Hertz car hire Munich

A snowHead

I am on verge of booking car hire from Hertz in Munich. Googled their reviews and they got an absolute roasting Sad

Reason for temptation is free second driver and good price due to Hertz Gold Plus through thr Amex card thar signed up to.

Seen mention of Buchbinder here being good option but seem to no longer operate but weirdly holiday autos comparison still offering?

Anyways anybody had any decent experiences of Hertz from there?

A snowHead

I hired a car from Hertz Dortmund for a trip to the Savoie a couple of years ago. It was fine apart from they ‘upgraded’ the car without telling me the vehicle was much higher end but less luggage space. Good things were cross border costs were low and we were able to extend the hire during the trip for minimal cost. There was a big price difference between buying from the UK site or the German website. All in for a compact estate for 10 days including excess cover, winter tyres and cross border was €350.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@NickyJ, buchbinder's own website shows them still operating at Munich Airport. They are the same as megadrive

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@NickyJ, We use Buchbinder at work if we need to hire a van or truck but I would be dubious about using them for car hire as the vehicles tend to be older than many of the other companies. Not a lot of experience with Hertz over the years (mainly use Sixt) but the few times I have used them they have been good. They are never going to be the cheapest but they do offer various discounts of the type you mention. I suspect the biggest gripe will be queues at the check in desks which seem to be common to all the major car hire companies at the airport especially Saturdays in the ski season!

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@munich_irish, never had an old banger with buchbinder. Always pretty new, not many kms on the clock

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It's been a few years since we've had one from Munich, but we usually use Europcar. No major issues so far.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

@NickyJ, A month?! I hope you told them where to go! Which airport was that?

We tried got to the point where they were threatening legal action and paid it for the stress of it it.

Complained to relevant bodies etc claimed money back from the excess cover insurance we had.

They are thriving lying bar stewards, and that experience stopped us hiring cars for a few years and just paying for private transfers.

Hence my reticence and concern. That didn't seem to be the main cause of the complaints they seemed to be either car not available that was booked, grumpy desk staff, CDW not included in what was booked and being unable to understand the paperwork due to being German and being tricked into being signed upto extras

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@NickyJ, I have hired a lot of cars over the years and not had any issues with any of the companies. I mainly use Sixt but have used Hertz, Europcar, Avis, Buchbinder, Enterprise etc either direct or through Autoeurope etc. No doubt all of them try various upselling and use various marketing tricks to show a lower upfront cost than the actual total. Various damage etc from time to time, once with well over €10k's worth of damage, but never ever a company trying to claim damage I didnt cause. I just make sure I have proper excess insurance and then have the basic CDW (Sixt have a crazy option of not having any CDW) then ignore the various "would you like" questions. Always say you will return the car with a full tank. Getting a different car is just luck of the draw you get what's there, with the airport there should be enough choice to simply say no if the car they offer you doesnt suit. Cant imagine any of the hire companies would not supply English documentation to non German speakers.

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@munich_irish, yes I wasn't particularly concerned by issues raised as seemed all par for the course, but obviously having being burnt in the past the sheer number of bad reviews has made me nervous

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I've not rented from there since Covid, so probably not relevant experience, but the major companies there have never given me trouble out of MUC, it's one of the better places to rent from I think. The queue thing... the "loyalty card" stuff might help with that, as would possibly not buying from the cheapest brand referred via the airline, which everyone else probably does. The hard sell thing.. again I think the loyalty card helps as it reduces "at the desk" friction - there's less opportunity for them to try it on. I try to look and sound like a hard target, although I'm not sure I pull it off.

I think one either pays their insurance, or meticulously examine and record the condition of the vehicle, whatever the company is.
I wonder if they watch me do that, as I've never had hassle with a vehicle I recorded the condition of like that.

For me it is a question of convenience as the big brands tend to let you give them all your information in advance so all you need to do is collect the keys and off you go.

Recently hired from Zagreb airport through Holiday Autos and, whilst the local hire car company was very good and there were no issues, it was all very tedious filling in various forms then watching them type all the details into a computer.

You know it makes sense.

Few years back it was non issue for me. But for November this year I have chosen Alamo with way better rating

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I am also finding it challenging to find the cross border fees for the different companies. Some are clear as to the charge, others just say there will be a charge and you need to inform them in advance.

Also finding very out if date blogs on the charges as the terms of the same company that are now showing are different to those blogs.

A snowHead

Then Buchbinder through Expedia, has a €30 cross border fee (best I have found) BUT under mileage says 156 free miles, €0.73 extra /mile.

This is for 240mile round trip from Munich to Mayrhofen, let along many extra driving.

So need to add €61.32 extra as a min to costs...

A snowHead

Is that not 156 free miles per day?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I use Sixt out of MUC and it has been great. Rent enough cars, you'll have some bad experiences no matter who you rent from. Many credit cards (at least in the US) provide good coverage so you can skip the rental agency's-read the fine print. And by all means video the whole car to establish pre-existing conditions before you drive away.

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Wouldn't it be kilometres?

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We got a cracking deal with Hertz gold for 5 days ,Intermediate Estate for £100 ended up with a BMW M5 Estate . I was new to hertz gold and didn't realise I could of gone straight to the garage to collect the car instead of queuing at the Hertz desk in the airport.
That was 2020 then Covid hit and prices seem to rocket .Went back in 2022 and rented with OK Rent a Car , which was equally as good and a lot cheaper than Hertz at the time.

After all it is free

I usually use Hertz at Munich and have never had a bad experience.

Booked with Avis, Hertz and Keddy from Munich over the years to drive to Kitzbuhel, all pretty much of a muchness really and had no issues with any. Chose Keddy recently as they were cheapest (they're an online only budget hire part of Europcar) and also as they are open till midnight so we can pick up the car as we tend to get a late flight in. I can't see how Hertz will be any worse than the others, so if you are a gold card customer, I'd say make the most of it than trying another company.

Help!!

Hertz car hire Munich

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