This article is reposted from a WeChat reader’s public account, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. Original link.

Renting the car

At the end of January, we took a trip to Southern California. Since we were on a late-night flight, it was already quite late by the time we got to LAX, and there were only a few cars left to choose from in Hertz’s President Circle area. On our previous trip in December, my partner had already been itching to rent a Tesla, so this time we used the lack of other good options as an excuse and went for it.

We have a Tesla at home, so getting used to it was easy for us. But I think even if you’ve never driven a Tesla before, it’s probably not a big deal. At pickup, you can spend maybe 10 to 20 minutes getting everything set up and then just drive off.

At the moment, it seems only Hertz rents Teslas, and they’re available in the following locations (https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/rental-car-deals/tesla-car-rentals/)

You can rent a Tesla from Hertz at our major airport and neighborhood locations in these select markets:

  • Albuquerque, NM
  • Atlanta, GA
  • Boston, MA
  • Burbank, CA
  • Chicago, IL
  • Cincinnati, KY
  • Co. Mountains, CO
  • Dallas, TX
  • Denver, CO
  • Ft. Lauderdale, FL
  • Las Vegas, NV
  • Los Angeles, CA
  • Sacramento, CA
  • San Diego, CA
  • Miami, FL
  • Newark, NJ
  • New York City, NY
  • Orlando, FL
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Phoenix, AZ
  • San Francisco, CA
  • San Jose, CA
  • Washington, D.C.

The rental company gives you a key card, so you can’t connect the car to your phone. Also, the glovebox can’t be opened without a password, and customer service said they could not provide it.

In the President Circle area, there were only Model 3s available; a Model Y required an upgrade.

The car had basic Autopilot, but not Enhanced Autopilot or Full Self-Driving. So on the freeway it could follow the car in front of you, but it couldn’t do things like lane changes for you.

Also, one really useful feature on our own Tesla is being able to share a Google Maps address directly to the car. But since a rental Tesla can’t connect to your phone, that feature doesn’t work here either. You can only use voice navigation or enter the address manually.

Charging issues

Now for the part everyone cares most about: charging. Charging stations are pretty common in Southern California. On this trip we stayed at three different hotels, and two of them had on-site chargers. Charging overnight at the hotel was very convenient. It saved us from wasting time during the day at Superchargers, and it was relatively cheaper too.

However, when we got to the hotel, we realized our rental car did not come with an adapter!

That meant we could only charge at official Tesla charging stations, while hotel chargers are usually the standard J-1772 type for EVs, which requires an adapter for a Tesla. I contacted customer service, and they gave me a few options: go back to LAX to pick up an adapter, or swap the car at a nearby Hertz location. Because of our itinerary, neither was workable. So that left only one option: grit our teeth and use Supercharging, then ask Hertz to make it right when we returned the car. Unfortunately, even though this wasn’t a very long trip, we did a lot of driving, so we ended up spending quite a bit on Supercharging. It cost much more than the gas would have for a Japanese car rental.

Oh, and one more thing: you don’t need to swipe your own card for Supercharging. The car is linked to the rental company’s account, so the charges go directly to Hertz.

Getting reimbursed

On the day we returned the car, traffic on the 405 was a complete mess, and the time I had set aside for arguing about this basically disappeared in traffic. So I quietly adapted to plan B in my head: argue by email after getting home.

When returning the car, I complained a little to the Black woman printing the paperwork. She seemed annoyed and turned it around on us, saying our kid had put stickers everywhere in the car. (They were actually easy peel-off stickers.) Our kid immediately peeled them all off without any trouble. Then she changed her tune again and said she didn’t handle that issue and that I should go talk to the counter instead.

As someone who values efficiency, I had no interest in waiting in line at the counter, so I stuck with plan B. After I got home, I emailed Hertz customer service. The general message was: as a valued President Circle member, I was very disappointed by this experience with Hertz, blah blah blah. Customer service replied quickly and said the case had already been escalated to the LAX staff, and that if I didn’t hear back within 3 business days, I should contact them again. Being the patient person I am, I waited a full week and still heard nothing, so I emailed again to follow up. This time customer service took several days to respond, but their reply said that all Supercharging charges from this trip had been refunded to us. Success!

Still, having to fight for it was exhausting. If I rent a Tesla again in the future, I’ll definitely make sure the adapter is actually there before driving off.

The end.

About the author

This article is reposted from a WeChat reader’s public account, 懒人 33 的吃喝玩乐. The account publishes original and well-written articles, so if you’re interested, feel free to follow it.