Imagine being able to drive a car and not have to worry about insurance, full vehicle maintenance, roadside assistance, hidden fees and a commitment for the long term, which are issues that are associated with either owning or leasing a vehicle.
Hertz Introduces Monthly Subscription Service as an Alternative to Owning or Leasing Vehicles — But…
Hertz My Car is a new monthly subscription service which allows you to “enjoy hassle-free driving with access to a variety of cars with liability coverage and no maintenance fees” with two different tiers:
- Tier 1 allows you to rent small sport utility vehicles, small trucks, and full-size sedans — such as the Volkswagen Tiguan, Toyota Tacoma, Nissan Altima or similar — for $999.00 per month plus taxes.
- Tier 2 allows you to rent regular sport utility vehicle, large trucks, and luxury sedans — such as Jeep Grand Cherokee, Infiniti QX60, Ford F-150, Cadillac CTS or similar — plus any of the vehicles which are part of the Tier 1 group for $1,399.00 per month plus taxes.
How the Hertz My Car Monthly Subscription Service Works
Four steps are involved with participating in the Hertz My Car monthly subscription service:
- Subscribe now using your Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership number — you must pay an enrollment fee of $250.00 — and if you are not yet a member, you can join now.
- Schedule picking up your first vehicle after you are contacted by Hertz My Car to confirm your subscription status and vehicle preference.
- Pick up your vehicle and go.
- You can exchange your vehicle up to a maximum of twice per month at no extra charge — and additional exchanges within the month are available for $75.00 each.
Advantages
Hertz spares no effort in touting the advantages of its monthly membership program…
- The aforementioned selection of vehicles to meet your needs
- Ability to exchange your vehicle twice per month
- 2,000 monthly mileage allotment
- Liability coverage of:
- Bodily injury or death up to a maximum limit of $100,000.00 for each person
- Up to a maximum limit of $300,000.00 for each accident
- Up to a maximum limit of $50,000.00 for property damage
- Full maintenance
- Loss Damage Waiver — with a deductible of $1,000.00
- Sirius XM Radio — where available
- Roadside Assistance
- Free Additional Driver
- Earn Hertz Gold Plus Rewards points: one point per one dollar spent, with a bonus of:
- 25 percent for Five Star members
- 50 percent for President’s Circle members
Disadvantages
…but as tempting as the list of advantages may seem, disadvantages include:
- You must pay the first $1,000.00 of damage covered under the Loss Damage Waiver before it becomes effective in case of damage.
- The liability coverage is limited — meaning you may consider purchasing additional insurance coverage.
- You will be charged 35 cents per mile if you exceed the monthly allotment of 2,000 miles — which cancels the possibility of many road trips without paying extra.
- No vehicle may be used for ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft — primarily because Hertz already has existing specific programs for drivers who want to rent vehicles to use for Uber or Lyft.
- The recent significant devaluation of the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards frequent renter loyalty program means that the 999 points or 1,300 points you earn per month — depending on which tier you select — will get you only one free rental day at the most.
- If you can rent a vehicle for less than $33.00 per day with unlimited mileage — which is not all that difficult to do with weekly rentals and discounted offers — you would be better off renting vehicles all the time than signing up for this monthly subscription service, as you can theoretically change out your vehicle as many times as you like.
- Existing competing services may arguably offer a better value — for example, in some areas of the United States, you can have your choice of Porsche in the Porsche Passport monthly membership program for as little as $2,000.00 per month.
Summary
I have rented cars from Hertz in the past for less than $100.00 for a week — and that was with unlimited miles. I used a credit card which includes insurance for rental vehicles. Those are only two of the reasons why I have no interest in participating in this monthly membership program. More reasons can be found in the terms and conditions of Hertz My Car — such as a credit check and a background check.
To end this article, please allow me to quote Mike L, who is a reader of Miles to Memories and posted this comment in this article written by Danny the Deal Guru:
Am I missing something here?
A pretty near fully-loaded Camry is about $32k. 3 years in this program would cost $35,964.
A low end Cadillac CTS is about $50k. 3 years in this program would be $50,364.
Is this just for people who are really bad at math?
Photograph ©2017 by Brian Cohen.
