About that Hertz $10,000 fee

Let’s talk about this:

@lifeisfun3000 Unlimited means a reasonable amount? @Hertz #scam #rentalcar #hertz #fyp #viralvideo ♬ original sound – Logan

So to summarize, the person you’re seeing in the video rented a car from Hertz for a month and put 25,000 miles on it during that time. And Hertz is wanting to assess $10,000 against him for it.

Now one thing people seem to forget about a car rental is simply… you have to take reasonable care of the vehicle while it’s in your possession. If you damage the vehicle, you’re responsible for it. And the car rental company will try to bill your insurance or you for the damage.

Unlimited mileage does not mean zero responsibility.

So my question on this situation: did he ever get the required maintenance done?

Across 25,000 miles, the vehicle would’ve required three (3) or four (4) oil and filter changes, depending on how the vehicle was being driven. Which given he’s putting nearly 1,000 miles per day on the car, that would mean the oil and filter would need to be changed pretty much every week, with the tires rotated at that time. The engine air filter would need replaced at least twice. Cabin air filter changed out at least once. Along with any other manufacturer-required maintenance based on the make and model as part of maintaining the warranty.

So did he have that done? I can’t find anything saying he did.

So there were likely maintenance reminders going off in the vehicle as well. Meaning he was ignoring them or figured out how to turn them off when they did come up, rather than taking the vehicle back to Hertz so they could do the maintenance or arrange for him to take the vehicle someplace to be maintained at their expense.

Driving excessive miles without adequate maintenance will damage or destroy an engine. So the engine is likely toast. And that’s damage to the vehicle per the contract. How is it not?

That also means the manufacturer vehicle warranty is void, meaning Hertz will need to rotate that vehicle from its fleet. And given the engine is toast, they can’t sell the vehicle without replacing the engine, which severely damages the resale value of the car.

Again, unlimited mileage does NOT mean zero responsibility for the car. And unless the above Tik-Toker can prove they did have maintenance done on the car, the $10,000 fee is perfectly reasonable here.

And if the fee is because he damaged the car, Hertz needs to make that clear.

Update

I was able to find one comment where the person in the video said they had maintenance done on the car. The problem is they didn’t specify whether it was only once or several times across that month

But a lot of people have a lot of misconceptions about how long an engine can go between oil changes. First of all, how long the oil can last is immaterial. The filter is more important. And even if a filter is rated for 20,000 miles – like Mobil1’s Extended Performance filter – you still shouldn’t run a filter that long.

Then there’s also what the car’s manual says. If the manual says to never exceed a specific interval, don’t do it. For example, the manual for my 2018 Jeep Compass says this:

There is no similar warning for my wife’s CR-V in the manual, but I still won’t go far over 10,000 miles on the same engine oil, even though I am using Mobil1 Extended Performance which they claim is good for 20,000 miles.