Why the heck is Hertz, the rental car company, sending me emails asking me to trade in my car to them?
The battle for sourcing quality used cars has been hot the past few years with all the covids and the volatilities.
Carvana and CarMax are already acquisition machines, dealers are ramping up buying centers more and more, and now we’ve got a new entrant, at least it’s the first time we’re seeing Hertz dip their toes into trying to acquire used cars from their rental customers.
Our hypothesis is that the whole “filing for bankruptcy” thing they did in 2025 put pressure on each arm of the business to be profitable.
Couple that with the $245 million dollar loss on EVs in their Q4 2024 earnings, and they need more vehicles to sell to prop up the car sales side of the business.
There’s a big, big mistake with this email, however, and it’s one every marketer has felt at some point in their career.
The call-to-action buttons to value your trade link to their home page instead of their trade-in page. Hertz marketers, I feel your pain.
While Hertz puts more marketing around used car sourcing, they aren’t going to be a player until they can figure out the correct links in their emails.