Never rented a car before, what can go wrong.

kipperman

Just to reiterate what others have said - pay the extra to have the collision damage waiver. I hired a brand new toyota for 24 hours and refused this, thinking "what could go wrong in 24 hours?"

Result - my mother reversed into said car, resulting in a bill for £600. Sportingly, she paid, but otherwise could have been pricy.

Also - be really picky about scuffs and dings that you see, and make sure a representative marks them on the condition report BEFORE you drive off.

steviec9

ANOTHER note of caution. Recently hired a Hertz car in Ireland and had a puncture. Changed the wheel myself to find I had a 'space saver, restricted speed' wheel. Got us to our destination (slowly) and phoned Hertz who wanted nothing to do with it and instantly said I was liable for all charges etc etc. I said 'OK - but how do I get back to where I came from?' and they said drive slowly. Long story short, I had no intention of taking the car back on the road for a 150km trip with luggage and passengers with an emergency spare wheel fitted. So I told them to collect the car from the hotel and I made my own way. Original hire (for 2 days) £35, total bill - £300, including petrol refill, wheel, recovery etc etc. They are contractually correct but morally, their attitude stinks. I'm lucky that I can absorb the cost but have learnt the hard way that you shouldn't rely on them if things go wrong.

Andy_L

Take both parts of your driving license, ie the pink photocard & the green counterpart

Hintza

steviec9 wrote: »

ANOTHER note of caution. Recently hired a Hertz car in Ireland and had a puncture. Changed the wheel myself to find I had a 'space saver, restricted speed' wheel. Got us to our destination (slowly) and phoned Hertz who wanted nothing to do with it and instantly said I was liable for all charges etc etc. I said 'OK - but how do I get back to where I came from?' and they said drive slowly. Long story short, I had no intention of taking the car back on the road for a 150km trip with luggage and passengers with an emergency spare wheel fitted. So I told them to collect the car from the hotel and I made my own way. Original hire (for 2 days) £35, total bill - £300, including petrol refill, wheel, recovery etc etc. They are contractually correct but morally, their attitude stinks. I'm lucky that I can absorb the cost but have learnt the hard way that you shouldn't rely on them if things go wrong.

I'm not hugely surprised by this. Why didn't you get the tyre repaired?

The thing to remember is they are going to charge through the nose for anything like this. Even if you got back to Hertz they will still charge you a fortune if the tyre needs replaced, a lot more probably than the tyre would cost you.

DealDrivers_company_representative

one more tip: if you are pre-booking a hire car for collection at an airport allow plenty of time! Every single experience I've had of getting off a flight and then having to collect a pre-booked hire car has been one of standing in a LONG queue at the rental company desk when you get there...one memorable time was a simple 1hr flight to Edinburgh then standing in a queue and for another 1hr 20mins before we got the car keys (part of that particular 'experience' was the guy on the rental desk phoning his car park guy in front of us and asking "if he had anything available?"...this was a for a car we'd pre-booked 3weeks in advance!

Rental desks aren't geared up to have one queue for pre-bookings and another for ad-hoc bookings, so you all stand in the same queue...nightmare. Experience with Hertz so far is that even if you've pre-booked and have given all the booking info already online or by phone, the desk clerk will somehow not have any of that info when you arrive - and require you to go through it all again!

It seems the bigger the rental co' name, the more paperwork and time it takes. Best experience in the past 12mths for us has been using Easyjet's own car rental with a flight booking, 10mins to do the paperwork, no queue at the airport. Very efficient.

DBMark

I know National/Alamo take £500 against your card.

It does not surprise me that Alamo behave in this way. I recently missed 2 job interviews because a car I had booked had been re-allocated by them (and they still held onto the payment). Apparently if you arrive late to collect your car, even if you've paid the booking fee in advance, they feel free to re-allocate the car without re-imbursing you. I think thieves in prison have more integrity...:eek:

Kilty_2

Hintza wrote: »

If you get a puncture probably best getting it repaired, if unrepairable it might be cheaper for you to replace like for like than waiting for the inflated bill.

Do they charge the hirer for puncture repair?

A few of us had hire cars through work and a colleague had a puncture - took it to Kwik Fit as advised by the hire company. So the company we work for got the bill? :rotfl:

bosseyed

As others have said, be very certain what the insurance excess is, and the conditions attached - as an example, when I had my car in at Nissan the other day, they offered me a courtesy car which would have been great, but the excess was £500 regardless of who was at fault in the event of a bump, ie if someone had driven into me when parked, I'm still liable to pay them £500. Too risky for me!

And again as others have said, be very very picky over dents, dings, scratches etc, do a full walk round with the hire people on collection and note anything, otherwise it'll come back and bite you on the bum when they start claiming for damage that you haven't caused.