if you punctured the sidewall of the tire, can you just replace it yourself before returning the car? (replacing it at a tire shop like Mr. Tire or Costco, or wherever has the lowest price on a tire matching the original size and speed/weight rating)

or do you have to tell Hertz and let them charge you for it?

I was waiting at Costco tire center yesterday for them to rotate my tires. This Costco is next to a major airport.. in fact, I saw a couple of A380s fly over the Costco while I was there. Anyway... this woman came in and asked the employee how much it would cost to replace ONE tire on a Nissan Altima(?). The Costco employee went outside with her. When they came back, he showed her the tire but said they should be replaced in pairs, because the opposite side is worn down to to 4/32. The woman said she only wanted to replace the one damaged tire because it was a Hertz rental. She parked too close to the curb and some kind of metal sticking out from the curb punctured the sidewall, so it was not repairable.

At that point, another employee came in with my keys because my car was done... so I had no idea if that woman got the tire replaced or not.

 

If you replace the tire yourself, make sure it is exactly the same model and manufacturer of tire that is currently on the car (typically that's whatever the car's OEM tire is). If a tire shop can't get it in stock in time but you still have a few days before you return the car, you can order at near-wholesale pricing from TireRack.com with FedEx 2-Day for a surprisingly reasonable shipping charge and then pay a local tire shop to do the install (Costco won't unless you buy the tire from them).

If you try to source a tire that doesn't match what's currently on the car (or, as you heard, if the good tire is sufficiently worn), no reputable tire shop will install a single unmatched tire for liability reasons--you'll have to at least replace the pair (two fronts or two rears). If you are able to find someone who will install the single tire, there's a decent chance (especially if it doesn't stand out as significantly shiny or anything) the rental agency won't notice it, but if they do, you'll be on the hook for a new tire from them anyway, and if they don't, you're creating a potentially dangerous situation for someone else down the line (mismatched tires have different tractive grip and can cause instability in slippery conditions).

Regardless, it's often in your best financial interest to let Hertz handle it, anyway. They buy tires in extreme bulk and get dirt-cheap prices--lower than even Costco/Sam's Club. And to be honest, their systems are kind of easy to take advantage of. While I don't normally advocate being up front about damages at return, it can work to your advantage here. (They'll definitely notice if you bring it in on the spare anyway.) The list of tire prices they have at the counter basically bears no relation to the actual cost of the specific tire, and it's usually much cheaper than you can find the tire anywhere else--I once paid Hertz $45 to replace a tire on a Volvo S80 that was selling for like $180 on TireRack. (My guess is Hertz feels that maintaining a list of tire prices for every vehicle in Hertz's entire corporate fleet is too unwieldy, and so they average the prices and figure that getting some money now is better than having their damage/claims department spend hours on paperwork and tracking you down to collect on the damage charges and fees later.)

If you do find an exact match of a tire and have it replaced yourself, Hertz generally won't care. I wouldn't advertise it to them when you return the car, and unless they really look closely at the tire wear and then spend the effort to go through their records to see if they replaced it recently, they'll have no reason to ever know you replaced it, but even if you did tell them, they almost certainly will be perfectly fine and not charge you anything. But you'll probably be spending more money to do it yourself than if you just let Hertz do it themselves.

 

I figure Hertz gets great deals on tires, but I figured they'd still gouge the customer just because they can.

 

They probably would if you followed the traditional path of letting them bill you after the fact*, but in this case, their "up front charges for minor damage at return" thing they've implemented has almost-too-good-to-be-true prices.

AFAIK they're the only agency doing this, so take advantage of it if you can.

That said, even for after-the-fact claims department billing, the location I managed only charged [TireRack tire price + shipping + $15 install + $25 admin fee] for tire replacements (and a flat $25 flat repair, no admin fee, if it was a repairable puncture), so not every rental agency out there is evilbad.

*It's worth noting that if your credit card CDW doesn't exclude tires--and AFAIK the Costco business visa's doesn't, and it's primary and doesn't require the rental to be for business purposes--you'll likely have a hard time getting a check to cover the $45 fee as Hertz won't provide any documentation; if you really want that to be covered, you'll have to go the traditional claims route so you can have demand letters and repair invoices and everything...but for $45 vs. a potential $200 bill, I'm willing to just save myself the hassle and eat it.

 

That's good to know... BTW, is accidental tire damage like punctured sidewall covered by loss damage waiver?(either purchased from Hertz or through credit card companies)

 

HI,

Since this topic focuses mainly tires, I am wondering how often does Hertz or any rental company check the vehicle tire conditions before renting the vehicle out? Recently, I've had 2 tire incidents which I don't believe is due me treating/driving the vehicle inappropriately. I had an Explorer and after a week, i suddenly get the warning on the dashboard of a low pressure on one of the tires. Luckily there was a local Hertz edition close by, took it over and they checked and said that it was most probably due to the cold weather. Managed to get it pumped up and everything was fine until a couple of days later, same tire, same problem. I suspect that it is a very slow leak. Just kept it for the 1 more rental day and informed the station upon return.

My recent rental, I already felt that the car was not driving as smoothly as I had expected, and after a couple of days, I just happened to look down at the tire, and noticed 2 bubble like deformation on the sidewall of the tire. Checked the dash computer on tire pressure and it was good. Managed to drive back to the original hiring station to report and was told that most probably the innings were damaged. Had to return the car and got a new one.

Brings me to wonder if tires are ever checked? including the profiles.

Cheers!

 

From the rental company: generally, yes, though it might potentially vary by company/location, and it definitely does vary by country--my experience is mostly focused on the US, of course, but I know I recall noticing in the T&C in some of my overseas rentals that it's not covered but there's often a separate coverage that does protect glass/tire.

From credit cards: no, not in my experience. The Costco Visa I mentioned above is the only one I know of that doesn't explicitly exclude tire damage. That's why it (and especially the business version, which offers primary collision coverage for both business and personal rentals) is my go-to card for car rentals.

They don't, at least not on the operations side. If a returns agent or detailer notices something (like the tire is really worn or the low-pressure light is on when they're cleaning the vehicle), they might set it aside for the maintenance staff to look at it, but it's not a standard thing--and certainly no one is going around with a tread-depth measurement tool or anything.

Management does (at some companies) pull a random and limited sample of cars to check for quality control (mostly to make sure the detailers are doing their job), and a visual inspection of the tires may be one of the items on that checklist, but that's about it.

However, the computer does "ground out" cars at specified intervals (usually 6K miles) for LOFR (Lube, Oil, Filter, Rotation), and the maintenance crew may inspect tires during that process. So while Ops doesn't have a defined tire-inspection process, cars do cycle through the mechanic bay for light service about every 2-3 months. That's the best chance worn tires have of getting noticed and replaced.

 

I once rented a nice Caddy from Avis. It was one of those old school big fat Cadillac sedans. The next day, I was looking in the trunk because there was some rattling noise. I lifted the cover and noticed that the spare tire was not there. No, it wasn't one of those cars with run-flat tires with not spare.. The jack and tools were al lthere, but the spare was just missing. Not sure if one of the previous renters took it or why it was missing. I immediately drove back to the airport and asked the manager to look at it. He made some notes on the rental agreement and exchanged the car.

I'm pretty sure rental car companies don't have the time to look at the tires. The most they'll do is check the tire pressure... although that's also rare. I can't count the number of times I've driven Hertz rental cars with obvious low pressure tires, with some so low that the tire pressure warning system showed just 20psi for 3 of the 4 tires.

 

 

 

Hmm... I had a Hertz car in the U.S. not too long ago rolling on three different brands of tires. They may not be as rigorous as you think. Hertz isn't the Porsche team prepping for 24 Hours of LeMans.

 

I"m sure Hertz's lawyer or bean counters already did the math and figured that it was cheaper that way. (including possibility of getting sued after a customer gets into an accident because of mismatching tires, which is possible, but not likely)

 

I totally destroyed a tire on my rental last week in Mexico. It was shredded to bits after I drove down some poorly maintained dirt road.

Hertz Mexico charged me 11.62USD in "Additional Damage" for the tire.

I know this was in Mexico, but still I thought it was a pretty good deal for a new tire.

 

I think you're attributing to malice that which is better explained by incompetence.

 

Exactly. I highly doubt most of the driving populace would know that driving with different tires is not the ideal especially in inclement weather. I've seen even tire shop employees, just inflate the tires to the Max. value posted on the sidewall instead of the suggested posted by on the door jamb.