Hertz Model Y Rental review

All,

I'm just back from spending 2 weeks in Iceland with a Model Y rental from Hertz and wanted to record a few thoughts in case they are useful to others. We spent a couple of weeks up there, 1 week doing a fair number of miles based from within the 'golden circle', and another in and around Reykjavík. This is partly thoughts on Hertz, partly on the Y vs my 3.

Part 1 - Hertz & Iceland

I was fed up of fighting scrums for 'good deal' car hire where you have to get a lift, bus or taxi to the hire place and they then take 40 mins to process your hire before finally driving off with a rattily horrible fiesta and just wanted to arrive and pick up a car from the airport. Knowing hertz had adopted the Y, I just went straight to them. Good deal? Probably not. OTOH, they answered questions by email about charging quickly in the weeks leading up to the holiday and it was 5 mins in the terminal to get the key fob for our car, which was ~200 meters away from the terminal. Once we were in the car and at our destination it took an email and ~4 hours to get the car added to my tesla account so it showed up in my app and my phone worked as a key etc. We brought our SSD with us, and combined with associating with my profile meant it really was a home from home. Overall, stunning experience and significantly de-stressed the start of a family holiday.

The car came with a type 2 cable and UMC+ shuko adaptor and use of the supercharger network by standard, which covers pretty much all bases. We didn't need the SC's and managed to do all charging at the properties we were staying at. It took a bit of managing, but was largely OK - just needed to plug in as soon as we got home each day. The first property we were at did have a bit of a problem in that the most accessible sockets turned out to be on a 10A breaker, which we kept tripping by charging at 13a. Pretty sure that is fairly dodgy, but moved the charger to the kitchen circuit which was 16A for kettles etc and all was well (stopped charging when using kettle/toaster etc). Second property had a 'EV charge point' which turned out to actually be a 16A commando with a shuko adaptor in it. Wish I'd known and I could have taken my commando tail with me.

Outside of that, I did notice a -lot- of charge points around. Most tourist activities in towns had at least 22kw chargers, most towns had 1-2 fast 50kw chargers. Plenty of infrastructure around, although it would have been a pain if we couldn't have got the UMC working at all. The speed limits are pretty low (80-90kmph mostly) and sitting near that definitely helps the charge go a longer distance! Also a huge presence of EV's in general. Many Teslas, but loads of Leafs, Zoe's and polestars. I even saw a Buzz and a Soltera (with wheels still attached!). These must almost counteract all the superjeeps they have for heading up into the Highlands.

Talking of which, the hired Y isn't allowed into the Highlands on their 'F' roads. It is allowed on Gravel roads, but the next step down to F roads isn't allowed (these can be pretty gnarly with fords and fairly serious inclines, rocks, and general low quality. Obviously the Hertz insurance was the main factor for me, but what I could not find was whether that was a legal position too - the rules I could find state that only 4x4's are allowed on F roads legally, but I couldn't find any more detail to decide whether the Y would have been allowed had it been private or not. Lots of opinions from non-tesla drivers its a bad idea, but no actual info. Some of the F roads we saw (by bus) would have 100% been OK and we saw Dacia Dusters, Volvo XC's and even a Passat on them, so I'm not sure what the deal really was, but didn't push the insurance, just in case.

Finally on the overall experience, on return we just drove the car into the Hertz return area, someone met us, took the keyfob, checked there were no obvious crash marks and waved us on the way. 100% would recommend TBH. Saved so much time and stress. Only thing outstanding is I don't seem to be able to remove the hirecar from my app, so request in with Hertz for that.

Part 2 - the car

Part of the reasoning of hiring a Y was as an extended test drive. I love my M3 P-, but a few times a year I have clearance problems and carrying capacity problems. But I was really worried about the drivability of a taller car, especially after the poor suspension setup my Fremont 3 came with (added MPP comfort plus coilovers years ago). The Y we had was an LR, but locked in Chill mode. TBH, it wasn't actually a problem, which did surprise me.

• Luggage wise, the Y was good, but weird. Definitely way more than the 3 could easily get in. We had 3 large cases, hand luggage and a weeks worth of shopping for self catering in and it absorbed it no problems.
  • Not relevant to the holiday, but I -love- the 40/20/40 seat split - why the bleep de bleep doesn't the 3 have this? (can the y seats be retro fitted?),
  • The frunk is usefully larger than even my pre-HP model 3.
  • I just keep looking at the boot with the parcel shelf in place and thinking 'that just isn't that big', but then the underboot is massive, has the front underboot for cables etc, and the parcel shelf is actually just really low. Why it doesn't come with a roller shelf I have no idea, the solid one just doesn't work that well.
  • 100% sold on the larger luggage capacity and hatch design. Again, why isn't the 3 a hatch, grumble grumble.
• Driving. This is the tradeoff for me. Could a tall SUV still be good enough to drive while giving the extra luggage space we would really like?
  • This Y with 20k km on the clock (so I assume Berlin made) did deliver.
  • It would never be a track day weapon or anything, but
  • Sitting on the motorway was lovely, and
  • Really quite composed over the twisties.
  • The suspension is surprisingly firm when you hit actual bumps in tracks etc, but it runs a really fine balance. The roads in iceland were either beautiful, or gravel tho, so not 100% sure how it would translate to the UK.
  • Still evidence of a lack of isolation from the road surface at speed, despite being on winter tyres. Rough surfaces make their way into the cabin very prominently, but smooth surfaces create a place of tranquillity you won't get in many places.
• I found I could get a really comfortable cruising position for spending hours on AP at 90km/h. No complaints about lack of lumbar adjustment from my passenger, and she used to have to take an extra support cushion in most cars.
• I actually forgot to check, but I assume no USS on this one, but AP and distance measuring for parking all worked flawlessly. A couple of False breaking events, but both easily explained by the oncoming huge lorry creeping over the centreline.
• Metallic white is very pretty, even if I'd never buy it. Did see a few of the new crimson colour Y which was gorgeous.
• Wife hilariously kept tripping and falling on the way in and out of the Y as other than the height it is otherwise so similar to the 3.

Overall, massive step forward over the LR I tried ~18 months ago in the UK. If I was looking, or space needs get more urgent, I would be strongly considering it over the 3 TBH. Unless project highland is actually a conversion to a hatchback with air suspension (its not).

Overall, awesome holiday. Hertz, Model Y and Iceland all get strong recommendations.

"Tesla Model Y in San Ramon" by DestinationFearFan is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail

 

[Mrklaw]

The only two things I don’t like about moving from a 3 to a Y are the parcel shelf - like you say why its not a roller blind type thing I have no idea. And the fact the seats appear to be mostly model 3 seats on stilts. this results in an angle I can’t quite get comfortable with my feet on the pedals. Maybe I can lower the seat a bit but part of the appeal was the higher seating position. I’d kinda expected the pedals to also be higher to compensate. I guess just too used to low seating positions in saloons and coupes - this is my first crossover/CUV/SUV whatever the hell it is.

most of the time so far though the underboot has been fine as a full boot, or those side bins. The parcel shelf can apparantly be slid down behind the back seats with a little care so ‘almost’ retractable. I’m hoping it can be removed fully too and lay on the main floor as we’re about to fill it with the seats down bringing my son home from uni. We’re on holiday in cornwall at the moment with it fitted so no way to leave it at home

 

[Mrklaw]

no issues with needing a minimum charge level when returning it? like they might for a minimum amount of fuel?

 

[Avendit]

no issues with needing a minimum charge level when returning it? like they might for a minimum amount of fuel?

Had to be at 80% which might need some planning if could Ming from further away, but easy from where we were. Just whacked it up to 100% the night before.

 

[a1psx]

How was the navigation? We hired a Tucson in Iceland and used Apple Airplay and the map kept spinning due to the satellite obstruction I guess (mountains/valleys etc).

 

[spdpsba]

Unless project highland is actually a conversion to a hatchback with air suspension (its not).

I am hoping HW4 model 3 is a hatchback.

 

[WllXM]

I am hoping HW4 model 3 is a hatchback.

You’re on for a big disappointment.
It’s just a minor facelift and upgrade of internal components.
Model 3 will always be a sedan, hence have a lid. That’s basically what differentiates it from the Y. Tesla would be shooting themselves in the foot otherwise.

 

[Avendit]

How was the navigation? We hired a Tucson in Iceland and used Apple Airplay and the map kept spinning due to the satellite obstruction I guess (mountains/valleys etc).

100% perfect. A little slow to calc a route, but I wondered if that was because not on premium connectivity. Pretty much perfect once on route.

Some cases of the map having updated, but the routing not - ie the map shows a real new roundabout but the routing just has it as part of a straight road.

 

[spdpsba]

Model 3 will always be a sedan, hence have a lid.

I know Elon isn’t popular on this forum but he isn’t an idiot who is just lucky to become the richest or second richest - however you decide - on the planet. He knows the 3 design was wrong but it was necessary at that stage for Tesla to be a sedan or saloon. Both America and Asia are moving towards SUV/coupeish cars and his next target is this market in terms of hardware design as Tesla is far ahead in terms of battery tech compared to traditional German cars. If it is not on HW4 may be the next update will be model 3s rear end.

 

[WllXM]

I know Elon isn’t popular on this forum but he isn’t an idiot who is just lucky to become the richest or second richest - however you decide - on the planet. He knows the 3 design was wrong but it was necessary at that stage for Tesla to be a sedan or saloon. Both America and Asia are moving towards SUV/coupeish cars and his next target is this market in terms of hardware design as Tesla is far ahead in terms of battery tech compared to traditional German cars. If it is not on HW4 may be the next update will be model 3s rear end.

It's probably down to personal preference but I much prefer the lines and sleek look of the model 3.
I happen to be at a point in my family life where I need the extra cargo space offered by the model Y. But the proportions are off and it still looks like a M3 had an unfortunate growth hormone therapy accident with that oversized rear imho..

 

[rcnesneg]

One thing of note - it's super easy to add a 2 inch lift to your model 3. It basically turns it into a subaru outback. I'm very happy with this approach for myself. Range loss is 5% or less.

 

[Avendit]

One thing of note - it's super easy to add a 2 inch lift to your model 3. It basically turns it into a subaru outback. I'm very happy with this approach for myself. Range loss is 5% or less.

Have spent the evening looking at air options .

I have some adjustability in my UPP comfort coil overs, but I generally have them set about 3mm lower than (LR) stock as this is ideal for day to day and I mostly prioritise driving over the few weekends a year some extra height would be handy. If the height adjustment wasn't a wheels off option I'd be happy if I could do it manually for those weekends TBH.

 

[TechnoWatch]

The parcel shelf can apparantly be slid down behind the back seats with a little care so ‘almost’ retractable. I’m hoping it can be removed fully too and lay on the main floor as we’re about to fill it with the seats down bringing my son home from uni. We’re on holiday in cornwall at the moment with it fitted so no way to leave it at home

It is not a retractable type, however its 2 fold points make it reasonably easy to fold and incorporate into a full load. Being more solid certainly helps with noise muffling.

It can be put on the floor of the boot, or preferably, it can be folded and put against the back of the front seats where it will act as a baffle in case of emergency breaking.

 

[Mrklaw]

It is not a retractable type, however its 2 fold points make it reasonably easy to fold and incorporate into a full load. Being more solid certainly helps with noise muffling.

It can be put on the floor of the boot, or preferably, it can be folded and put against the back of the front seats where it will act as a baffle in case of emergency breaking.

I found out how to slide it behind the back seats whihc is a pain to bring bakc up again but workable. But yesterday I wanted to remove it to fill the rear and it was quite a pain in the backside to get it down onto the floor of the boot (only place I could fit it) and then pile stuff on top. I get the sound benefits but on balance I think a simple retractable blind would be better for me

 

[randompixel]

I've just returned from renting a Model Y LR from Hertz for 14 days. I thought I'd add my musings as a non-Tesla owning member (who would be an owner if interest rates hadn't tripled...)

Ordering and price changes
I ordered directly from the Hertz website having never rented from them before. The website is a bit crap. I had an initial price of 724.30 GBP. The sign up process only offered to join the Hertz Gold program AFTER I had made the booking, at which point I did sign up.

About 6 weeks before our trip I was checking the site again just for the hell of it and noticed my exact same rental had dropped to 654.06 GBP. At this point I cancelled the original one and was refunded the full amount (after a while) and rebooked a new rental (this time AFTER logging in as a gold member).

A few weeks before the rental starts Hertz start emailing you regularly with an introduction to the car and driving tips.

Pickup
We arrived at MCO and cleared border at around 23:30 local time (04:30 on our body clocks ). I wasn't entirely sure if I had to go to the desk in Terminal A or not but no, if you're a gold member you go straight to the car park at MCO. This is on the first floor. A lady did a bit of paperwork and then tried to talk me OUT of taking a child booster seat ("Yeah, you don't need one in Florida". Well, she wouldn't have had to live with 2 weeks of moaning if the belt was rubbing said child's neck...). The car was at the other end of the car park and was Pearl White, Black Interior on 20" rims, unlocked with the single keycard inside and 77% state of charge. Inside the boot was the mobile connector and adapter. The software was 2023.20.x with a maps update pending and it had premium connectivity included. There was a minor door scuff, grazed rims and the seats had a white suncream kind of look in a few places but it was pretty clean generally.

I have been for a test drive before so everything wasn't completely new to me. The hardest part was initially adjusting to being on the wrong side of the road with nobody around to follow.

The previous driver had helpfully set the radio to BURST YOUR EAR DRUMS and the bass to SHAKE YOUR BOWELS but we quickly sorted this, set the navigation route and we were away. We had picked up the Visitor Toll Pass but didn't realise the previous user had also set "No Toll Roads" so the trip to the hotel took much longer than anticipated. Just what we needed having pulled an all-nighter.

Screen Bugs and Other Initial Issues
The initial drive was great. It is such an easy car to drive. However, the main screen was being weird as hell. It was like it was reacting to false touches and the map was moving all over the place by itself. This was making navigation a tad tricky so we pulled over and I did the double scroll wheel reset. We never had an issue again after this but that's not something Hertz pre-warn you about so if it was my first experience of a Tesla I wouldn't have been happy.

The trunk didn't have a parcel shelf on it. It had real trouble closing nine times out of ten. It kept catching on the fabric loop to lift the trunk floor and failing to latch until I gave it a jumping shove downwards.

Charging
We visited the Kissimmee Supercharger a number of times in the first half of our visit to top back up to ~80% mark. I don't think we got lower than about 30% but the newbie range anxiety was real. This was compounded by the lack of mobile app access. Handily we ate at Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen next door so I first looked at the estimate on the screen and set a timer on my phone to come back and move the car in 20-30 minutes.

Range dropped quicker than I expected it to. I was hoping I could do the entire first week on a single charge. Part of this I think was Florida in August and the climate systems...

Overheat Protection
... For those unfamiliar with Florida Theme Parks, during the day you typically leave your car in a giant flat parking lot in the baking sun (after paying $25 for the privilege). After the second time we had done this and noticed the battery had dropped about 10% in the day my brain twigged that the car was actually nice and cool when we got in it - OVERHEAT PROTECTION! I ended up turning this off as the range drop was making the wife nervous. The flip side of this was after turning it off, the black seats were like sitting on molten lava initially. Again, lack of App access was annoying as I would have liked to have turned it when we had reached the park exit gates.

Stalks
All my life I have driven with a gear stick so I have no preference in the big stick vs on screen shifting debate. After two weeks however, I can't say I really liked the stalk. I found it pretty clunky and each time I wanted to use it had to think really hard whether I had to push it up or down. I'm sure it eventually becomes muscle memory but I'd have no issue with it being gone. In fact, the screen "up for forward, down for backwards" seems more intuitive to me.

Auto-cancel on the indicators was brilliant.

Regular Autopilot
I only got to try this a few times on longer stretches of road. The double-down tap to initiate I didn't like very much but once active it really helped me fix my "left-hand drive" lane positioning bias (I always find I ride the right lane line for the first week when switching sides). The only point I didn't feel confident with it was when lanes split in a Y shape on I4 and it felt like it couldn't make its mind up as to where the lane was.

The green light chime was both helpful and annoying. It went off quicker than I would have liked and in one occasion dinged when my turning signal was still red.

Complete car reset?
On the 7th day of our rental I came back to the car in the lot and noticed the UI was different. All the settings I'd adjusted had been reset and the car was stuck in "CHILL" mode with a message on the visualisation screen that I couldn't dismiss saying that the top speed had been limited. Nothing I could do was able to get rid of this. However, the following day the car had unlocked itself back to a more unrestricted state and I could put everything back to how I wanted to. Pretty annoying.

App Access
As I mentioned, I'm currently a prospective buyer rather than a current owner. I downloaded the Tesla app and made an account in the vague hope that some sort of "rental profiles" functionality would be released. To my surprise, every time I used the keycard to start the car it presented me with a QR code to scan. This loaded the tesla app however I was always presented with the following error. Obviously this use case isn't supported yet.

Returning the vehicle.
Our second hotel had free "slow" charging for 4 hours at a time. However this was plenty for our needs and on the final day we charged to 90% in order to return the car with 83%. The return process was painless although I almost forgot to remove the visitor tollpass. Thankfully the car was still there and I could grab it.

Renting from Hertz
Despite the clunky website I found the process of renting through Hertz pretty easy and actually really good value. Mid-sized SUVs were about £200 more expensive. I don't think I could go back to renting anything else.

I found it funny that in the UK the Model Y feels like a quite large car whereas in Florida it felt pretty compact. I was surprised how few other Tesla's I actually saw (outside of the Supercharger).

 

[jblandford]

We had a quite positive experience with Hertz from Orlando Airport (MCO) as well. Ours was End of jun and first week in July

Again we had the now usual 2 hour wait to get into the country after landing around 5:30PM local why do all the TSA agents decide to go on a break when there are nearly 300 people waiting? Always happens!).

We are Hertz Gold members so straight through after picking up the Visitor Toll Pass rear view mirror hanger. Found the car (clean and well presented with 85% charge), drove away very easily after presenting license at the exit of the floor we were on...and straight into gods own thunderstorm (if your a regular in Florida...you KNOW) that was so intense that it actually interfered with the Sat Nav so the GPS lock wouldn't hold. Pretty well followed us to our first weeks destination at New Smyrna (80 miles?). No issues at all charging as there are abundant chargers (Tesla and non).

Moved to Sebastian for the second week and again no issues in finding chargers.

Left the cabin overheat on and purchased a windscreen shield at the local WalMart

Returned with about 70% charge. All charges billed to the card on file with no uplift I could see. Great experience - would definitely hire again.

 

[randompixel]

I forgot to say that auto-lights and auto-wipers worked as I would expect them to. Certainly no worse than any other car I've driven that uses a sensor for those things.

 

[Adopado]

I forgot to say that auto-lights and auto-wipers worked as I would expect them to. Certainly no worse than any other car I've driven that uses a sensor for those things.

Perhaps the wipers were helped by the fact that there's no subtlety about rain in Florida ... tends to be either on or off! (as per reference by @jblandford ) Unlike here where you look out of the window and still need to have a discussion about whether it's actually raining or not before you decide what to wear!

 

[WannabeOwner]

each time I wanted to use it had to think really hard whether I had to push it up or down

I agree, seems the wrong-way-round to me, but same as every Automatic I've driven in America.

I work on the basis of "Down to Drive"

 

[M3noob]

I've just returned from renting a Model Y LR from Hertz for 14 days. I thought I'd add my musings as a non-Tesla owning member (who would be an owner if interest rates hadn't tripled...)

...

Screen Bugs and Other Initial Issues
The initial drive was great. It is such an easy car to drive. However, the main screen was being weird as hell. It was like it was reacting to false touches and the map was moving all over the place by itself. This was making navigation a tad tricky so we pulled over and I did the double scroll wheel reset. We never had an issue again after this but that's not something Hertz pre-warn you about so if it was my first experience of a Tesla I wouldn't have been happy.

The trunk didn't have a parcel shelf on it. It had real trouble closing nine times out of ten. It kept catching on the fabric loop to lift the trunk floor and failing to latch until I gave it a jumping shove downwards.

The dreaded phantom touch... worse than phantom braking! I had a problem with this that did not go away with any number of resets. I took the the the Barcelona Service Centre and they subsequently cracked the screen... not covered under warranty. Blamed my garage door clicker for breaking the sceen
Blackmailed for €1400 and an extra night in a hotel in BCN.

Two Tesla technicians have subsequently confirmed that phantom touch screens exist... And lucky you got rid of it with a reset. I had to drive the car with my wife turning off the seat heater incessantly in 30 degree weather. But for the phone app, the car was undriveable.

When I get back to the UK, I'm going legal on them.

I'd like to hear from anyone else that has been plagued with phantom touch.