Hertz Rented Cars To President Biden’s Secret Service – That Burst Into Flames

by Gary Leff

At approximately 5:22 a.m. on Tuesday, Hertz-owned vehicles that had been rented by President Biden’s Secret Service burst into flames in a lot at the Nantucket airport after they were returned.

A Ford Expedition had reportedly been under a battery recall, but hadn’t yet had the battery replaced. It appears to have caught fire, taking four other vehicles with it.

Nantucket police and fire responded and the fire was extinguished. It raises new yet unsurprising issues if Hertz isn’t managing its fleet well enough to address recalls, but they haven’t been managing their fleet well enough to know what cars have been stolen. Given the issues at Hertz it’s troubling they wouldn’t take greater care when renting to the President’s Secret Service detail. And it’s just as concerning the the Biden administration continues to rent from Hertz, given what they’ve become known for doing to customers.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  2. Next, Hertz will have the Biden Regime arrested for stealing their cars and not paying for the fire damage.

  4. Given the condition of some of the cars Hertz has tried to give us in 2021-22, I’m not surprised they’re renting out vehicles under a serious recall.

    Anyone else remember the fire that took out about 4,000 rental cars stored at the Ft. Myers airport at the start of the pandemic? IIRC, it was attributed to a grass fire.

  5. Okay, but what I want to know: did Hertz call the police on the secret service claiming they never returned the cars?

  6. Given that there was a recall on only one of the cars, the recall status was not the issue. And recalls do not necessarily mean that a car has to be removed from service. Not for consumers and not for a fleet operator.
    The question is whether there was potential foul play. It is surprising that has not been suggested as a consideration.

  8. Tim Dunn, what are you talking about? The Ford Expedition which was the subject of the battery recall started the fire and the other suvs caught fire because they were parked so close to that Expedition. So it sounds like it could’ve absolutely been a result of the recall.

  9. once again, a recall doesn’t necessarily immediately remove from service.
    And Gary said “it appears that the Expedition caught fire and the fire spread to the 4 other vehicles.”
    That doesn’t mean confirmation of the events. Maybe that is true.

    Hertz may be bad for many reasons but failure to have an open recall isn’t necessarily a sign of negligence.

    If there was an immediate risk of fire, then there would have been a much more aggressive recall and requirement to remove the vehicle from service.

  12. Was it Donald Trump’s Secret Service five years ago? The Secret Service is the Secret Service just as the U.S. Navy is the U.S. Navy, regardless of officeholder.

  14. Some fun comments on this one. I like the President’s Circle and OJ references the best. I’m no Biden fan but glad no one was hurt. I did hear that they tried to fix the battery recall issue but the electrical engineer stopped working and reported that it hertz.

  15. Makes me think the CEO of Hertz or someone with leverage is part of the maga crew! Please tell me the FBI is looking into this on that level.

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