The Hertz Corporation

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The Hertz Corporation (also known as Hertz Rent A Car or simply Hertz) is the world's largest car rental company, with 1,900 locations in the United States and 5,100 worldwide.

Hertz also maintains a heavy equipment rental division known as the Hertz Equipment Rental Corporation, aka HERC. It is headquartered in Park Ridge, New Jersey. HERC has nearly 300 branches throughout the United States, Canada, Spain and France.

The company was begun by Walter L. Jacobs in 1918, who started a car rental operation in Chicago with a dozen Model Ts. In 1923, Jacobs sold it to John D. Hertz, president of Yellow Cab and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company, who renamed it the "Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System". The company has passed through a number of hands, including General Motors, RCA, and United Airlines. As a public company, Hertz was traded on the NYSE under the symbol HRZ until the purchase of outstanding stock by Ford Motor Company.

From 1994 to 2005 it was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company. On June 13, 2005, Ford issued a notice that Hertz would be spun off in an initial public offering. On September 13, 2005 it was announced it was to be sold to a private equity group (composed of Clayton Dubilier & Rice, The Carlyle Group and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity) for $15 billion in cash and debt acquisition. The sale was completed on December 22, 2005.

Because of its past affiliation with Ford, the rental fleets of most Hertz locations consist of Ford and Ford brands such as Mazda, Mercury and Lincoln. It is not uncommon, however, to find Hertz rental cars from non-Ford companies such as Toyota, Hyundai, Kia and General Motors.

Hertz Corporation Technology Center is located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1 Hertz Neverlost
2 Prestige Collection
3 Advertising
4 External links

[edit] Hertz Neverlost

In the late '90s, the company pioneered in-car satellite based navigation in a portion of its rental fleet with the introduction of Hertz Neverlost. The system features a color LCD display, voice prompting in several selectable languages, street address lookup, turn-by-turn guidance, and a destination guide based on AAA Tourbooks. Geographic information for the entire United States, and the majority of Canada is stored in the Neverlost control unit which is typically mounted under the hatshelf in the trunk area.

Since being introduced, the Neverlost system has undergone one major hardware revision, and several iterative software revisions. The Neverlost System was later repackaged and commercialized in a portable consumer unit called the Magellan Roadmate GPS Navigation System by Thales Group. The fact that it is based on the Hertz Neverlost system is frequently touted in the Roadmate marketing literature.

[edit] Prestige Collection

Rent A Racer Special edition 2006 Shelby_GT-H Cobra Mustang

In the early 2000s, Hertz debuted the "Prestige Collection" at many rental locations. This collection features cars from Ford's Premier Automotive Group, including specific reservable models from Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar. Possibly due to market pressures, certain models from Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and several other luxury makes are also being offered in highly competitive rental locations such as LAX. The Hertz "Rent A Racer" is rented under this branding.

[edit] Advertising

A large billboard advertising Hertz was on the roof of the Texas School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The billboard was later removed.

In the 1970's, Hertz television commercials featured a special effect showing people easily floating down from the sky into a car, with the announcer stating "Hertz", following by phrases such as "we put you behind the wheel (in the driver's seat)." This prompted an early Saturday Night Live parody of a man screaming as he falls from high altitude, crashing into a car. The announcer states, "Hertz." The man screams, "It sure does!"

O.J. Simpson appeared prominently in ads for the company for years. In one spot he leapt over counters running through an airport terminal. A woman yelled, "Go O.J. Go!" The relationship with Hertz and Simpson ended in late 1992 when reports of domestic abuse surfaced.

In 1993, a new campaign centered around the phrase "Not Exactly" was launched. The initial spot featured two business men (Bill Applebaum, Wayne Federman) forced to rush down an escalator, board a shuttle, and run through the rain to retrieve their non-Hertz rental. The spot was directed by Bob Giradli.

Every modern Hertz commercial features a Ford Taurus.