£900 for rental car alloys!

neilmcl

missile wrote: »

New wheels for an X6 would be a lot more than £300 each.

Retail yes, but cost price.

AdrianC

neilmcl wrote: »

Keeping a car off the road because it has few alloy scuffs isn't exactly mitigating their losses, nor would replacing them when a cheaper repair would suffice I'd imagine, I suppose it depends on the extent of the damage.

Indeed. We don't know if it's just a few scuffs, or if the wheels are utterly battered.


But, really, it's all academic. The only question that matters is the one that hasn't been answered yet - how much insurance excess did the OP think he was on the hook for, via the "loan car" contract he signed? Who supplied that car - whether JLR, the dealer or a rental, is irrelevant. If that contract says a grand's excess, then he's on the hook for the first grand of any bill.


If the X6 is off the rental fleet for a few days while the rims are refurbished, plus the cost of the refurb, it's not hard to see how that could very quickly get to £900. Thrifty's website rate for three days rental this coming week - the minimum to get two complete days in the workshop - for a "luxury 4x4 (X5 or similar)" is £325 outside London. I suspect that an X6 would fall into in "prestige 4x4 (RR Velar or similar)" - £525. The only X6 listed is "elite 4x4 (X6M or similar)" - £725... Oh, and Thrifty's excess is listed as £1500 for the X5 category, £3k for the other two.

redux

AdrianC wrote: »

How much is the excess on the "loan car" agreement you signed?

This seems to me like a germane question, were the excess and waiver options verbally explained before clearly selecting one on the loan car agreement.

For instance, I recently hired a car for a day. I chose to risk the option of the £1000 excess, and consciously parked it well away from other cars at the supermarket. Even then about half the hire fee was actually insurance (about £8 or £9 each (Toyota Aygo))

regency_man

The excess on the insurance is zero.

But I’m at a loss how I’m supposed to invoke the insurance when the contract is between Land Rover and Thrifty. Currently they are just demanding money, they have not offered me the option to repair myself, which is presumably what the insurers would want?

AdrianC

regency_man wrote: »

The excess on the insurance is zero.

I find that VERY hard to believe. Zero financial come-back on you at all, even if you returned the loaner wrapped around a tree and smoking? Nah. Nobody's going to do that.

But I’m at a loss how I’m supposed to invoke the insurance when the contract is between Land Rover and Thrifty.

The question is whether the paperwork you signed put you on the hook for damage or not. You don't "invoke the insurance". The insurance is simply there to cap the amount you pay for damage caused in your care. Who provided the car is irrelevant.

Currently they are just demanding money, they have not offered me the option to repair myself, which is presumably what the insurers would want?

Umm, no. If you wanted to do that, the time to do it was before handing the thing back.

missile

neilmcl wrote: »

Retail yes, but cost price.

Why would Thifty be able to purchase BMW wheels any cheaper than u or I?

regency_man

AdrianC wrote: »

I find that VERY hard to believe. Zero financial come-back on you at all, even if you returned the loaner wrapped around a tree and smoking? Nah. Nobody's going to do that.

Why is that so hard to believe? That’s the point of insurance :rotfl:

If I return a £70,000 car wrapped round a tree whether I’ve got a £100 excess or £0 excess is academic really!

[Deleted User]

missile wrote: »

Why would Thifty be able to purchase BMW wheels any cheaper than u or I?

Bulk buying (after the OP has rented a few times)

Trade Discounts etc

AdrianC

regency_man wrote: »

If I return a £70,000 car wrapped round a tree whether I’ve got a £100 excess or £0 excess is academic really!

Not really - because the first situation costs you a hundred quid.

And a £100 excess is unlikely, too. Remember, if you hired it directly from Thrifty, that smoking tree-wrapper would cost you a grand and a half to three grand.

regency_man

This is true but I have to point out again that I didn't choose to rent a vehicle at any point. I took my perfectly working car to have a routine service and the dealership broke it so badly that it couldn't leave the workshop for 9 weeks.



It was the least they could do to give me a replacement vehicle while they fixed mine. Normally they would have given me a Land Rover from the showroom but in this instance they said they were low on stock due to it being a 'changeover' month.


Giving zero excess insurance on these loan vehicles has been standard in my experiences.