Fiat 500 arrives on campus, offers more

Fiat 500, Hertz On Demand, Issue 20, News, Viviana Bravo - By Viviana Bravo on Thursday, March 1, 2012 - 03:51

Need to go somewhere that is too far to walk or just too lazy? Then rent a car. A Fiat 500 has been added to campus for Hertz On Demand in addition to the two cars already part of the program, a Chevy Malibu and a Chevy Equinox. The reason for this new addition is that reservations for the vehicles have been increasing over time, and sometimes when a student wants to check out one of the cars, they have already been taken. “If you want to rent [a Hertz car] during the weekend or on a Friday, it can be very difficult,” junior Katie Reynolds said. “You would want to reserve it far in advance.” Hence, the new Fiat being added.

This addition could improve the reservation issue and will make more students join the 202 already using it. “As of January 2012, 9018 hours have been driven between the two cars,” Interim Assistant Director of Leadership Experience and Programs Glen Peterson said. “That is 206 percent of our goal.”

Some of the students that use these vehicles have different destinations for them. “The Hertz On Demand program has been really helpful for me and many of my friends,” junior Ryan Inouye said. “We were able to rent a car whenever we could not find anyone to take us to the store or to run errands.”

Some use it to go shopping; others use it to go to the doctor and even to Disneyland. In order to find out the prices to rent one of these cars, one can go to www.hertz.com/whittier. This will tell anyone the hourly rates for renting one of them. When renting a car, one would need to go to the website and enroll.

It is free and eventually they will receive a yellow Hertz card after a background check of a student’s driving record.

All a person needs to do is swipe it on a panel on the vehicle in order to unlock it. The keys and a gas card are located within the car and then one can take it to any destination. Hertz On Demand is starting its second year on campus. This marketing strategy by Hertz has been implemented at different colleges such as Redlands, Claremont and UCLA.

This has proven successful considering that they supply the gas and cars while the staff, here on campus, washes cars and manage the parking spots.

Since this program began it has been helpful to a variety of students. “I noticed that the cars are used more this school year than they have been in previous years,” Inouye said. “We have gotten multiple new cars, all of which are very nice and fun to drive.”