Scratched alloy wheel on Enterprise hire car - what to do?

geojay

I've currently got a hire car from Enterprise and it's due back on the 4th. I've just managed to scratch one of the alloy wheels on the curb while parking. Mindful of the £600 excess (I declined the £8.50 / day extra to reduce the excess) what might I expect when I take it back to them? Any tips or ideas on reducing the sum they might charge me? Is it worth getting it fixed myself?

Cheers,
Geoff

aliasojo

I'd be tempted to take it to a wheel place to get it fixed.

A huge bird of prey flew into our driver's mirror when we hired a van. It cost us less than £30 to replace with a proper part compared with the £200 Enterprise would have charged us.

TiTheRev

Go through some dirty puddles and hope they don't notice?!

A refurb would take a few days and about £100, a new alloy £300+, so it may just be best to take it on the chin as they may only charge you a small amount anyway...if they notice!

mcjordi

back street body shop? £20/30 tops for a quick blow over...

mcduff16

My local place do alloy wheel refurbs for £55 inc VAT per wheel, so i think try to find somewhere and get it done before getting stung by the rental company.

mcjordi

touch up pen in a similar colour to the alloy, if its not in an abvious place

tim9966

I'd be tempted to leave it, but tell them.

Getting it repaired youself should cost less than £100. Think I paid about £80 for a 18" alloy once. That was doing a full wheel refub, rather than just a touch up.

If they make a fuss offer them £50. They should be able to get better rates than the general public, so it should be cheaper for them to get it repaired.

aliasojo

tim9966 wrote: »

They should be able to get better rates than the general public, so it should be cheaper for them to get it repaired.

They will do. But they wont pass that cheap rate on to the customer who caused the damage.

KTF

How bad is the damage? They may or may not notice it depending on how beady eyed the person is - at airports they dont seem to care, smaller branches go over everything.

Failing that, is the spare also an alloy? If so then switch it over maybe?

Mrs_Imp

See how much to get it repaired yourself. When I hired a car from National, there was a tiny scratch on the bumber when I returned it and they kept my full deposit. Had I noticed it, I would've got it done myself for far less. They laughed at me when I said that it wouldn't cost that much to repair. I asked for a repair receipt (the car had plenty of unrepaired damage already) as I was sure that they would charge me and not repair it, but I never heard back from them. Sadly I was too busy moving house to chase it up and get a refund.
I have never been back there for rental and always advised my friends to steer clear of them.

KTF

The damage doesnt get repaired until the lease is up and it is due to be returned as its cheaper to repair all the damage in one go than have it repaired and the car gets damaged again (which it will do).

Thats why if you get one that is near 2 years old and/or 40k (Hertz typical lease period) it will pre pretty beaten up.

Its also why you need to go over the handover form and get them to mark on every single bit of pre-existing damage on it.

Hertz also tend to keep previous forms in the boot where the spare is so you can see the historical damage if the current sheet doesn't have it marked and you need to argue the case.