Unconfirmed Legend - Hertz Cars

Not sure, but it sounds funny to me. I think the shipping destinations of the Hertz cars are known. Have you checked other DC cars to see if they are red? I am also thinking that a pretty high percentage of these cars were black, so that doesn't really support the theory?

 

I have never heard of painting to match rental locations, but believe that rental cars had stickers on the back of their mirrors. Each rental company had their own pattern and you could walk through hotel parking lots and tell which were the rental cars, and who the parent company was.
Jay

 

Have not seen this on original cars nor do I think there were enough colors in the rainbow to indicate all the different locations. Also what would have happened to the cars that were picked up at one location and dropped off at another?

Just a thought

 

With all the locations availible, you would spend as much time trying to figure out who had what color vs just doing a vin check. My guess is that it may have been a isolated location practice if any thing. [jmo]

 

Well said, that is exactly what i was thinking
Vern

 

I think the practice that Hertz used to identify their cars was the small Dyno-tape strip that is found on many of these rental cars from the period (Assume many of these were removed to hide the "rental car" history back when it was uncool to own one of these cars (late 60's through the 70's)

First thing almost everyone did was to repaint them and pull the automatic out from my experience.

Yes that's an odd practice. Can't say I've ever seen a rear view mirror painted like that - well other than just being sprayed black on a race car.