Posted on 06/03/2024 12:30:41 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Spirit Airlines Inc. is losing its chief financial officer to another troubled company — Hertz Global Holdings Inc. — as the carrier works to restructure a crushing debt load and the car rental company reboots after a failed bet on electric vehicles.
Hertz is rebuilding after acquiring a fleet of mostly Tesla EV models that renters didn’t want and that cost more to repair than the company anticipated. Hertz also has been hurt by plummeting values for the EVs it bought after Tesla cut prices, resulting in higher-than-expected first-quarter losses of $392 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
Hertz was on life support when they took a good portion of the money they had left and bought a huge number of cars no one wanted to rent. Who the hell wants the hassle of an EV when you are renting a car. The stupidity of this was painful.
Hertz has also taken a big hit for their reporting vehicles stolen when the vehicles are on their lots, finding them, renting them and then having the new renter arrested for stealing a car - because they failed to notify police that the vehicle had been found!
A couple of Christmases ago my son flew into Boston late, and the only cars available were Tesla Model 3, minimal battery size. We live about 90 miles from the airport, and by the time he got here, the battery was down over 50%. A couple of local store errands, and it was down to 25% and dropping fast.
So, we went to the local charger, which isn’t “super”, but is a lot more powerful than a home charger. It must have taken 90 minutes to get the damn thing charged, because it was cold, and having trouble conditioning itself to take a charge.
Now, this is a vehicle that at the time was advertised as having 240 mile range. But, in winter, with modest use of the heater (teens to low twenties), the range was closer to 150, and charging was slow. Not what you want in a rental, where you pay a premium for convenience and reliability.
I was also rather put off by the fact that the whole vehicle revolved around its central computer and large screen display. Any problems there, and you’re toast. But that’s a separate issue; I can see how the car might be useful if you had a known commuting routine and reliable charging access.
We’ll NEVER, EVER fly Spirit again! Not in a million years!
(They had our PAID reservations for several months. At NO time did they make any effort to communicate that they were going to cancel the flights. Thus, we wound up stranded at the departure airport only to learn that Spirit didn’t even bother placing an agent at (large, major airport). Agents from a couple of other airlines took pity on us (and the several dozen other paid passengers that Spirit stranded with us). They worked hard and, so far as I could see, managed to find alternate flights on other airlines (not necessarily their own) for everyone. A lot of extra work for these fine souls. Unfortunately, we had to travel that day and the third-party airline’s ticket rates were much higher (airlines usually charge a lot more if you have to fly immediately, the rates are lower when you book ahead as we had done with Spirit). Also, three airlines (the two whose agents were helping us and the third airline who could accommodate us on their departure within an hour or two)....all three explained that (at least then and there) Spirit did not have any inter-ticketing arrangements with them. Thus, we would have to obtain refunds from Spirit directly ourselves. And we would have to pay the (higher “same day” ticket rates fully ourselves. Later, Spirit failed to process our refunds. The total loss experienced was between 2 and 3,000 USD).
In discussions with the other airlines we learned that Spirit had been doing this for quite awhile and that it’s cancellation of our flight was planned by Spirit long ahead of time. That is, it was NOT an unexpected equipment or other operational breakdown. But rather something Spirit both knew about and planned weeks in advance.
NIX on Spirit. No corporation should treat its customers so shabbily (and rip them off, to boot). Especially not a $5 Billion dollar airline!
Your mileage, experience may differ.
And we did fly spirit several times prior with pretty much only the normal inconveniences — no ripoff like the above, last time.
Good luck.
Hertz is idiotic in my area
Local contractor can’t get ahold of anyone important
It’s not like 1994
I'm pretty sure somebody got their "beak wet" with government money. Joe needed to get some more of his 10%.
While researching car rental several times in the past year, I found that Hertz charged a lot more for the same car than Avis or Enterprise. I wondered who would possibly rent from Hertz. Perhaps businesses that got a big discount?
But, but.....once EVs are mandated, everyone will love them/s.
You are not far off, you need affinity discount codes and corporate codes to get the good Hertz rates.
You can herd a board of people into a room and get them to vote for some really dumb ideas, if you sell only one side of the proposal.
I rented a Tesla from Hertz last year.
Car drove well.
UI is horrible.
Charging is inconvenient.
Never buying/renting an EV again.
Never buying/renting an EV again.“
Yep and they bought a fleet of them that they cannot unload.
What is wrong with the Board of Directors at Hertz. They are replacing one failed idiot CEO not capable of leading a thirty horse wo water with another failed idiot CEO not capable of leading a thirsty horse to water.
I expect the doors on Hertz cars to pop off while you are driving....
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