Hertz Dream Cars: Tesla S P85

I booked the reservation through the normal Hertz.com website in August 2013 for a rental weekend in March 2014. Locking in a rate of $160 per day and unlimited miles made it a no brainer. The opportunity to drive a ~$100K car at that rate seemed worth it for a car enthusiast as well as a techie. Booking through the Hertz.com website doesn’t come with the “Dream Service“. The current rate is $400 per day with 75mi per day included which can be booked via www.hertzdreamcars.com.

I showed up at SFO around 7PM on a Friday and was on the road by 8PM. The additional paperwork for the Dream Cars series delays the pickup. They require 2 forms of ID (driver’s license and passport) and 2 credit cards OR 1 form of ID (driver’s license) and 3 credit cards. The station manager will pull the car up for you and hand you the keys.The car was fully charged and off I went.

Since Tesla is based in the Bay Area, it was easy to find recharging stations as I drove around. I had to charge it overnight in a garage in SF which I booked the parking through the ParkNow app. Locating charging stations and there status was easy by using the ChargePoint app and since Hertz included a key tag for access to the charging stations. You still have to pay for parking at these locations. It takes ~9hrs for a full recharge at Level 2 stations which are the most common.

The car itself is amazing both from a design perspective and performance. Most people will notice the door handles as the disappear when not in use. The ride height (suspension) is also adjustable for a more sporty ride allowing handling to be very close to a BMW. Everything is controlled by the large touchscreen display. They even have a 3G data card in every car to stream Internet radio, receive traffic data for Navigation, etc.

The amount of torque from a standstill is simply amazing. Since there are no gears you get instant power. It feels like a roller coaster. I didn’t get the full 265mi as rated since I tend to accelerate harder than most drivers. I was able to get ~60% of that.

It was another excellent Hertz Dream Car rental. Stay tuned for my ride report on the Audi R8.