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 Monthly Subscription Service: An Alternative to Owning or Leasing Vehicles — But…
A monthly subscription service called Hertz My Car was introduced back in the spring of 2019; and it allows you to “enjoy hassle-free driving with access to a variety of cars with liability coverage and no maintenance fees” with four different tiers:
- Tier 1 Without Liability Insurance Coverage allows you to rent economy cars, compact cars, and mid-size cars — such as the Chevrolet Spark, Ford Focus, Mazda 3, or similar — for $599.00 per month plus taxes plus $30.00 for each additional day beyond one month; but this tier does not include liability coverage insurance.
- Tier 1 With Liability Insurance Coverage allows you to rent economy cars, compact cars, and mid-size cars — such as the Chevrolet Spark, Ford Focus, Mazda 3, or similar — for $699.00 per month plus taxes plus $30.00 for each additional day beyond one month.
- Tier 2 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 — plus any of the vehicles which are part of the Tier 1 group for $999.00 per month plus taxes plus $40.00 for each additional day beyond one month.
- Tier 3 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; and also including vehicles from Tier 2 — plus any of the vehicles which are part of the Tier 1 group for $1,399.00 per month plus taxes plus $50.00 for each additional day beyond one month.
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 is included in vehicles in Tier 2 and Tier 3 — 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 comes out to as little as less than 65 miles per day and 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 significant devaluation of the Hertz Gold Plus Rewards frequent renter loyalty program in May of 2019 means that the points you earn per month — 599 points for Tier 1 without liability insurance coverage, 699 points for Tier 1 with liability insurance coverage, 999 points for Tier 2, or 1,300 points for Tier 3 — will get you only up to 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.
- You must be a minimum of 25 years of age in order to participate in this program.
- Sirius XM Radio is not included in vehicles in Tier 1.
- 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.
- A monthly surcharge applies in the greater metropolitan areas of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco — as well as elsewhere in the state of California and the state of Hawaii, as shown in the chart below:
| Market |
Airport Locations |
Neighborhood Locations |
Daily Rates Tier 1 |
Daily Rates Tier 2 |
Daily Rates Tier 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York — includes all five boroughs and Newark International Airport |
$250.00 | $250.00 | $40.00 | $50.00 | $60.00 |
| Boston | $150.00 | $0.00 | $35.00 |
$45.00 | $55.00 |
| San Francisco |
$150.00 | $150.00 | $35.00 | $45.00 | $55.00 |
| Philadelphia | $100.00 | $0.00 | $33.00 |
$43.00 | $53.00 |
| California — except for San Francisco | $150.00 | $0.00 | $35.00 | $45.00 | $55.00 |
| Hawaii | $100.00 | $100.00 | $33.00 | $43.00 | $53.00 |
Final Boarding Call
With updates such as the imposing of surcharges in select locations and the addition of two tiers, the Hertz My Car subscription program has undergone some changes since it was first introduced almost 30 months ago.
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.
However, forget about renting cars for less than $100.00 per week: the current 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic — as well as a shortage of semiconductors — created an unprecedented imbalance with which demand substantially outpaced supply, which led to significantly higher rates when renting vehicles because of a severe shortage of cars…
…and suddenly, the rates in the Hertz My Car subscription program do not seem so bad after all — especially with this pronouncement by Hertz:
Thank you for your interest in this program.
We’re currently at subscription capacity – but please check back often as we’re actively working to extend the program.
In other words, the Hertz My Car program is currently closed to new subscribers, as it is sold out.
All photographs ©2017, ©2018, and ©2020 by Brian Cohen.
