Rental Ripoff
During my recent business trip, we decided to rent an SUV to help haul all the various computer paraphenalia. As the senior tech on the trip, I was responsible for acquiring said rental, which brings us to the crux of the post. Hertz has two options for purchasing fuel. The first option has been the standard for years: you bring the car back, and they charge you a fee (usually exhorbitant, 2-3 times the prevailing gas price) to refill the fuel tank. The second option saves you from the outrageous gas prices by giving you the option to “refill” the tank at or near the current gas price, but you have to buy the whole tank.
The exact options I was given were:
- $5.99 per gallon (to top off the tank)
- $2.79 per gallon (to refill the entire 20-gallon tank)
At first blush, it might seem like the new second option is superior: you get a cheaper per-gallon price, and you don’t have to deal with the hassle of finding a gas station close to the rental agency. However, when you figure that the total cost for the “cheaper” option is $55.80, in order to actually save money over the original option, the tank would need to be less than half full. Add in the fact that the clerk who accepted the rental merely checked the fuel gauge instead of some more accurate means of measuring the tank’s current volume, it makes the first option that much more attractive. Given that most vehicles get at least 10-20 miles to the gallon, if you can fill the tank within that 20-mile range of the return location, the only time you lose money compared to the “full tank” option is if you can return the tank with only 1-2 gallons remaining.
May 6th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Since they use he fuel indicator rather than actually measuring the tank, the best option is to always fill the tank at the nearest station. When you take it back, the tank indcates “Full” and you aren’t charged anything. The real thing to watch with some rentals now is that they use GPS to track the car and the speed. The rental company tacks on huge charges for speeding even a few miles over the posted limit (you know, “flow of traffic” speed). Another one is the GPS combined with a geographically impaired person behind the counter who will try to charge you extra for taking a “connecting states” rental to Oklahoma. “Connecting states” rentals are those which allow the vehicle to go to any state that shares a boarder with your origin state. As one guy I work with found out, make sure you have an atlas handy as the rental companies don’t seem to know that Oklahoma does overlap boarders with Colorado.