A Day With A Hertz 'Vette
Discussion
Its been ages since I remember posting anything in here so thought I'd document my recent rental experience with a Chevrolet Corvette ZHZ. The Hertz version of the American Sports car.
Recently I'd been thinking that I wasn't that interested in cars anymore, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd driven my Clio 182 in anger and that disappointed me, as it is such a fun car to drive. I've only used it for getting to work. Which is fine, but I may as well have been driving a 1.2 Clio instead.
Anyway, I've been in America for the past few weeks, and since I turned 25 at the end of last year (the age whereby the rental car companies deem you fit to drive anything in their fleet without paying extra) I decided it would be nice to hire a Corvette for the day. I wasn't entirely convinced though If you book a Corvette directly online you are limited to 100 free miles a day and then 39 cents for every extra mile. So I decided to book a convertible and then upgrade at the counter, which allows the unlimited mileage to be carried over.
I arrived on Saturday morning at the Hertz desk at San Diego Aiport. I was going to enquire about an upgrade but the woman at the counter offered me one before I could get a word in. For an extra $50. When that was done I was almost running to the car. So obvioulsy my love and fascination of cars had not entirely escaped me.
I haven't had any experience driving powerful, sports cars for a prolonged period of time, but I am well aware of my own limits and went in to this with a certain amount of respect. Prior to this the only comparable car power wise I've driven was a Ferrari 360, and only for 20 minutes or so.
The Hertz Corvettes were originally introduced in 2008, in coupe form. 500 were produced by Chevrolet, all in bright yellow, with a black stripe. Those I think were knocked out of the fleets in 2010, replaced by 500 convertibles of the same colour and nature in 2009. My particular car had just shy of 40,000 miles on the clock, so I imagine it will be sold off pretty soon too. I checked other forums and it appears they are bringing back regular coloured Corvettes. That is no bad thing, as its pretty damned obvious that these are rentals nowadays. Hell, another one stopped behind me at an intersection when I was out driving it!
I got in to the well worn drivers seat and everything still seemed in pretty good shape, taking into account that you'd think everyone who drove it before me probably ragged the hell out of it.
Roof down straight away and I headed back to my girlfriends flat to pick her up, ready for a grand road trip. When I did get back, I whipped back the passenger side footwell carpet to get access to the fuse box.
The internet is such a wonderful thing, and thankfully the optional dual-mode exhaust ($1,300 or so) can be made to be permentantly loud by removing one of the fuses.
The difference was immediately noticeable, and now this car could be heard at low speeds just like I wanted, not like on near to full throttle as it was when I picked it up.
The day was spent sampling some great roads to the East of San Diego, but I was hesitent to fully exploit the potential the car had to offer as my girlfriend was not used to the acceleration and handling and she didn't agree with it.
In the afternoon we headed North to a place called Temecula and bought some wine from a winery, before heading back to San Diego to watch the sun set in Coronado.
I had originally intended not to sleep, to get the most from the day long rental, and drive into the night. With 11pm approaching I thought it better to wake up early and go for a dawn run.
I had intended to leave at 5am, but that didn't happen. I awoke at 4.15am, and couldn't go back to sleep, so quietly left the comfort of the bed, got dressed and then went to ZHZ. It was pitch black as I lowered the roof, and I felt naughty starting the engine. Without the valve shutting off the sound it was just a little bit too loud. It sounded magnificant though so I didn't mind.
I went to get petrol for the drive, as I didn't think I'd be doing too many to the gallon along the way.
I headed South, my intended target for the dawn drive was the I-94 highway, which I didn't know a lot about, other than it looked like an extremely bendy and exciting road.
It started off as a regular freeway, three lanes, and boring. I had a few bursts of the brutal acceleration the car had to offer as I went along, but freeway driving is so boring no matter the speed. I turned off through a town, following the I-94 signs, and the road turned into a regular two lane road. I drove cautiously at first, as I didn't quite know where I was. I pulled over and checked my route guidelines, and found that I had begun.
I started to drive faster, and start what I can now say was the very best 'hoon' of my driving career. I've been passenger in faster cars, and I know there are better cars than the Corvette, even the coupe would have probably been better. But at 5.30am, with the roof down, listening to that wonderful 6.2 litre 430bhp V8 bark made it so unbelievable great.
I wasn't keeping track of time, but came across a 24 hour petrol station, which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so decided to stop and get some water.
The girl at the counter looked quizical as I handed her the $5 dollar bill, maybe I would have ordinarily been more curious about why, but not then. I got back into the car, drank some water, and then pushed the magic button on the dash to let that LS3 breathe again.
I drove along as the sun was rising, over the moutains near to the border
I'm also surprised to say that this drive, the best of my life, was done in an automatic car. Maybe I'll go back some day and do it in a manual, but then the paddles on the steering wheel made do. The automatic works pretty well in the car and I never really had an issue with it.
I'll shutup and post some more pictures of my epic drive now.
I drove to the end of the I-94 just as it turned to daylight. A criticism of the car that I did have was that I had to stop twice due to the brakes fading. It didn't bother me too much though. As I reached the end of the road, I had intended to drive back along the US-80, a road that was said to parallel the boring I-8. I stopped about a mile into that and looked up the road and saw it disappeared onto the freeway. I turned around quicker than you could say 'made in America' and started driving the I-94 all over again, but back towards San Diego. It was then that I could witness the fantastic surroundings I had missed when it was dark. I also saw an incredible amount of border patrol SUVs around. One was even kind enough to pull over and let me past as I was driving along.
(Yes, it was foggy!)
All in all I covered 465 miles, around 130 of which were done the morning I gave it back. I spent $100 in fuel, and my average mpg over the whole day was around 16, which isn't too bad. I worked out that my average over the 130 miles in the morning was 9mpg.
Sunday morning was simply the very best driving experience I've ever had. The sound of that V8 engine reverberating off the cliffs as I drove between them will stay with me for a good time to come.
I'm not religious, but God bless the V8.
Recently I'd been thinking that I wasn't that interested in cars anymore, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd driven my Clio 182 in anger and that disappointed me, as it is such a fun car to drive. I've only used it for getting to work. Which is fine, but I may as well have been driving a 1.2 Clio instead.
Anyway, I've been in America for the past few weeks, and since I turned 25 at the end of last year (the age whereby the rental car companies deem you fit to drive anything in their fleet without paying extra) I decided it would be nice to hire a Corvette for the day. I wasn't entirely convinced though If you book a Corvette directly online you are limited to 100 free miles a day and then 39 cents for every extra mile. So I decided to book a convertible and then upgrade at the counter, which allows the unlimited mileage to be carried over.
I arrived on Saturday morning at the Hertz desk at San Diego Aiport. I was going to enquire about an upgrade but the woman at the counter offered me one before I could get a word in. For an extra $50. When that was done I was almost running to the car. So obvioulsy my love and fascination of cars had not entirely escaped me.
I haven't had any experience driving powerful, sports cars for a prolonged period of time, but I am well aware of my own limits and went in to this with a certain amount of respect. Prior to this the only comparable car power wise I've driven was a Ferrari 360, and only for 20 minutes or so.
The Hertz Corvettes were originally introduced in 2008, in coupe form. 500 were produced by Chevrolet, all in bright yellow, with a black stripe. Those I think were knocked out of the fleets in 2010, replaced by 500 convertibles of the same colour and nature in 2009. My particular car had just shy of 40,000 miles on the clock, so I imagine it will be sold off pretty soon too. I checked other forums and it appears they are bringing back regular coloured Corvettes. That is no bad thing, as its pretty damned obvious that these are rentals nowadays. Hell, another one stopped behind me at an intersection when I was out driving it!
I got in to the well worn drivers seat and everything still seemed in pretty good shape, taking into account that you'd think everyone who drove it before me probably ragged the hell out of it.
Roof down straight away and I headed back to my girlfriends flat to pick her up, ready for a grand road trip. When I did get back, I whipped back the passenger side footwell carpet to get access to the fuse box.
The internet is such a wonderful thing, and thankfully the optional dual-mode exhaust ($1,300 or so) can be made to be permentantly loud by removing one of the fuses.
The difference was immediately noticeable, and now this car could be heard at low speeds just like I wanted, not like on near to full throttle as it was when I picked it up.The day was spent sampling some great roads to the East of San Diego, but I was hesitent to fully exploit the potential the car had to offer as my girlfriend was not used to the acceleration and handling and she didn't agree with it.
In the afternoon we headed North to a place called Temecula and bought some wine from a winery, before heading back to San Diego to watch the sun set in Coronado.
I had originally intended not to sleep, to get the most from the day long rental, and drive into the night. With 11pm approaching I thought it better to wake up early and go for a dawn run.
I had intended to leave at 5am, but that didn't happen. I awoke at 4.15am, and couldn't go back to sleep, so quietly left the comfort of the bed, got dressed and then went to ZHZ. It was pitch black as I lowered the roof, and I felt naughty starting the engine. Without the valve shutting off the sound it was just a little bit too loud. It sounded magnificant though so I didn't mind.
I went to get petrol for the drive, as I didn't think I'd be doing too many to the gallon along the way.
I headed South, my intended target for the dawn drive was the I-94 highway, which I didn't know a lot about, other than it looked like an extremely bendy and exciting road.
It started off as a regular freeway, three lanes, and boring. I had a few bursts of the brutal acceleration the car had to offer as I went along, but freeway driving is so boring no matter the speed. I turned off through a town, following the I-94 signs, and the road turned into a regular two lane road. I drove cautiously at first, as I didn't quite know where I was. I pulled over and checked my route guidelines, and found that I had begun.
I started to drive faster, and start what I can now say was the very best 'hoon' of my driving career. I've been passenger in faster cars, and I know there are better cars than the Corvette, even the coupe would have probably been better. But at 5.30am, with the roof down, listening to that wonderful 6.2 litre 430bhp V8 bark made it so unbelievable great.
I wasn't keeping track of time, but came across a 24 hour petrol station, which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so decided to stop and get some water.
The girl at the counter looked quizical as I handed her the $5 dollar bill, maybe I would have ordinarily been more curious about why, but not then. I got back into the car, drank some water, and then pushed the magic button on the dash to let that LS3 breathe again.I drove along as the sun was rising, over the moutains near to the border
I'm also surprised to say that this drive, the best of my life, was done in an automatic car. Maybe I'll go back some day and do it in a manual, but then the paddles on the steering wheel made do. The automatic works pretty well in the car and I never really had an issue with it.
I'll shutup and post some more pictures of my epic drive now.
I drove to the end of the I-94 just as it turned to daylight. A criticism of the car that I did have was that I had to stop twice due to the brakes fading. It didn't bother me too much though. As I reached the end of the road, I had intended to drive back along the US-80, a road that was said to parallel the boring I-8. I stopped about a mile into that and looked up the road and saw it disappeared onto the freeway. I turned around quicker than you could say 'made in America' and started driving the I-94 all over again, but back towards San Diego. It was then that I could witness the fantastic surroundings I had missed when it was dark. I also saw an incredible amount of border patrol SUVs around. One was even kind enough to pull over and let me past as I was driving along.
(Yes, it was foggy!)
All in all I covered 465 miles, around 130 of which were done the morning I gave it back. I spent $100 in fuel, and my average mpg over the whole day was around 16, which isn't too bad. I worked out that my average over the 130 miles in the morning was 9mpg.
Sunday morning was simply the very best driving experience I've ever had. The sound of that V8 engine reverberating off the cliffs as I drove between them will stay with me for a good time to come.
I'm not religious, but God bless the V8.
Edited by Polarbert on Wednesday 18th May 00:21
Thanks, here is the road I was driving: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Rout...
a little bit. Gave me some ambition to go back some day soon. OzzyR1 said:
Nice story, something I'd like to do myself one day.
Am I missing something here though?
"The girl at the counter looked quizical as I handed her the $5 dollar bill, maybe I would have ordinarily been more curious about why, but not then".
Why did she look quizical?
Not sure really. The bill was taped together by the previous owner so maybe that had something to do with it. Am I missing something here though?
"The girl at the counter looked quizical as I handed her the $5 dollar bill, maybe I would have ordinarily been more curious about why, but not then".
Why did she look quizical?
I was completely wired with adrenaline so wasn't concerned. I didn't really realise it until afterwards.
karluk29 said:
Hi matey. Long time
How long you in the states for? I'm out there with misses in sept as we are getting married in the grand canyon then doing the car thing aswell. I've had a quote of £390 for a cab Stang for 10 days. Anyone got any clues how much the vette is? I thinking around £1200+
If you around Polarbert might see ya as we will be in San Diego on our second to last day after doing Vegas/San fran/pch/la/everything in between lmao.
Your write up was amazing. Looked like an amazing time. Very jealous
Yeh it has mate! Do you still have the Lotus?How long you in the states for? I'm out there with misses in sept as we are getting married in the grand canyon then doing the car thing aswell. I've had a quote of £390 for a cab Stang for 10 days. Anyone got any clues how much the vette is? I thinking around £1200+
If you around Polarbert might see ya as we will be in San Diego on our second to last day after doing Vegas/San fran/pch/la/everything in between lmao.
Your write up was amazing. Looked like an amazing time. Very jealous
May be out here, not too sure yet. I'm here for just under another couple of weeks.
I'd just like to return to this thread and say that I rented another Corvette recently. The ZHZ model has gone from San Diego Hertz and they now have ordinary 2012 models. No special exhaust. It makes a big difference. Still a hugely enjoyable car but without the exhaust it doesn't quite get the hairs standing.
Mastodon2 said:
I'm thinking of a renting a car for a day when I got to Vegas next year, I've got my eye on a Dodge Challenger but if I had a chance at a Corvette I might be tempted!
Reckon there is any chance of getting to rent such a car at 23? I've looked into booking with another (major) rental company and they are happy to let me rent a Dodge Challenger with a large engine, though not an RT. Hertz however, are offering Corvettes and Challenger RTs from £60 a day, will they retract this offer when they find out I'm not the "magic" 25 years old?
You might have trouble. I've been to the States and rented cars when I was under 25, and frankly didn't even bother looking at the good stuff because I think it would have just been too much hassle and money.Reckon there is any chance of getting to rent such a car at 23? I've looked into booking with another (major) rental company and they are happy to let me rent a Dodge Challenger with a large engine, though not an RT. Hertz however, are offering Corvettes and Challenger RTs from £60 a day, will they retract this offer when they find out I'm not the "magic" 25 years old?
Edited by Mastodon2 on Friday 25th November 07:32
It is a very special thing that you can rent a $65,000 car from Hertz for $100 a day. Hope it always stays that way.
Exige S said:
Fox- said:
I also did the Death Valley Hertz thing last year! Sadly I declined the Corvette - I had enough trouble getting all her stuff in the Mustang
Nice choice...
It looked great but was so bloody slow!
big dub said:
I went on the recent American Dream Tour run by Petrolhead Nirvana http://www.petrolheadnirvana.com/driving-tours/the..., and we hired 12 Vette convertables and a Mustang (the 2 drivers were under 25).
Awesome trip and thoroughly enjoyed the car, never tired of the exhaust noise (with the fuse removed
)
DSC04138 (1) by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
Lined up at Laguna Seca
DSC04154 (1) by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
DSC04158 (1) by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
The silver one was the one I was driving
DSC04201 by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
You must have been one of the lucky ones to get a ZHZ. The regular Corvettes sound muted in comparison.Awesome trip and thoroughly enjoyed the car, never tired of the exhaust noise (with the fuse removed
)DSC04138 (1) by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
Lined up at Laguna Seca
DSC04154 (1) by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
DSC04158 (1) by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
The silver one was the one I was driving
DSC04201 by Rob Joyce, on Flickr
big dub said:
The silver one I had was a 2011 C6, not one of the older Hertz ones, and granted it did sound muted until you removed the fuse for the exhaust valves. 
Interesting, on mine it was just the standard exhaust with no valves. You must have gotten a higher specced one!And yes, this is a shameless excuse to bring my thread back again.
K50 DEL said:
I hired a 350Z roadster for my big trip around the Southwest a couple of years ago.
Now run a C6 Vette as a daily driver in Dubai, I love the car and mine's a manual which makes it even better, but I'd love even more to be driving it on those roads.
A nice report OP.
I remember somewhere you saying about that. Now run a C6 Vette as a daily driver in Dubai, I love the car and mine's a manual which makes it even better, but I'd love even more to be driving it on those roads.
A nice report OP.
I've just had a look at your thread and the car looks very nice. Is petrol still 19p a litre over there? It sounds like the ideal place for me. Would love to get some sort of a job over there but don't think I've got the necessary experience! Need to get out of England thats for sure.
Thanks for that.
bennyboysvuk said:
That looks like an excellent way to spend the day.
When I went to Vegas some years ago now I hired a Vette too, but I chose the manual and found it hard work initially. Trying to teach my right hand and arm to move the lever around the notchy 6 speed gearbox was quite tricky. Still lots of fun though.
Thats amazing that Hertz used to do manuals. I'd give you fifty quid if you could find a manual in their entire fleet nowadays!When I went to Vegas some years ago now I hired a Vette too, but I chose the manual and found it hard work initially. Trying to teach my right hand and arm to move the lever around the notchy 6 speed gearbox was quite tricky. Still lots of fun though.
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