Dealing with scratches/damage to a hire car

orangefender

Evening all,

I was hoping some of you can help me. I'm using a car on a long term (7 months) hire from Thrifty. I've had the car a couple of months but have already had a few unlucky prangs (my fault - new car, new city), some vanadlism and damage caused when a friend drove into it by accident.

The policy provides that "in each event of loss or damage the Hirer is liable for £500" and optional insurance includes the "loss/Damage Waiver (CDW/LDW)".

My gut feeling is to wait until the end of the rental period before returning the car and taking it up with Thrifty then. Hopefully they will deal with all the damage as a single claim and I won't be asked for more than £500. I could look at getting the damage repaired myself, but I don't want to risk the hire company being unhappy with the repairs and having to pay twice.

Would you all go along with this or something else I should be thinking about?

Thanks

Nex0

Why don't you take it to body repair shop and see if they can get it sorted out for cheaper then £500 ?

orangefender

Nex0 wrote: »

Why don't you take it to body repair shop and see if they can get it sorted out for cheaper then £500 ?

When I say myself, I mean take it to a body shop myself rather than carrying out the work myself.

Nex0

orangefender wrote: »

When I say myself, I mean take it to a body shop myself rather than carrying out the work myself.

Why wouldn't they be happy with the repairs?

I damaged my civic a few years back and after it was repaired it actually looked better then it came of the the production line.

Just get a few quotes from a few different companies.

You should know what the car should look like so if your not happy with the work then don't pay for it.

orangefender

Nex0 wrote: »

Why wouldn't they be happy with the repairs?

I damaged my civic a few years back and after it was repaired it actually looked better then it came of the the production line.

Just get a few quotes from a few different companies.

You should know what the car should look like so if your not happy with the work then don't pay for it.

Thanks but I'm not sure about this. Sounds like I risk having a dispute with two different companies! Also, the car is actually in my employers name so I don't expect to have to pay the excess assuming it is just £500.

I'm just worried they'll argue its £500 for each claim. A £2,000 is going to get embarrassing and I might be asked to contribute.

xnikkix

I wouldn't take it to a bodyshop, it's in Thrifty's t&cs that you cannot let anybody work on the vehicle without their permission. http://www.thrifty.co.uk/uk-booking-guide.htm

As to being charged more than £500, it probably depends on the state of the car. If it looks like a bumper car I'd expect you'd be charged for each incident.

plane_boy2000

I recon they would class it as one incident as its all within the same hire period - how can they tell how many "incidents" resulted in the damage?

orangefender

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

I recon they would class it as one incident as its all within the same hire period - how can they tell how many "incidents" resulted in the damage?

Cheers - that's what I'm hoping!

dacouch

Technically the excess is for each and every claim, so if they are aware it is four incidents they could levy the excess four times.

Kilty_2

I imagine if they can obviously see it's two, three, four seperate incidents they'll charge accordingly - I reported an accident in a hire car I had a few months ago (involved another car so didn't have a choice) - then scraped it on the other side a few weeks later, didn't report the second incident - I've no idea how they'll have charged the company I work for.

It wasn't insured by the hire company though so it'd have maybe have been charged differently.

vikingaero

We've always taken long term hire cars to bodyshops or used mobile paint technicians if there has been minor damage sustained.