me that I might have to pay penalties to the state because I
    was late in returning the documents. (It appears that the system which
    generates these warning emails had no knowledge of the errors in the
    first package of docs.) I sent the notarized docs back after the banks
    opened on Monday, May 16.

    On May 19 I received an email notifying me that my docs had been
    forwarded to ABS National Title Services, Inc. Since then? NOTHING.
    No title, no registration, no plates, nothing. Not even an email
    telling me what progress there has been, if any. Nothing. It’s just
    as bad as the purchase process was. However, on a positive note, IF
    the customer complains loud enough, the actual people who call are
    concerned, apologetic, responsive, and customer-focused. Nevertheless I will NEVER use Rent2Buy again!

  38. The worst car buying experience of my life. To save time reading anyone from Colorado AVOID HERTZ RENT TO BUY! I decided to buy a car from hertz i found the car I wanted at the price I wanted. I decided to go through my bank for the financing. Well I found out that Hertz does not follow the Colorado normal car buying process. They would not give the title to my bank on letter of credit. Their terrible finance department was only able to offer me a loan at 23%. I had to go through hell to get the car financing. Which based of their rental rules you kind of get pushed into buying or pay about $500 in rental fees. After buying the car I was promised a second key, they never gave me a second key. Once the vehicle was registered they gave me a refund of the excess taxes paid, which came to be about $600 short of what is should be. I payed $1760.00 in taxes and title fees, my taxes and title fees payed by hertz came out to $930.00 I should have received a return of $830.00 instead they sent me a refund of $210. These guys are a scam DO NOT BUY is my recommendation as I can only see this ending in litigation. Or just understand you are paying at least $600 more than the sticker price for the car you want.

  39. Yay! I actually got my 2010 Corolla Arizona title, registration and plates on June 9. I was concerned that with the experience I’d had to that point with Hertz Rent-to-Buy, the title and registration wouldn’t arrive before the California registration on the car expired at the end of June 2011. Also, last Friday I also got a refund check for about $225 from ABS Title Services. Unlike the commenter “upset”, I didn’t calculate what I should get back, so I don’t know if I got shorted or not. At least the car is now mine and I can have stuff done to it, like have the windows tinted.

    Seems like I read some comments from someone who bought a used car from one of Hertz’s sales lots in the Phoenix area, and they had a good experience. Maybe it’s just the Rent-to-Buy that has all the issues.

  40. Looks like the two most important take aways from the above discussion for the rent-2-buy program are:

    1) Call your pickup location before you pick up and ask them how much they have dealt with the rent-2-buy program. And do not direct any questions about the program itself to them.

    2) Get the car inspected by a mechanic before you decide to buy it.

    By the price they are selling Mazda5s at and the estimated value of them at Edmunds.com you are basically getting a private-party selling price. Private-party price is always several thousand below the dealer price, especially the advertised dealer price.

    We cancelled our reservation when they told us on the phone that they continue to charge our card the daily rental rate until financing comes through, and then refund it all back to us all the rental charges. I have my reservations about how quickly that would happen. In this case I want to know we are approved prior to renting the vehicle.

    We won’t need-need a car until December. If the program improves before then, we might still use it.

    9-12-11

  41. Hi all and Wojciech Kulicki,
    First of all thanks for this forum and all your opinions. They were very helpful for me as I recently become the owner of one of the R2B cars. I bought 2010 Nissan Rogue for 16kUSD with 39000miles on it. The whole process was longer than expected, but the result is I have the car and I have it from the day I collected it.
    Therefore I decided to take time and write review, because, reading all those before really helped me to see what is coming… There are few comments of this process I want to share with you and that you should be aware of them:
    Accident check:
    – On 22 July 2011 I choose my Rogue on-line. But I did not check on the autocheck.com status of the car initially, only after I selected it and already scheduled appointment. I found out that the Rogue (1 of 3 in the offer that time), was in an accident (big or small, no-one knows…). Per Hertz it was only small accident, but in the report it was shown as 1x accident. I purchased the 60day unlimited autocheck (I recommend to do this strongly!!! It is good investment, because I randomly select some other R2B cars e.g. Sentra and Mazda3 and some of them were having one accident reported too). I had to cancel this Rogue by calling the info line and chose another one next day, of course after I did the check and it was all ok on autocheck… (this was fast process and 4 days from that call I select to collect the car)
    Car availability confirmation:
    – I have been told that hertz will call me 24h ahead to confirm if I can pick the car. So issue was, that they call me 24h before and told me that “my car may or may not be ready”…! I hate when someone tells me this, I am a simple guy, so please tell me is the car ready or not? That is all I want to know. I am working and can’t leave my job anytime, right? So I planned all this ahead and requested day off at work to collect the car and take it to inspection…
    – Anyway Hertz rep. call me the same day as my car supposed to be ready. It was at 10am that the car is ready to collect and I scheduled it to collect at 3pm. So I was a bit nervous and excited that day…
    Actual car status and pre purchase check:
    – My car had bunch of dents and scratches, this was told to me on phone before so I expected it. 1 year old car with 39k miles on it, of course it was heavily used… but the price was very good 2-3k less that best price I could negotiate with dealer… I could see the car before actually sign or do any paperwork, so I still could say no, but I did not. I tried all the power options of the car, windows etc… This is very positive service from Hertz, always check the car ahead…
    – The car was totally cleaned, polished and shiny in and out… One bad think about my car was , that it smelled quite bad (the girls from Hertz admitted it too). But the next parked Prius (also waiting to be R2B purchase obviously) had all the windows down, so I was wondering why, and I put my head in to the car and smell the same bad smell of the interior… I tried to call Herz to credit me for couple dollars for the interior clean, but w/o success… the car was as-is… no price negotiation… there were no stains in the car to pointing to the cause of the smell… I check and looked everywhere… (now after 1k miles of use and periodic clean of the car, the smell is much less, I still need to send it for interior clean one day).
    – I send the car for inspection (90usd) all was ok, so the next day I chose to buy it. Too bad that they charge my CC full price and it took 3 weeks and 5-6 phone calls and bunch of emails to get back the waived fees… even I select “buy” the next day!!!
    Paper work:
    – The remaining paper work process was difficult for me as I did not have the US driving license (I am EU guy here on 3y contract trough my company in Europe) so we had many calls and discussion how to title the car to my name… But it looks like easy and fast process if you have the US driving license and evidence of residency in the state you live in (e.g. utility bill)… we just moved to US, so we did not had any of it, but had to buy a car.
    – I had to title the car myself, but this saved me about 50-60USD, once I count all the dollars I paid vs. the title and reg. fee from Hertz.
    Three days ago I revieved my title too, so all is now good. The car runs well…
    Warranty concern:
    – I do not know about the car warranty though (not the one from Hertz), since with Nissan you can transfer it to new owner, but all warranty is about that, you have to follow the regular service intervals. But Hertz will not give you written statement that all service was done per specification. Just verbally in the phone the person will tell you that they followed it…
    so I am not sure, if one day ,one part will fail and is still under Nissan warranty , if that would be repaired for free, since I have no evidence of good servicing of the car… you know what I mean…
    Post purchase service:
    I had to change oil immediately after purchase as well as the oil filter (in between the recommended interval), just to sleep better (cost of 35USD in GoodYear service with coupon ).
    What I was badly surprise was, that during that oil change, I was called by the service guy that the air filter is very dirty and have to be changed (40USD), the service guy told me also it was not changed regularly, since per Nissan service it supposed to be recently changed… so I am bit skeptic of the regular Hertz maintenance of their cars… especially if they can not show evidence. (I am an auditor in my job, so no evidence means, fail to prove it was done)
    Would I recommend R2B to my friends?
    Yes I would, if the price is low enough against the dealerships, but be ready for all the above I just wrote… Stefan.

  42. Hertz Rent2Wait
    Apparently it makes a difference where you buy the car under this program. Some places have their acts together–two weeks and you’re ready to go–but others don’t. Rented a car over the July 4th weekend. Told them I’d buy it the day I picked it up. Minor damage to back bumper knocked $1000 off price. They sent me instructions by email the next week. I followed them and sent them a Dealer’s check from the financing bank. They lost it. After a week of calls wanting to know how I was going to pay for the car, it dawned on me that they didn’t have it. I sent them a second one and stayed on the phone to make sure they received it. On July 24th they said the papers were ready to sign. Had to drive from NH to Boston to sign because they don’t have a license to do business in NH (since when are they doing business in NH simply because I sign the papers there? Other out of state dealers have had no problem FedEx-ing the paperwork for me to sign). On Aug. 16th they said they had turned everything over to the title company (ABS). Heard nothing. Emailed Hertz on Sept 17th asking how many months it was going to take for the title. Heard from Title company two days later. Finally, yesterday, Sept 30th, almost three months after telling them I wanted to buy the car, I picked up the registration papers at the town office.
    They’re a “team” = no primary contact person and you deal with several different people, some who talk to each other and some who apparently don’t. Example: five minutes after getting off the phone and making sure they rec’d the Dealer’s Check, I got a call from another “team member” wanting to know how I was going to pay for the car. Par for the course. The staff people themselves were very courteous and helpful, but had the distinct impression there was a leadership vacuum at the top.
    Apparently in some places across the country they’ve got their act together and it takes two weeks. In other places they don’t, and you’re looking at 2 1/2 to 3 months.

  43. am in the process of looking for a good used car,found this , and am now more confused! Some had a good time Yea! Some had a really bad time, BOOOO, I
    expect more from a company then I do from an individual, but either way this
    process is Hellacious. Living in the Mts of NY,cannot do without a car, so whom shall
    I allow to aggraviate me? The admin staff at Hertz must be alseep at their desks, the adventure with Enterprise seems just as fraught with service crews not caring about
    customer satisfaction. Maybe these corporations don’t realize that most customers can now share their views, about their experiences.
    WAKE UP HERTZ, OR ALL CUSTOMERS WILL GO ELSEWHERE!!!!!!!

  44. Hi,

    Can someone tell me what the current $250 coupon code is?

    I said the following under The Process: “Scroll down to the bottom of this post for the current coupon code.”

    I could not find it at the bottom of this post.

    Thank you.

    1. Christian,
      Hertz coupon codes come and go. Your best bet is to visit their Facebook fan page or go directly to the site for deals.

  45. I was researching if Hertz Rent-to-Buy was a scam. I am at the end stages of the program. It’s really been a horrible experience. They offered financing but only gave me five days to decide and did not tell me I only had five days. During four of those days, I was away for Thanksgiving weekend. I then saw in the contract that there were two warranties put into the contract and I didn’t want any. So, by the time I figured it out, I needed to get my own financing. Also, they sent me forms to be signed and sent back. However, one of the forms needed to be signed by Capital One and Hertz Rent to Buy send the documents had to be received within 48 hours. How is that possible. There were many other problems as well such as using the scare tactic to of saying that if I did not get the financing in by a certain period of time, I would have to return the car. That meant I would have to pay hundreds in rental charges. My old car was totaled by a hit-and-run driver.

  47. I recently got a Camry2011 from them and got my own financing with the bank. I was all approved and ready to go and that’s when Bank asked for the sales agreement for disbursal of loan and I said they need the complete money in before they will ship out the agreement and bank declined my loan immediately.

    Apparently i feel this as a tactic to go through their finance service and now they are also running a 7day counter for my complete money in though i am going through their finance process.

    Hope things work out and i don’t have to return the car else it would be a big fat rental bill.

    1. This “pinch” tactic is a big reason for avoiding the rental car market, and Hertz specifically. I think they need to address it if they want to retain happy customers in the future.

  48. Hi, I will be picking up my rental car Tuesday (2011 Nissan Altima Coupe, 25k miles, $16k) and I have some questions.

    First, before I made the car reservation, I didn’t know about the coupon codes. Now that I have one is it too late to use it? Do you think I would have to cancel my current reservation and make a new one adding the code this time?

    Second, I’m financing my car through Penfed and they told me I was basically approved but they needed the purchase order and copy of the car’s title to finish the application. I know once you press the purchase button on the Hertz website, they send you a purchase order (Penfed said it was ok to just send that). They told me once I fax them my purchase order and pay for express shipping (same or 1-day), they would send the check within 24-48 hours of receiving the fax and approving the application. I talk to a Hertz rep. earlier today and he told me that once I decide to buy the car (which was going to be within the 2 hour “free” return period) I had to keep the car until they receive the payment check. He also told me that I would be charged the rental fee + $25 (non-refundable under age fee) a day until they receive the check. This could possibly take a week or more considering weekends and Hertz office hours. Do I have this correct or am I going to have to shell out around $800 (including $200 deposit)? I know the charges will be refunded back (minus the age fee) but did everyone have to go through this, or am I thinking about this wrong?

    Thanks!

    1. @Auri
      First and foremost thing when you are financing on your own outside of Hertz…is to confirm with your bank if they would disburse the entire amount of loan based on a small “Car Bought” confirmation email from Hertz. That email does not contain any title or other information which Banks generally need to disburse the loan amount.

      If your financial institution does not disburse without a title copy & sales agreement, then you are in a fix as you would have to go through Hertz Finance.

      They will not tell you about this requirement….until you go and click “Buy this Car”! Once you do this…all you will get bugged is for complete payment of the car in full before they take the process further.

      So be very careful about what you are trying to do with the loan.

      For the rental fees, you will be refunded for rental fee, but not the daily Collision Damage or Personal Insurance options. So if you decide to buy, you have the option to go back to the location you picked up the car and generate a new contract without all insurance options so that at the end of the purchase deal you get everything refunded in full.

      Hope this helps. I had a tough time with my own finance source as Hertz was not ready to give any documents prior to full payment [There defense, as the car is already with me, no documents until you pay in full], while the bank wanted to see some documents apart from a small email saying i bought the car which makes no sense for them.

  49. Hi,
    I was planning to buy a hertz certified car. I see most of there vehicles have met with minor accidents or damages as per the car fax reports. Will these kind of minor accidents create a problem when reselling this rental car. Please provide your opinion on this. Thanks

    1. Based on past reader feedback, I didn’t think these accidents showed up on the Carfax. In either case, the fact that the car was a rental will.

      I think both will definitely count against you in a resale situation. Just how much depends on when you sell–I don’t plan to sell my car until it’s probably worth in the range of $2,000–the rental history should only make a minor difference then.

  50. I have some comments and questions. For those who have experience with Rent2Buy, I would appreciate you skipping to the end of the post to answer my questions.

    COMMENTS:

    I was able to find an accident listed at CarFax for 1 of the 2 cars I was considering. The car was involved in an accident with another car, so a CarFax report may be worth doing. However as others suggested, if there was a single vehicle accident with no police or insurance report, it will probably not show up.

    Be sure to check and perhaps even call to check the hours of the pickup location. You may find that the hours of a location do not work with your schedule. For instance if you pickup on Saturday morning and the car fails a pre-purchase inspection, if the pick up location closes for the weekend at noon on Saturday, you will be forced to hold onto the car for 2 days and $100 before returning it.

    When the Rent2Buy headquarters calls you, they will instruct you not to show up at or call the pick up location. You are supposed to wait for a call from the Rent2Buy headquarters confirming the pickup date and time. Well, I showed up at the pick up location before receiving a call. I checked the lot, and the reserved car was sitting there ready with plastic seat covers and paper floor mats. I spoke with the local rental agent, and he confirmed that the car was ready and in fact ready from the day before. He was going through the process to rent the car to me, but he could not “release” the car into my possession. He called headquarters, and they had to do just one click of a button to make the car available. I have a feeling that if I did not stop by, the car would never have been rented to me on the day I requested. The communication between the local rental locations and headquarters could be improved. After this was resolved, the pick up process was easy.

    A $90 pre-purchase inspection at AAA Car Care Plus gave the car a clean bill of health except for 1 tire that needs to be replaced and alignment. This brings me to my questions.

    QUESTIONS:

    Can anyone relay personal experience with success or failure with having Hertz fix an issue before a sale is made? I would like to get 1 worn tire replaced and an alignment on a car I am testing. Did you talk with the headquarters or the rental location? How did you negotiate for the repair?

    1. Well, an update to my previous post:

      The limited warranty specifically states that as a used car the tires may be worn, so there is no option of having Hertz replace tires.

      The car came with one key. I checked with Hertz about a second key, and they said if there was a second key, it would be under the spare tire. I checked, and there was no key. However it may be worthwhile for others to know in order to check.

      So far the purchase process is going smoothly. There is a lot of back and forth with FedEx envelopes for registration, license plates, title, etc. To allow time for the series of mailing, anyone buying a car should plan to be at home for at least a couple of weeks. Though it is a bit of a process to mail the envelopes back and forth, and I prefer doing than compared to waiting around at the state motor vehicle office.

  51. Just want to say that I had a pretty good experience buying a 2010 Matrix from Hertz Rent to Buy. I was looking to buy a recent model used car and came across this post. After reading all the comments I decided to give Hertz a try. This is my first used car in 25 years. Just can’t bring myself to pay for new car price. The price for the Matrix was $12,000, a few thousands below market value. I put in about $600 to fix minor stuff and fluid change etc.. The whole process took less than a month but it was a cash deal. Bought the car in March and have already put in 13,000 miles on it.

  52. Buyer Beware!! I foolishly thought hertz would be better than “used car salesman” actually, they are worse. sold me a car they said had a missing remote when i checked it out, turned out that there is no remote. they are liars!! you have to be super careful with these con artists disguised as a reputable company.

  53. I just bought a 2011 Honda Odyssey LX in August from Hertz Rent2Buy $20,950 + Tax and fees which is pretty much KBB Private Party Very Good Price, retail price is at least $26,500 new here in San Diego CA. Carfax was clean except the fleet car tag, not that they would report anything anyway. Odysseys go very fast usually with 24 hours of being listed. So if you see one grab it fast. Once reserved its basically yours unless you change your mind within the reserve time, not like at a dealership where theres alot of pressure and you cannot just think about it. The price is no haggle which is nice but the promos change and right now the promo is the best I have seen it. Which makes competition for the best cars go up. I have only ever seen one other odyssey in my area go on sale since I bought, as I said they go super fast. Mine had only 23,600 miles on it which is low for this program, most are at least 5,000 or 10,000 miles more. Mine was on rental when I reserved it and in the 2 weeks it was out they put on an extra 1,000 miles pretty crazy.

    Anyways on to condition. The shape of the car was good not great. A few things I did not notice upfront. The windsheild molding was off the car. Upon closer inspection the windsheild was installed to one side too much and the molding would not fit properly. I told Hertz and after 3 weeks of having it inspected by Hertz and Safelite they finally covered it under warranty by replacing the whole windshield, the clips, and moulding. Hertz was very proactive in fixing the problem, but it did take some driving and weeks of time before a solution was found. Another problem was the dashboard gauge dimmer switch was completely broken off. Very subtle but I caught it pretty quick. That will be covered by Honda Bumper to bumper warranty. Have to replace the whole dash for one little switch but at least they are doing it. Other smaller problems there was a bolt missing in the rear bumper $2.00. Some of the plastic panals inside have alot of scratchs so I replaced the ones that were looking bad, mostly in the trunk area. About $25 each not bad. Had to scrub some of the interior from some stains. Also the paint needed work, minor swirl marks from auto car washes. Corner bumps from shopping cart damage and someone backed into a pole middle of the rear bumper this can all be buffed out or just ignored if you want to. The engine was very dirty, and the oil had not been changed in a while very black, and the tires were wearing poorly due to no tire rotations. I seriously doubt the car was maintain really well but in 24,000 miles there is not too much damage that can be done. If you dont mind doing the refurb work or just want to ignore it you can save a couple grand in the process. I used to work for Enterprise, the maintainance is car washes, and an occasional oil change if the car is available and seriously overdue. They only make money when the car is rented so… I would look for the lowest miles you can get. Overall the car was in good condition. If you want a perfect car or one that is totally ready to go this is, not for you. It will cost some money and time to refurb and some things like the tires and oil need to be done immediately upon getting the car to save problems later.

    Overall this is my type of car purchase. I get to save thousands and fix things up on the cheap, my labor mostly and purchase a car I would never have been able to afford otherwise. The Hertz process was pretty smooth, once reserved I had days to decide if I want it. Took to a mechanic who said it looked good overall. The warranty work was slow but steady and proactive. The contract was signed at my house after the windshield was replaced 3 weeks later and fedexed back. The loan was handled from my credit union over email. I kept the van the whole time. Very different buying experience. I didnt have to sit in a high pressure sales office for 12 hours with kids like last time I bought a car. I did have to drive to the local Hertz at the airport a few times about 35 minute drive each way but thats not too bad. Once for the van and again for the warranty stuff. I was able to get $800 off the listed price. $500 promo and $300 coupon from Google search. I would do it again. The car did not smell, and not abused just rough around the edges like a rental can get. I would also pump alot of quality gas for a while, I am sure the rental got its share of cheap non detergent gas so some techron would be a good idea too.

  54. I am also planning to buy one car through rent2buy program. This is first time we are buying rental vehicle so taking steps very carefully.
    I checked auto check report and it says vehicle have loan/lien record. i checked two of their vehicle they both says same.
    What is it? Will that cause any problem for me?

    1. Typically, that would indicate a car loan, but in the case of Hertz, I’m not quite sure. Usually, the lien will have to be satisfied anyway for the sale to go through, so it may just be something Hertz takes care of at the time of the sale. Best bet would be to call & ask them.

    2. Same here, I am in the process of buying a car via Rent2Buy and the AutoCheck that Hertz provided to me has a record of loan/lien. Waiting on their response before I sign the dotted line.

      1. Purchased a VW Jetta from Hertz Rent2Buy. A very nice car. They put a new set of tires on it and I took it to a mechanic for a look over before buying, my mechanic recommended new rotors and brakepads. Asked Hertz to replace and they did arranged me to bring it to a shop to get all replaced. Very happy so far with the entire process. Have the car booked into a VW garage this Friday for a service and checkup.

      2. Make sure you close out your Rent2Buy rental agreement when you buy the car. Hertz has been authorizing hundreds of dollars on my credit card since I purchased the car over 2 weeks ago. Still getting to the bottom of it, the two departments don’t talk to each other so this is something to watch and a pain in the ass.

      3. After 4 calls to Hertz (1 hour later) I got an answer. In the State of PA, Hertz maintains an authorization hold on your credit card until the title of the car has transferred. In PA this process takes a very long time (30-45 days). During this time Hertz will authorize the original rental charge multiple times.

        I was told by Rent2Buy (405-775-4500) that the DMV in PA has started the process and it should be completed in 5-10 days and once that happens they will release/refund any credit card charges. I was also told this is a PA thing due to how title transfer works (anyone else experienced this?).

        This was not explained to me during the purchase process, very annoying. Still happy with my car, got VW garage to service it and they said it was a great car.

      4. Today Hertz authorized $1,124 on my credit card, this is getting ridiculous at this stage. Also received the final bill for the rental that I am suppose to get back through a refund, bill is $249.56. Will need to call Rent2Buy again and see what the problem is. Starting to dislike this method of buying a car.

      5. Should have updated this sooner. Once PA transferred ownership to me Hertz cancelled all the holds on my credit card and refunded me my original rental fee and all is good. Very happy with the car so far and the sales lady even emailed me about 2 weeks ago to see if everything was good, nice customer service.

  55. Hi,

    Thanks for everyone’s comments, this has been so helpful.

    I have been looking at Mazda3’s. I live in the tri-state area and in my area I have found 7 cars, all the same model and color. I did the 30 day unlimited Autocheck on each of them. 2 out of the 7 have an accident showing up on the report, it says “minor accident or vehicle damage reported”. They are priced similarly, which is concerning. Maybe they were barely even fender benders, but who knows. I’m glad I checked.

    Has anyone gone through the process since September 2012? I’m really hoping the whole issue with the cars not being ready on day of pick up isn’t an issue anymore. It seems like if they are charging your card $10 for being a no-show, then they would actually do what they say and pull the cars out of the rental fleet. I’d be willing to put a larger deposit down just to ensure my car would be ready when scheduled. This is going to be a big issue for me trying to arrange the logisticsfor pick up and possible return even for the actually day and time that I have my car scheduled, let alone if it ends up not being ready. Has anyone had experiences at the Lynbrook NY location, or the other locations nearby?

    Thanks,
    Ellen

  56. My first experience with Hertz Rent To Buy was rather disappointing. I had to use a day of vacation since the rental place is open only until 6 on weekdays and it’s very hard for me to leave work and drive across town to make it there to test the car for 2 hours before the place closes. I was only left with a message describing the car as being in “good” condition, which I guess I now know that that means two deep gauges on the left side of the bumper, several scratches (2 deep) on the bumper itself and 2 dings and other miner scratches on the car. It also came with chocolate crumbs inside the interior, so I guess they were thinking maybe I would need a snack later or something?! Anyway, I am going to give them a second time and hopefully this time the car will be in better cosmetic shape or they will give me more of a clue before I go there so I don’t waste my time. Oh and they would go down on the price, but barely over 100.00, not worth it to me with the cosmetic flaws that were on it.

  57. I recently purchased a Hertz rent 2 buy car, or I should say I recently paid for one on January 24. Today is February 13. I was told by Hertz that I should receive title and registration by mail within the next week or two. I have been lied to on more than one occasion, promises they made were not kept. This was definitely the worst car buying experience of my life, and could possibly be yours too, if you decide to purchase a car from Hertz.

  58. I feel grateful finding this website. Thank you Wojciec for setting up this interesting discussion. I hope there are still people using this page to talk about this program. I just order a 2013 Mazda 3 i from R2B program and I will pick up ( hope they will make t ready at that time) the car next Friday in Syracuse, NY. I would like to keep updating my whole experience of this purchase ( if it works out as expected, hopefully!!!) and let you guys know whether Hertz has already improved its work efficiency! Thanks

  60. I went through the rent 2 buy program and reserved a mazda 5 for a friday pick up. Made the arrangements with a mechanic and had the whole day setup. Friday came and no one contacted us from Hertz. We called the main number and were told that no one was responding at our pickup location. We called many times throughout the day and the lady could not get any one on the phone for us. We called the pickup location directly and were told they couldn’t help us and to call the sales number. We called the sales number which told us to call the main number. Rinse and repeat. Its now 5 days later and the car is still not available but we finally received one call saying the car is in maintenance? Not very impressed with my experience so far.

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