CarboyS

Well I'm on a trip sometime next month and my dad managed to book an E350 from Hertz. Any I should expect or not expect, or tips, facts, or anything else I should know about the car before then? Never been in one at all.

hyperion667

naaaa, they're totally lame (Jk)

Pntblnk

I just turned one in last Thursday in LA. It was an 11 with 900 miles on the odometer. Base E with standard features. Couple of things I noticed that bugged me were that you couldn't pair a BT phone with the command and the command knob seemed to be sunken further into the console. It was very difficult to pull back towards the glove box. Not sure if someone slammed a fist down on it or they have changed something...

Other than that it was fine.

. It was slow as hell compared to my 550 but served as a good reminder of why I got the 550 in the first place. I had begun to take the power for granted. Also noticed the gas mileage wasnt all that much better. (might have been "beatin" it a little but had my family with me so not too bad)

jvbutter

Hertz rental car shelling out Mercedes as a rental.... wow
very cool but weird to me

ngerstman

While the engine is only 268hp, it has a lot of torque. So feel free to step on it to make it move, it can take it. Also use the downshift paddles when needed as well. The economy/sport switch(E/S) annoyingly defaults to "E" every time you start the car. Make sure you set it to "S" for better performance. It does not affect the suspension, only the tranny shift points. Enjoy. Ned.

ngerstman

I was in Richmond and paid the extra $30 to upgrade from a Mercury to a Mercedes GLK. I thought that it was great!! Very comfortable and handled great. Very easy to drive. Good visibility. I have mixed feelings about that category of vehicle from a value equation perspective. My wife and I test drove an Audi Q5 a few years ago as a possible replacement for her Lexus rx330. It also drove and handled great but for $50,000 loaded you just were not getting much car for your money. Very little room behind the rear seats for storage. The glk is not as nice inside as the q5 but I thought the overall ride was better. I was very impressed. Regards. Ned.

Pntblnk

We ended up in the E because they didn't have the SUV we reserved. It was normally in their luxury collection but the service attendant offered it up so we took it.

ngerstman
Re: GLK great little SUV if you are under 5'10" with slim build and don't plan to have adults in the back seat. We purchased one as a replacement for my wife's RX350 and made a mistake. Much smaller, not as refined on the road, poor gas mileage and cramped for space. I hated driving or riding in her car. We ended up trading for an Acura MDX Advanced / Entertainment within 6 months and haven't looked back since.

Live Oak

Be careful. "Booking" an E350, or any other car, with Hertz is simply a joke. When you get there to pick up the car it's "I'm sorry, we don't have that model available. We'll substitute a [XXXXX] at the same price." And [XXXXX] is likely to be whatever they happen to have. Of course, a Crown Vic is just as good. Right? Or even an Escalade, which I mistakenly accepted one time --- a real GMC truck with aspirations --- I needed a kidney belt.

K-A

M-B's gotta be careful with supplying so many E-Classes to Rental Units. I understand that it's the "High End" segment of their Rental Fleet, which usually has little to no repercussions to a cars cache, but they're still treading on dangerous waters.

ngerstman

My wife bought the MDX with the tech package. I did not like the adjustable suspension of the advanced package. The sport setting was too hard and the comfort setting was too soft, IMO. She loves her MDX, loves the ride and the hard drive for recording cd's. I'm 6'2" and had no problem with the GLK as far as headroom and legroom. As I said, the compact SUV is an odd market segment in that it fails in the attributes that many people want from an SUV. I thought that it drove great. No complaints. I could see it being the leader of that market segment. Regards. Ned.

ngerstman

I rented an e350 when on vacation in Miami in March 2010. I liked it enough that I bought a new e class to replace my 2000 e320 last December. I don't think that Mercedes risks going the way of Ford and the Taurus!! Regards. Ned.

Arrie

Ford used to own Hertz so it is normal for Hertz to offers Ford products...

But to the risk of having Mercedes at rental car... I used to drive a Tahoe and did not think could ever go back to a car. Had an Audi Q7 for a year and ended up buying E350.

Reason I bought E350 is that I drove several S350 and E350 rental cars (Hertz) in Germany and just absolutely lowed the ride in all of them. I learned that a well made car can be a pleasure to drive. So, for MB, a rental car can be a good sales channel.

CarboyS

Thanks a lot. It is kind of weird that Hertz has Benzes for rentals now, but considering the E350 is cheaper to rent than an Infiniti M, Volvo S80, and GLK, I don't see that there's anything to lose. I'm definitely looking forward to the car next month now

K-A

Wow, it's cheaper than those cars (that all have lower MSRP's)?

I don't think I've ever seen a company giving out more incentives to sell an expensive car for super cheap like M-B is doing with the current E-Class.

ngerstman

When I was on vacation in Miami in June I also noticed that the Volvo cost more to rent than the Mercedes. Strange. I wasn't willing to shell out the $900 that they wanted for the week to get a luxury car and ended up with a Cadilac DTS, roomy and reasonably comfortable but overall pretty bad ride and fit and finish, felt plasticy and cheap. Reminded me of an American car from 30 years ago and why they had lost so much ground to foreign competition. Regards. Ned.

hyperion667

I rented a Jaguar S type back in 04 while on my honeymoon in Hawaii......
drove it around the entire big island........had an alero on maui though, that sucked....
especially on the road to Hana, haha

oh, from hertz

K-A

How much is a W212 to rent from Hertz??

rovermark

I don't see this as a big deal at all - first, Hertz rents these "Prestige Collection" cars that are significantly more expensive and not as common rental cars, second in Europe the E and C- and S-class are often used as hire cars in some form or fashion. Third, the cars they rent are not necessarily the most recent ones - Budget at the Vancouver airport was renting a previous generation E-class - and they also had a Bentley rental car too by the way.

ImInPA

CarboyS: Don't listen to anyone above. Driving an E sedan is unlike anything you have ever experienced. It is magical and mysterious. Dont let the familiar steering wheel, accelerator pedal, brake pedal, and radio controls fool you. Most members on this forum have undergone a highly secretive training program in order to drive this mythical vehicle. One of the first things you will notice is that the side windows move not only down, but also up. The climate system will seem to be magically blowing out of various vents in the dash and rear of the center console. The brake lights will inexplicably illuminate when the brake pedal is depressed. I think you can see how different it will be. I guess the best advice for someone inexperienced in the piloting an E class is, no matter what, no matter how tempting, do not press the hidden red button under the driver's side dash (which of course will activate the Flux capacitor and transport you to another time). Are you sure your dad is going to let you drive?

Pntblnk

Now that's funny right there!

Pntblnk

Hertz @ John Wayne Intl.(SNA) normally has them for $119/ day but managed to mine this past week for $79/day because they didn't have the SUV I requested. Score!