Hertzgambledand lost when it placed its big EV bet on Tesla a few years ago.
Expensive maintenance that the company didnt account for spooked the company enough to start to sell off its fleet.
This made forincredible used EVbuys, especially when you factor in the used EV tax credit of $4,000.
Screenshot: Hertz Car Sales
People scrambled to Hertz dealers buying them up.
A slowdown came when buyers finally started to realize just what they got themselves into.
Take Bijay Pandey of Irving, Texas.
Problems with it started not long after he purchased it.
After getting a temporary title, he found the car wasnt reading voltage correctly.
The high-voltage battery pack is damaged and could cause extreme safety concerns, a Tesla technician texted him.
Of course, that amount wasnt covered by warranty.
Surprisingly, Hertz told Pandey they would let him swap the car for another.
Unfortunately that meant two months of waiting while Pandey still made his $500 car payment.
Pandey says this is when it dawned on him why Hertz was trying to offload these EVs.
I realized why they were trying to get rid of those Teslas.
If anything happens to a Tesla, then the bill is too high.
Pandey isnt alone in this realization.
And a good number of people are telling them to steer clear.
Many seem to forget that these were rentals, and rentals often have hard lives.
Somesuggestedthat it would make more sense to buy a used Model 3 from Tesla than Hertz.
The battery abuse these have received makes a purchase from Hertz a dealbreaker.
My prior experience with purchase of a used rental does factor.
I would buy a used Tesla from Tesla, thats about it.
We reached out to Hertz for comment, but Hertz isnt saying much about the used Teslas.
It seems the company just wants to get rid of them and be done with it.
Hertz CEO Gil West said the company is on track with downsizing its Tesla fleet.
We previously announced our plan to reduce the EV fleet by 20,000 units.
And by the end of Q1, we sold about half of them.
We seek to provide all our customers with an exceptional experience.
If a customer has an issue or concern about any vehicle purchase, we work to make it right.
This article originally appeared onJalopnik.
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