Hertz Launches Fully Online Used-Car Shop
The rental giant rolls out a nationwide online buying platform, letting shoppers browse, finance, trade in, and pick up cars without stepping into a lot.By Natalie NeffPublished: Sep 30, 2025 10:55 AM EDT
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Brandon Bell
Hertz just made a big move in how Americans buy used cars. Earlier this week, the rental-to-retail arm Hertz Car Sales launched a fully online car-buying platform, allowing buyers to browse, finance, and complete most of the purchase process digitally.
This shift lets customers begin with online tools—get prequalified, value a trade-in via Kelley Blue Book, choose warranty coverage—and then finalize the deal when they pick up the vehicle or take home delivery, available in some US locations.
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The announcement comes on the heels of Hertz’s prior partnership with Amazon Autos, which already allowed shoppers in certain markets to browse and buy Hertz’s used fleet via Amazon. Now, Hertz is taking control of the end-to-end experience under its own brand.
Hertz is also introducing a new marketing campaign starting October 1, featuring Tom Brady to spotlight this digital expansion. The move attempts to reduce friction in used-car shopping and attract customers who prefer a fully digital experience.
For Hertz, the change suggests a pivot away from auctions and third-party buyers while leaning more into direct, retail relationships with consumers. Given the volatility in rental demand and costs tied to fleet resale, this digital strategy could be a way to capture more margin and control in the used-car transition.
But for a couple of sketchy, short-lived gigs right out of college, Natalie Neff has had the good fortune to spend the entirety of her professional life around cars. A 2017 Honda Ridgeline, 1972 VW Beetle, 1999 Ducati Monster and a well-loved purple-and-white five-speed Schwinn currently call her garage home.
Does the Porsche Cayenne Interior Really “Redefine the Interior Experience?”
There are some nice features, but many competitors offer something similar now.By Mark VaughnPublished: Sep 30, 2025 10:16 AM EDTSave Article
Porsche
- Porsche revealed a new interior, which will debut in showrooms at the end of this year when the new Cayenne Electric bows.
- Among features is Porsche’s take on the A-pillar-to-A-pillar screen, the Porsche Digital Interaction display and operating concept.
- Further details on the Cayenne Electric will be revealed as the year progresses.
Among other qualities, the interior of the Porsche Cayenne Electric, a new EV set to debut at the end of this year, will “redefine the interior experience,” according to the carmaker.
It may be time for redefinition.
BMW has already shown off its A-pillar-to-A-pillar Panoramic Vision screen in its Neue Klasse, the latter which is coming next summer. Lincoln has gotten points for its own A-pillar-to-A-pillar 48-inch Panoramic Display Digital Experience that has been in its SUVs for some time now. And even Cadillac has its CUE User Experience which, in the Lyriq, spans 33 inches wide and combines digital cluster and infotainment in a single, massive digital explosion of information, entertainment, and color.Porsche
Partial Porsche dash.
Now, as of this morning, Porsche parades its new interior, the Porsche Digital Interaction display and operating concept, which Porsche says “marks a milestone in digitalization.”
At its core is the Flow Display—a curved OLED that flows seamlessly into the center console, enabling a unique operating format, Porsche says.
That Flow Display incorporates a 14.25-inch fully digital OLED instrument cluster with power meter for electric power, as well as NAV, ADAS, and infotainment.
Porsche says an additional—and optional—14.9-inch display on the Cayenne Electric’s passenger side offers entertainment, app control, and video streaming—even during driving—without distracting the driver.
And for the first time, the Cayenne will be available with a head-up display featuring augmented reality, projecting navigation arrows and lane guidance into the driver’s view of the road, with what Porsche says totals an effective display size of 87 inches. That must mean it adds the displays with the HUD.Porsche
Passenger gets their own screen.
“The aim of redesigning the screens’ digital content was to create an even more immersive and intense connection between driver and sports car,” said Ivo van Hulten, director of driver experience at Style Porsche.
Porsche says that “configurable widgets” available in both the Flow Display and Passenger Display make operating the system more intuitive.
With Porsche’s new Themes App, customers can customize the color scheme of all digital surfaces in the interior. There are five predefined color schemes to choose from, transforming the appearance of the Flow Display, instrument cluster, and other displays, “making the digital interface itself a design element that adds a purely digital element to the classic choice of materials and colors.”
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On top of that are streaming and gaming functions and AI-powered voice assistant that is supposed to understand complex instructions as well as spontaneous follow-up questions that do not require you to say the activation words, “Hey, Porsche.”
Other features of the new Cayenne Electric interior to look for on this and other future Porsches include:
- New Mood Modes that orchestrate light, climate, sound, and seat functions to create distinct atmospheres—whether to aid relaxation and concentration or to enhance the driving experience.
- An optional sliding panoramic roof—the largest glass roof ever fitted to a Porsche—equipped with Variable Light Control wherein the front section opens like a classic sliding roof, while the entire surface can switch from ‘clear’ to ‘matte’ settings via an electrically controlled liquid crystal film. Two additional semi-transparent modes—‘semi’ and ‘bold’—offer 40% and 60% opacity, respectively. (Even the Nissan Leaf already has something like this.)
- New surface heating function, which warms not only the seats but also large contact areas such as armrests and sections of the door panels.
We look forward to trying all this out when the new Cayenne comes out at the end of this year. Until then, soldier on with whatever interior you have now.
Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed the Blue Oval, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He started writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars—no one stopped him! From there he interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show and has been with us ever since.
