Debt (Details)	3 Months Ended											1 Months Ended													1 Months Ended					1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2012 USD ($) M	Dec. 31, 2011 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Letters of credit USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Corporate Debt USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Corporate Debt USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior Term Facility USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Senior Term Facility USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior Term Facility Letters of credit USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior ABL Facility USD ($) quarter	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior ABL Facility Minimum ratio	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior ABL Facility Letters of credit USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Senior Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 8.875% Senior Notes due January 2014	Feb. 28, 2012 8.875% Senior Notes due January 2014	Dec. 31, 2011 8.875% Senior Notes due January 2014 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 7.875% Senior Notes due January 2014	Feb. 28, 2012 7.875% Senior Notes due January 2014	Dec. 31, 2011 7.875% Senior Notes due January 2014 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 7.875% Senior Notes due January 2014 EUR (€)	Mar. 31, 2012 7.50% Senior Notes due October 2018 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 7.50% Senior Notes due October 2018 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 7.375% Senior Notes due January 2021 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 7.375% Senior Notes due January 2021 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 6.75% Senior Notes due April 2019 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 6.75% Senior Notes due April 2019 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Senior Subordinated Notes	Mar. 31, 2012 Promissory Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Promissory Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2010 Convertible Senior Notes D	Mar. 31, 2012 Convertible Senior Notes USD ($) Feature	Dec. 31, 2011 Convertible Senior Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Other Corporate Debt USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Other Corporate Debt USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Fleet Debt USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Fleet Debt USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. ABS Program Letters of credit USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes Series 2009-1 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes Series 2009-1 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes Series 2010-2 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes Series 2010-2 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes Series 2011-2 USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Variable Funding Notes Series 2011-2 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes Series 2009-2 Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes Series 2009-2 Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes Series 2010-1 Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes Series 2010-1 Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes Series 2011-1 Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Medium Term Notes Series 2011-1 Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Donlen GN II Variable Funding Note USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Donlen GN II Variable Funding Note USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Other Fleet Debt USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Other Fleet Debt USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 U.S. Fleet Financing Facility USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 U.S. Fleet Financing Facility USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 European Revolving Credit Facility USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 European Revolving Credit Facility USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 European Securitization USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 European Securitization USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Canadian Securitization USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Canadian Securitization USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Australian Securitization USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Australian Securitization USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Capitalized Leases USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Capitalized Leases USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 European Fleet Notes USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 European Fleet Notes USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2012 Brazilian Fleet Financing USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2011 Brazilian Fleet Financing USD ($)
Debt
Average Interest Rate (as a percent)						3.75%			2.50%			7.09%																7.48%			5.25%		5.00%							1.27%		1.35%		2.82%				4.95%		3.77%		2.86%		1.26%				3.31%		4.11%		2.82%		2.10%		6.00%		4.60%		8.50%		17.35%
Outstanding principal						$ 1,386,000,000	$ 1,389,500,000		$ 120,000,000			$ 2,450,000,000	$ 2,638,600,000			$ 162,300,000			$ 276,300,000	€ 213,500,000	$ 700,000,000	$ 700,000,000	$ 500,000,000	$ 500,000,000	$ 1,250,000,000	$ 1,000,000,000		$ 224,700,000	$ 224,700,000		$ 474,700,000	$ 474,700,000	$ 45,900,000	$ 49,600,000				$ 1,720,000,000	$ 1,345,000,000	$ 1,450,000,000	$ 1,000,000,000	$ 200,000,000	$ 170,000,000	$ 70,000,000	$ 175,000,000	$ 2,732,100,000	$ 2,732,100,000	$ 1,384,300,000	$ 1,384,300,000	$ 749,800,000	$ 749,800,000	$ 598,000,000	$ 598,000,000	$ 835,000,000	$ 811,200,000	$ 1,493,400,000	$ 1,724,000,000	$ 161,000,000	$ 136,000,000	$ 44,000,000	$ 200,600,000	$ 229,300,000	$ 256,200,000	$ 60,100,000	$ 68,300,000	$ 165,200,000	$ 169,300,000	$ 293,700,000	$ 363,700,000	$ 532,700,000	$ 517,700,000	$ 16,800,000	$ 23,100,000
Unamortized Net (Discount) Premium				(56,100,000)	(72,300,000)																										59,500,000	65,500,000			(9,400,000)	(10,900,000)
Total Debt	11,425,702,000	11,317,090,000		4,645,200,000	4,704,800,000																														6,780,500,000	6,612,300,000
Interest rate (as a percent)														8.875%	8.875%		7.875%	7.875%			7.50%		7.375%		6.75%		10.50%
Aggregate amounts of maturities of debt for each of the twelve month periods
2013	4,920,200,000
Other short-term borrowings	4,070,500,000
2014	285,500,000
2015	1,210,700,000
2016	921,700,000
2017	244,100,000
After 2017	3,909,000,000
Maximum maturity period of outstanding borrowings to be reflected as short-term borrowings (in months)	3
Weighted average interest rate of short term borrowings (as percent)	2.50%
Period over which cash generated from operations, together with amounts available under various liquidity facilities will be adequate to permit entity to meet debt maturities (in months)	12
Outstanding standby letters of credit			607,000,000																																		291,000,000
Outstanding amount related to other debt obligations			57,800,000
Write-off of unamortized debt costs												3,200,000
Additional aggregate principal issued																									250,000,000
Denomination of the principal amount of notes used to determine shares to be issued on conversion of convertible senior notes																															1,000
Minimum closing common stock price per share (in dollars per share)																																$ 10.77
Minimum number of trading days within 30 consecutive trading days during which the closing common stock price per share exceeded the conversion price for the notes to be redeemable																														20
Number of consecutive trading day periods within which the closing common stock price per share exceeded the conversion price for at least 20 trading days for the notes to be redeemable																														30
Minimum number of conversion features that are required to be satisfied during future measurement period for notes to remain convertible																															1
Financial Covenant Compliance
Fixed charge coverage ratio, numerator										1
Fixed charge coverage ratio, denominator										1
Number of quarters most recently ended for which the Hertz credit group would be subject to a specified fixed charge coverage ratio									4
Borrowing Capacity and Availability
Remaining Capacity	2,984,400,000								1,320,300,000																										1,664,100,000			618,100,000																20,100,000				29,000,000		249,000,000		282,900,000		140,200,000		94,600,000		230,200,000
Availability Under Borrowing Base Limitation	1,313,300,000							300,000	953,600,000		1,086,500,000																								359,700,000			159,700,000																20,100,000				29,000,000		91,000,000		26,200,000		4,900,000		3,600,000		25,200,000
Total assets of variable interest entities	383,000,000	456,300,000
Total liabilities of variable interest entities	$ 382,500,000	$ 455,800,000