Car Rental Service Hertz Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Car rental service Hertz has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Hertz has stated that:

The impact of COVID-19 on travel demand was sudden and dramatic, causing an abrupt decline in the Company’s revenue and future bookings

Hertz still has $1 billion cash on hand to support continuing operations and Hertz and it’s subsidaries are open and still serving customers.

 All reservations, promotional offers, vouchers, and customer and loyalty programs, including rewards points, are expected to continue as usual

This bankruptcy filing applies to it and certain of its U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries but international operating regions including Europe, Australia and New Zealand are not included. In addition franchised locations are not included in these proceedings.
    William Charles
  • On May 23, 2020, 00:35

View Comments (28)

  • They have not processed my status match from early last week...

    ...All reservations, promotional offers, vouchers, and customer and loyalty programs, including rewards points, are expected to continue as usual

  • good riddance, worst and most frustrating company I have ever dealt with. "A car reservation does not guarantee a car" WHAT THE FUCK DOES IT GUARANTEE THEN AND WHY WOULD YOU TELL ME ON THE MORNING OF MY VACATION

    • At least the reciprocal is also true, no show has no penalty unlike airlines or hotels

    • "And that's really the most important part of the reservation. The HOLD! Anyone can just take 'em"

    • Hertz's intangible assets are overrated i.e. Net Goodwill is valued at $1.08B but it that was liquidated about 4 or 5 CEO's back. Haha.

  • Looks like their listing are as low a couple thousand below Kelly Blue Book. Is this typically the price they sell for?

    • Not normally that is closer to the wholesale price that dealers might pay at auction, but dealers haven't been buying at auction with COVID.

      Dealers have a KBB type guide for wholesale prices (auction prices). Its called the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index.

      http://publish.manheim.com/content/dam/consulting/ManheimUsedVehicleValueIndex-LineGraph.png

      I think with Hertz BK an unemployment, remote work, we will see a second dip in prices like we did in late 2008.
      @guest_985384

    • It is. Whenever i looked at Hertz Car Sales their pricing was always thousands below KBB (which is a horrible way to value what your car is worth).

      The best deals on ex-rental cars are usually at the auctions (though there's obviously more risk).

    • Don't have an experience, but I've heard before that rental cars are usually sold at a discount. The argument is that the owner take better care of the car (or that's the perception of the market anyway).
      With 2020 models nut being driving for a long time this year, I wonder if there are deals to be had

      • I heard this earlier. But after I was ripped off by enterprise, I take care of the rental car much better than my own ones.

      • So they had rising income but $17 billion in debt. Sounds just like people who have good jobs but huge amounts of credit card debt. It never ends well.

        • Most parts of our economy are overleveraged and are just as fragile. CV19 simply exposed the financial fragility of our debt driven, trickle down, house of cards economy. Hertz is just the beginning. The lenders will lose the money and X% of employees will lose their jobs. Consumers will have fewer choices in future and rental prices will sky rocket. Just check airline ticket prices. These bastards bought their own stock, made flying as miserable as it can be, screwed taxpayers with bailout money, and now screw them again with fewer flights, fewer routes, and skyhigh prices. No accountability for bad behavior. Investors and previous C-suite folks made out like bandits as usual.

        • The reason they have $17 billion in debt is because of their fleet. Unfortunately, the used car market has been... less than great as of late and so the cars securing that debt are now worth substantially less than anticipated.

          That, coupled with the demand for rental cars plummeting has put Hertz in a rather precarious situation.

  • They might have $1billion in cash but they have around $18 billion in debt, most of it secured by their fleet which is depreciating by the day.

Leave a Comment