businesscars.com has a solid partnership with Hertz Rent a Car in many countries. Hertz was founded by Walter L. Jacobs. In 1918 he started a car rental operation in Chicago with a dozen Ford T's. 5 years later, in 1923, the company was sold to John D. Hertz who was president of Yellow Cab and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company. He renamed the company to the "Hertz Drive-Ur-Self System".

The company has passed through a number of hands, including General Motors, RCA, and United Airlines. On December 30, 1987, Hertz was sold to Park Ridge Corporation, a company formed by Ford Motor Company and certain members of Hertz senior management for the purpose of purchasing Hertz. In 1988, Volvo North America Corporation joined Ford and Hertz management as an investor in Park Ridge Corporation.

As a public company, Hertz was traded on the NYSE under the symbol HRZ until the purchase of remainder of outstanding stock by Ford Motor Company. From 1994 till 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 $5.6 billion in cash and debt acquisition. The sale was completed on December 22, 2005. This private equity group took Hertz public on November 16, 2006 and is now available on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol 'HTZ'. Despite its past affiliation with Ford, the rental fleet of most Hertz locations no longer consists exclusively of Fords and Ford brands such as Mazda, Volvo, Mercury and Lincoln. It is not uncommon to find Hertz rental cars from non-Ford companies such as Toyota, Hyundai, Kia and General Motors.

You can find car rental offers from Hertz and other car rental companies by entering a destination, a pick-up date and a drop-off date on the left side of this page.

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