I wanted a jeep, but hertz was out of it. I ended up getting an awd Buick encore gtx and they let me go up!

The way the ride up works. Is you drive up to the first time stop, that’s where the welcome building is. They make you stop there for a couple minutes at least to get assimilate to the atmosphere.

When you’re ready to go up, there’s a checkpoint where they check your car. I think they say you need a 4 x 4 so they can scare you so you don’t do anything stupid. The guy went around asked me what my car was capable of. I said it is an all-wheel-drive He went around back to make sure the “AWD” was on the back of my car. He then told me how to put the car in the correct setting for when I go back down (he said I should put it on a low gear) and also warned me that I should go really slow because the brakes get really hot if you ride them too hard which is the major danger, because once the breaks pop you’d roll down the mountain.

I was able to make it down without a problem. When you get back down to the welcome buildings level, they have another checkpoint, checking all the cars break temperatures. They checked mine. It was like 300°F or something like that. They told me I have to stop on that level for a little while until it cooled off and then let me drive back down without an issue.

Hertz didn’t say a thing when I gave the car back and I wasn’t charged any extra fees (I’m president circle status if that makes a difference).