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Hertz / Rental Cars / Cars / Tech Travel / Travel Tech / Italy Travel / WiFi / → All Tags

Rental Cars as WiFi Hotspots. It's Happening in Italy.

Italy has a lot of good stuff we don’t have here at home, but the thing we’re missing most here—besides an abundance of gelato—is WiFi in our rental cars.

All the car connection magic comes from the folks over at Hertz and their rental car empire. It’s called Hertz Mobile WiFi, and it’s a little pocket-sized thing that’s offered up to rental car customers in collaboration with Wind Mobile. Basically it sounds like a mobile hotspot that goes right in your car and gives you all-the-time access to the internet no matter how many wrong turns you take or exits you miss.

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Charity Travel / Hertz / Rental Cars / Cars / Veteran's Day Travel / → All Tags

'Hertz For Heroes' is Giving Back Rental Car Cash to Those Who Deserve It Most

According to the television commercials that we’ve seen lately it’s already time to start our holiday shopping. However, before anyone wraps presents or even carves a turkey, there’s another holiday on the schedule—Veteran’s Day. Thankfully rental car giant Hertz is planning to continue their Hertz for Heroes program, as the company does their best to lend a hand to the brave men and women who protect our right to complain about airplanes and other travel calamites.

If you need to make a rental car reservation definitely consider Hertz, and set a reminder to do so in the next ten days or so. Hertz is chipping in a $1-per-rental-car reservation on November 11 and November 12, as the rental car company pledges to donate up to $50,000 to the Disabled American Veterans group. That’s a pretty decent chunk of change if you ask us, and it’s coming right from Hertz.

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Rental Cars / Thrifty / Political Travel / Election 2012 / → All Tags

One More Thing to Check for on Rental Cars: Political Bumper Stickers

When you pick up a rental car it’s always a challenge. Even if the process goes smoothly there's always some little but of stress to complicate matters. Whether it's what kind of car you’re going to get, checking for previous damages, figuring out driving routes...the list goes on. Now there’s apparently one more thing to look for when doing your rental car walk around, as you’re going to need to check the back for political bumper stickers.

We couldn’t care less if you throw a bumper sticker onto the back of your personal car, but when someone else is doing so on your rental car it’s a different story. Apparently that’s exactly what’s happening at one Thrifty outlet in Buffalo, New York, as renters haven’t been too thrilled with seeing “Vote for the American” bumper stickers on their cars.

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Hurricane Sandy / Frankenstorm 2012 / Hurricanes / Travel Tips / Delays / Weather / Rental Cars / Road Trips / → All Tags

Surviving a Cancelled Flight 101: The Impromptu Rental Car Road Trip

Now that Hurricane Sandy is upon the East Coast and canceling flights in droves, we're dedicating today to using all our travel know-how (and some on-the-fly advice, as half the Jaunted team is stuck at airports as well) to help you ride out the storm despite delayed travel. Stay tuned and stay safe!

Obviously flying on the east coast is just not an option for the next couple days and many will make the executive decision to either attempt driving to get where they're going (hopefully still avoiding the brunt of the storm) or driving on an impromptu road trip to enjoy the few days of unforseen delay. Regardless, stuck travelers will be paying out for extra hotel nights, extra meals, extra everything but airline change fees (thank god for that), so save all you can on fuel prices when you do rent that car. Here's our tried and true tips for just that:

· If offered an upgrade from compact or economy to an SUV, decline or inquire about other options.
Oftentimes (twice recently to us), rental car agencies have sold through their economy or compact car options. As an apology move, they may try to upgrade you to an SUV. If you have a family or gear to tote, this could be a huge benefit. If not, your first thought should be fuel consumption and how much this supposedly free upgrade will end up costing you at the pump. Don't be afraid to tell the rental agent that you're watching your fuel consumption and would prefer a smaller or hybrid option, if available. This approach recently scored us an SUV with eco-driving system that relayed fuel consumption information to us directly on the dash.

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FlightCar / Rental Cars / Cars / Road Trips / Car Shares / Car Sharing / Driving / → All Tags

FlightCar: A Brilliant Alternative to Long-Term Airport Parking

There are all kinds of rental car and car sharing schemes, but the latest idea to hit the marketplace just may be the best one we’ve heard yet. It all takes place at the airport, where there is an abundance of two types of car-driving travelers: those who don’t currently need their cars (long-term parkers) and those who need to pick up a car. FlightCar hopes to link these two sets of people in driving happiness.

Basically what you’ll be able to do with FlightCar is rent out your car while you’re not using it. That keeps your car happy since it gets to drive around and keep busy—cars have feelings too—and it’ll keep you happy since you’ll be earning cash instead of shelling out bucks for the parking garage.

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Rental Cars / Cars / Bill Diffenderffer / Silvercar / → All Tags

It's an Audi or Nothing at Rental Car Start-up Silvercar

It’s been six months or so since we introduced you to the wonder of Silvercar and their dream of taking over the rental car market. Former head honcho over at Skybus—Bill Diffenderffer—is still involved now serving as executive chairman, as the company just raised another $11.5 million in funding as they hope to get things rolling before the end of the year.

Their plan is to take the aggravation out of the rental car process. This will be accomplished with a little help from the Zipcar model, as they’ll use a smartphone app and some fancy scanner-code-things to have you gain access to your rental car. Speaking of cars, all the cars will be silver and they’ll all be 2013 Audi A4s. That doesn’t leave much room for the potential for an upgrade, but of course we’re definitely not going to complain when our app gives us access to one of these suckers.

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Rental Cars / Cars / Dangerous Travel / Road Trip Travel / Avis / Dollar / Thrifty / Hertz / Budget / Alamo / National / Enterprise / → All Tags

Rental Car Companies Finally Forced to Do Right Thing about Recalled Cars

There’s been an on-and-off battle over recalled rental cars for quite some time, one which has been in and out of the new for at least the last few years. Basically, car rental companies haven’t been doing their best when it comes to pulling recalled cars off the lot or sending them in for the necessary repairs. Obviously this isn’t a good idea, and that’s especially the case when it results in injuries, accidents, or other bad stuff.

Obviously there’s certain rules and regulations that have to be followed, but the basic premise is that rental car companies need to yank recalled cars off their lots as soon as possible. The new legislation requires the companies to stop renting out vehicles no later than 24 hours after getting the official recall notice, but the time period stretches up to 48 hours if the recall affects more than 5,000 cars within their garage.

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Rental Cars / Fall Travel / Hertz / Cars / Road Trips / → All Tags

The Return of the $5 One-Way Hertz Rental (and More Deals)

If you need a rental car anytime soon you might want to check out Hertz when doing your online shopping. The rental car behemoth is preparing all kinds of promotions for the fall, and it’s all part of their global sale.

You can save $40 per week in Florida, keep an extra $40 on your weekend rental, and even save up to $100 on one of their fancy car rental from the Prestige or Adrenaline collections. The scoop on some of these deals can be found right here, so just copy and paste the appropriate code thing and enter those credit card digits.

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Hertz / Rental Cars / Australia Travel / Australia / Rent2Buy / Car Rentals / Cars / → All Tags

Hertz Turns Used Car Salesman with 'Rent2Buy' in US and Australia

The folks over at Hertz are going to start kicking some tires and wheeling & dealing around Australia as they launch their Rent2Buy program.

After a successful launch of the same program here in the US, the rental car giant is taking their negotiating skills Down Under. Potential car buyers will have the option to purchase late model vehicles previously rented to travelers. All cars come with the promise that they've been well-maintained and priced competitively, as in under the recommended resale value based on RedBook —the Aussie version of the Kelley Blue Book. So, no lemons!

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Hertz / Rental Cars / Cars / Dollar / Thrifty / Travel News / → All Tags

Hungry Hungry Hertz Gobbles Up Dollar and Thrifty Rental Car

Big news in the world of rental cars this week, as Hertz is getting ready to gobble up a pair of smaller rental car companies. Hertz is joining forces with Dollar and Thrifty, and by that we mean that they’re taking over ownership of each of them.

Hertz is going to hand over quite a chunk of change, as it sounds like the deal is worth roughly $2.3 billion. As solid as things sound right now there’s always a bit of a chance that the situation could change, since the group responsible for both Dollar and Thrifty has around 30 days to entertain other offers. This means that someone like Avis could cash in their pennies and try to make their own billion dollar buyout proposal.

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Rental Cars / Animals / Budget / Cars / Scary Travel / → All Tags

Snakes Have Moved Away from Planes and Into Your Rental Car

Think about picking up your rental car. You do a quick walk around the exterior to ensure that you’ve noted all the scratches, dents, and other imperfections. However, the one thing you probably don’t look for are creepy crawlies on the interior, but searching for stowaway critters might be something you need to start doing.

A family up in Canada recently had a little bit of a surprise when they picked up their rental car from the Budget counter, as a snake decided it wanted to join them on their summer vacation. Apparently the family’s daughter was the one to announce her findings, as she saw the snake slithering in the back of the SUV.

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Rental Cars / Porsche / Hertz / Cars / Road Trips / → All Tags

Porsche to Hit the Rental Car Lots for the Very First Time

UPDATE: It seems that Hertz falsely claimed to be the first agency to rent Porsches, when Enterprise has been doing it in select places for 5 years. So really Hertz will just be the first with the Panamera model.

We know that they are plenty of awesome rental cars kicking around out there, but it looks like Hertz is adding something pretty sweet to their rental car collection. It’s not a convertible or a true super car, but we’ll take any flavor Porsche that’s offered up at the airport rental car lot.

As part of their Prestige Collection of vehicles, Hertz is bringing the Porsche Panamera into their stables. It’s the first time a rental car company in the United States is adding a Porsche as a regular rental option, so if the monthly payment is totally out of reach maybe you can afford to score one for just the weekend.

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