Comments on: So Green it Hertz

By: armadamaster

armadamaster — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 11:38:47 +0000

Um….yeah…I’ll take a Town Car now please….

By: tdoyle

tdoyle — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:52:28 +0000

I think we’ll just keep our ‘07 PZEV Focus, thank you.

By: dean

dean — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 21:29:22 +0000

I’m guessing that the Outback is “green” insofar as it is probably among the mileage leaders for all wheel drive vehicles with some carrying capacity. In other words, it isn’t green, but greener than most comparable alternatives.

By: Donal

Donal — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:26:01 +0000

There will be a backlash in the green movement after it becomes clear that many of the companies claiming to be green are in fact nothing of the sort. Businesses that proclaim they are “carbon neutral” will find that such proclamations no longer carry much weight among far more skeptical media and consumers.

Business Week
http://tinyurl.com/3×3d9y

Reminds me of “user-friendly.”

By: Chris Haak

Chris Haak — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:46:11 +0000

The 28 mpg figure is probably because, more or less, “28 is the new 30.” Since the EPA ratings were all lowered for 2008 MY vehicles, it seems as if most lost about 2 mpg. I noticed that the other week, Chrysler trumpeted that it had “x models that achieved 28 mpg,” in contrast with GM’s claim last year that they had x models that reached 30 mpg.

By: Eric_Stepans

Eric_Stepans — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:33:56 +0000

The Buick Lacrosse?

The Hyundai Sonata?

Aw, give me a break!

Actually, I think Hertz’s “Green Collection” concept has been out for a while.

If my recollection serves, it used to only include high-MPG subcompacts and hybrids (e.g. Prius, Toyota Camry Hybrid, Ford Escape Hybrid, etc.).

Apparently, that was not attracting enough customers so they just redefined what ‘Green’ is.

By: Martin Albright

Martin Albright — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 16:08:24 +0000

In what universe does an Outback get 28mpg? Or are they playing bait-and-switch by using only the highway MPG and not the combined MPG?

FWIW I got about 29 a couple of times on my 99 Outback/automatic, but that was under very ideal circumstances: Going slightly downhill in the Rocky Mountain West, CC set at about 60 and in no hurry to get anywhere. City MPG was much closer to 22-23 max.

By: theflyersfan

theflyersfan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:58:04 +0000

Great timing for this article at least on this end. I do my renting from Hertz so when I was looking to put the 1100+ miles on someone else’s vehicle this past New Years weekend, they got the call. Through my past rental record, memberships, and asking very nicely, I got a 2008 Prius with 3500 miles on it for the same price as a “standard” Corolla-sized rental. It didn’t have factory or Hertz GPS installed but otherwise it was nicely equipped. (Stinking “smart key” system never worked even after RTFM, reset the switch buried under the steering wheel column and doing everything but spraying holy water on the fob.) The Prius wasn’t a bad car, but it flat out hates mountains as my forward motion and ear drums were tested on a regular basis on the WV Tollroad’s many climbs. (44mpg to NC, 41mpg back home in a partial snowstorm.)
I still want to know how their Subaru Outback fits in their “Green Collection” – they get OK mileage but not “green” mileage.
The Hertz collections aren’t filled with gross polluters as they don’t have numerous Hummer and hulking-SUVs as part of their collections. Many of their premium collections are filled with cars we discuss that normally aren’t in fleets – G35, MX-5 Miata, Volvo S80/XC70/XC90, and the dreaded Crossfire. While my closest airport isn’t a Hertz “premium” rental site like LAX, JFK, Vegas and so on, it is busy enough to get a near contant stream of their collections cars including one of the Hertz Mustangs that I had out several months ago.
I’ve only seen one Hummer H2 at the airport location and the clerk behind the counter was all but begging me to take it for a huge discount. I declined since many highway miles lay ahead and snagged the keys to an S80 that was worth the money. I can’t imagine employee reimbursement paying people back for the miles put on an H2!
I’ve seen quite a few Prius rentals at various rental sites and think this is a good thing. When a small family is buried somewhere in Orlando, what are they doing? 2-burned out adults in the front. 2 screeching mouse-deprived kids in the back. Luggage under the hatch…and they are sitting and rotting on the I-4. Let that engine shut off and save some gas money for the overpriced everything down the freeway.

By: jkross22

jkross22 — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:28:48 +0000

Hertz is smart… ride the green marketing bandwagon. In Reality, Hertz is only as green as their fleet mpg average is, which is probably about as green as the color of smog…. or Toyota.

By: Glenn Swanson

Glenn Swanson — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:03:03 +0000

Pure unadulterated propaganda.

But no doubt good enough fodder to fool many of those who wrote to Tom Flyer.

By: rollingwreck

rollingwreck — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:39:25 +0000

It seems to me that there are wide regional differences in car availability with the big rental agencies.

On a recent trip to oakland, i was shocked when Avis gave me a Prius — one of their ‘regular’ compact cars apparently at this location. There were at least 10 of them in the lot at the time.

Nice car, held all my crap and returned 48 mpg.

Contrast this with my trip to New Mexico, where Avis tried to stick me with the biggest Ford pickup i’d ever seen. One of 5 on the lot. I demurred, and got a Cobalt for my troubles :(

By: quasimondo

quasimondo — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:38:19 +0000

I’d love to get a breakdown by numbers of how many times the Prius was requested versus all of the other cars in this ‘green’ fleet.