Since 1966, Hertz and Shelby have worked on some very cool Ford Mustangs and many are worth a pretty penny today. Hertz is now trying to offload some of its latest Shelby Mustangs as we speak. Unlike most ex-rental cars, don’t assume you’re going to get a great deal.
It’s no secret that sports cars designed for Hertz can carry a premium. Examples of the Shelby Mustang GT350 Hertz from the 1960s regularly garner six figures. Beyond that though, the rest of the Hertz sports car family tends to trade for five figures. That’s what makes this trio of GT500s look like a pretty bad investment. (Disclaimer: Do not take financial advice from me as I have a habit of buying cars that require far too much money to maintain.)
For example, this 2022 Shelby GT500 coupe has an asking price of $150,000. For that cool $150k, the buyer will get a car with over 22,000 miles on the odometer, a lot of gold accenting in the cabin, and (I wish I were joking), some Mucho Macho tires at each corner.
Don’t get me wrong. This is unquestionably a potent sports car. It still has a 760 horsepower supercharged V8 under the hood (with a gold-painted intake plenum), a seven-speed automatic gearbox, and rear-wheel drive. At the same time, there is zero accounting of how renters treated it for the 22,000 miles it’s lived.
Notably, all the cars we’re seeing here are “Hertz Certified” so they come with a 12-month 12,000-mile limited powertrain warranty on top of whatever factory coverage could remain. Still, how many people want to see how ragged out a rental Mustang can be after just 22k miles? Now, how many of you with your hand still up are willing to drop $150,000 to find out?
If Hertz wants $150k for this car then shouldn’t it in theory want more for the other ones it’s selling with less mileage? One example has 15,142 miles on it and the other features just 12,346. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic about Hertz-branded Mustangs. Let’s take a look at valuations from third parties.
Over on Cars & Bids, it would seem that the general value of a Shelby GT500 from similar years is lower than $150,000. More specifically, the last time that a GT500 of this ilk went for that kind of cash was… never.
The closest happened back in early 2023. That particular example, a Heritage Edition Shelby GT500 with the Carbon Fiber Track package, featured just 70 total miles at the time of sale.
Since that example, only two others have even reached six-figure bidding but neither sold. Interestingly, one is of special note. It’s a 2022 Ford Mustang Shelby GT-H Coupe. That’s right, it’s a Hertz-edition Mustang and bidding reached $105,313. If it went that high then surely a GT500 version is worth more right?
Well, no, not necessarily. First, this auction happened back in January and pricing is different today. Secondly, that car had just 750 miles which inherently adds significantly more value.
Perhaps the issue with these values is that we’re talking about Cars & Bids though. Maybe another auction website will garner higher bids for such a car. If you’re thinking of Bring A Trailer then you’ve come to the right paragraphs.
Alas, values aren’t much different there though. For example, the last GT500 to come anywhere close to $150,000 or more was a KR with just 443 miles on the odometer.
The most expensive late-model Hertz-branded Mustang to sell on the platform traded hands in April for $126,313. It had 3,400 miles on it and was allegedly one of two factory-supercharged examples.
Circling back to the Mustangs on Hertz’s website, let’s take a quick look at one more detail. The KBB plugin that Hertz uses to entice buyers that they’re getting a good deal is broken for these three cars. Well, it says that the range is “unavailable.” That said, when you hover over the little blue “Why?” nothing happens. At least, that’s the case for me. Maybe you’ll get different mileage there.
Considering all of this weirdness, I went ahead and reached out to Hertz to ask if they could explain their pricing strategy here. First, the company shot me a message telling me “Vehicles are selling quicker than usual because of our great offers!” I hereby promise to follow up on this claim by checking on these Mustangs in the not-too-distant future.
Really though, what I wanted was some reasoning for how they came to this specific figure. Perhaps the cars have some special lineage or features? When pressed, a Hertz employee just told me that “We do not negotiate on pricing. All our cars are marked with a no-haggle price that is often below market price.”
Suffice it to say, if you’re in the market for a Shelby GT500 Mustang, now you know what the market looks like.
I’ve seen how rental Mustangs are driven. They need to move the decimal place to the left on these prices, big time.
Don’t be gentle, it’s a rental. I absolutely beat cars I rent into the ground and you should too. As a result, I’ve always been quite hesitant to consider a pony car that used to be a rental. You just know several idiots like me on vacation flogged it within an inch of its life.
Also, even as one of our resident pony car enjoyers I’ve personally never really understood the appeal of the GT500 unless you’re a diehard Ford fanboy. They are extremely expensive for what they are and they hold their value quite well. I can’t really imagine buying a new one over a Z06 but that’s just me.
Something else to note is the similar flagship pony cars from Dodge and Chevy actually do depreciate. You can get into a decent Hellcat these days in 50s/60s and the same can be said of the one of these you REALLY want which is the ZL1. If you’re going to go to the track that’s far and away your best option and it’s not particularly close. I’d definitely prefer to daily a Hellcat or GT500 but no one is daily-ing these anyway.
Apparently, the Mucho Machos are among the cheapest UHP tires you can get in these sorts of sizes. Seems likely that the first renter shredded the OEMs (why not?) and it’s been Mucho Machos all the way after that.
I’d buy it, but you know Hertz will just report as stolen.
You win the internet today.
“Drive it like you stole it” is rather literal with Hertz.
At least some of this is likely the “Star Wars action figure” phenomenon.
Original new in the box action figures from the late ’70s/early ’80s are worth so much now precisely b/c there’s so few of those left – nobody collected them back then, we just opened them up and played with them like you’re supposed to.
People see that and think “Ah ha! I’ll be so clever for saving these brand new The Rise of Skywalker ones b/c they’ll be worth a fortune later on!”
Trouble is, others think that too, so your collection of hey I’m improbably back b/c lazy screenwriting Emperor figures ends up not being worth that much later on. But refusing to believe it b/c just look at the originals!, you keep the price high, waiting for that buyer who just has to have one.
Like when you think buying and saving all Hess Toy Trucks as an investment is a good idea.
Esp. if Hess itself is holding back a ton of them in warehouses with the idea of selling them later for big bucks. Trouble will probably be when Gen Delta or whomever is like “wait, I don’t get it; what did these things transport?”
Im sure a rental gt500 was very gently driven by responsible people for those 22k miles, very low chance of finding pieces of innocent bystander stuck in the undercarriage.
We may not know how exactly the renters drove the car, but we know what Hertz was expecting if they put on a rando brand tire that you can get off Amazon for $273 per set of four.
$150k and they’ll still mark it as stolen after the check clears, what a deal!
You wanted a fast car, right? Getting chased by the police just means you get to let her off the leash!
Black market prices, maybe.