No spare tire in my car rental – do I deserve a credit?

Point of clarification: The principle is important here. The principal is only $37, which is decidedly unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

The manager of the rental agency was likely correct.  The Elantra does not come with a spare in all trims.  (I wasn’t able to find any data about which trims it DOES come with, but some Googling shows many people looking for a spare for their Elantra… maybe the Touring has it?)

I would not have expected the rental agency to take special care in informing the customer that the vehicle is “missing” something it never had.

It is quite common for cars these days to not come with a spare tire.  I don’t agree with the decision, but it is true nonetheless.  To save on weight, more and more carmakers are substituting a can of fix-a-flat and an air compressor in place of the traditional spare and jack.

It would be important enough to me.  The arrogance of the Dollar company is overwhelming.  I expect a car in good working order.  

I would have been shocked too, but after reading this post and searching the web a bit, I now know that many cars no longer come with spare tires. I think it’s poor customer service to sell or rent a car without a spare, but if it’s becoming standard practice, I’m not sure there’s a place for you to mediate. And as you note, the customer should have called the rental agency, not AAA. Good customer sevice would be for the agency to refund a day’s rental anyway, but you can’t hold them to good service, just decency.

The customer should have called Dollar when he got the flat before calling AAA to find out what they wanted to do about it. By not calling them, he didn’t give them the option of fixing the problem without him losing a day of use out of the car. Additionally, Googling seems to reveal that the manager was not lying. The new Elantras don’t come with a spare, and it appears you cannot even order one separately and put it in your car yourself. They don’t make a spare tire for the new Elantras. The car manual may have been printed before they made that decision, or there may be one specific version of the car that you can get a donut for, but in general they include a can of fix a flat and an air compressor.

So, he did not check to see if there was a spare prior to leaving the car rental lot. That can lead to a lot of problems upon the return. If one checks for a spare plus tools prior to leaving the lot, no problem, it one checks and the spare and tools are missing regardless of the reason this should be noted on the paper you have for dents and scratches etc. other wise you could be in for bill for the tire and or tools when you return. I always check to make sure that the spare and tools are in the trunk. Just part of the overall vehicle check.

Did the OP really lose a day’s rental? The story isn’t clear as to when he finally did call Dollar. He says the garage was closed by the time he got there. Does that mean that it happened towards evening and he got a replacement the very next morning? Or would Dollar have still been open when he got the flat and therefore able to provide him with a replacement immediately? I think that’s the crux. If he called and there was no replacement, then Dollar owes him credit. If he didn’t call until morning, then that’s too bad. Bummer!

I gridginglyu voted yes because although I think it was stupid to call AAA instead of the rental company when his tyre went flat, I think he seserves some sort of credit or refund for not having provided him with a spare tyre.

I voted yes on this one, I know it’s a small amount, but there is no excuse for the manager’s behavior and Dollars stubbornness. Renting a car without a necessary safety feature does result in the loss of use to the customer, and I feel they should get something for their lost time.  Besides, wouldn’t Dollar want to have a spare tire to protect their car?  Imagine someone finds no spare, so they just drive on the rim?
 
I also find it hard to believe that it doesn’t come with a spare, especially since there was a space for a spare.  Others have mentioned they come with fix-a-flat, does anyone know if the OP had fix-a-flat at least?  I am shocked Hyundai would just throw in a can of fix a flat instead of a spare since fix-a-flat does not fix very many flats. And only for a short time if it actually does work, at least in my experience.
 
I have been in the customer’s situation twice.  One time I rented with Hertz and got a flat tire about 2 miles after driving off the lot. In fact, on the lot I told them the “Low Tire Pressure” light was on and they told me it was malfunctioning and to ignore it, that the car was fine.  Two miles later the car starts pulling and I pull over, the tire was completely empty.  I called Hertz and they pretty much said too bad, not their problem.  I put on the spare and got the tire fixed which Discount Tire did at no cost to me.  I thought that was very nice of them.  I complained to Hertz as it took several hours, unfortunately it went nowhere.  The next time was with Avis in Mexico, I was driving to my hotel and the tire went flat.  I put on the spare, called Avis. They asked me what hotel and told me to leave the keys with the concierge and they would come fix it.  A few hours later the concierge called me and said they had keys to my new car.  When I left later, they had replaced the beat up ford escort with a new VW Passat!  I prefer the way Avis handled it.

Forty years ago, I remember Dollar being a horrible company to deal with. Apparently, it still is. Think of it as being the Carnival of the car-rental business.

Really?  Checking for tools and a spare.  Seems a bit exessive and unwarranted given than a reputable car rental lot will take care of a flat.  What’s next, checking the oil and other fluids, tire pressure, battery leads?

I”d rather rent from a reputable company.

Buyer beware.  Or in this case, drive/renter – beware.  Dollar has no sense.
 

 How about also updating the story to also reflect the fact that most Elantras, do not, in fact, come with a spare tire?  (Some googling of “Elantra spare tire” reveals this.)

 Charging for things like flat tires and cracked windshields is pretty standard amongst rental companies.  I guess if I owned a rental agency, I’d charge too.  You, renter, are responsible for all physical damage that happens to your car during the rental, even if it isn’t your fault.  (They do, however, cover mechanical breakdown, and will also usually provide roadside assistance.)

I’m kind of torn on this.

In some respects, I understand not including a spare (especially in a car that apparently frequently comes without a spare).  The idea is the rental company wants you to call them, so you can use their repair/maintenance services, instead or racking up a bill you will present to them upon returning the car.  (Not that some of them don’t deserve it, considering how they will charge you tons for body work that isn’t your fault.)

And it protects them from liability if someone gets hurt during the tire-change process. The OP should definitely have contacted Dollar first to see what procedure should be followed.

On the other hand – if the customer has a service they already pay for (like AAA), then no cost is accrued by the rental agency when a customer has the tire changed.

In any respect, for such a small amount of money – the $37 for a single day’s cost – was not an outrageous request, and a good CR rep should have gone ahead and refunded that.  The obstinant response by Dollar makes no sense here.

I’m conflicted on this one. The OP didn’t allow the rental company to fix the issue with the car so he really blame them for loss of use. It also appears that the car no longer comes with a spare (as a former GM engineer, the continued space for a spare and its elimination both make since in the really odd world of vehicle engineering) for every trim level. Dollar also got him a replacement vehicle within about 18 hours not great but considering he didn’t go through their channels understandable.

Having said that … I have had a rental vehicle that broke down and they expected me to take the time to get it fixed without compensation. I wasn’t really happy either.

If he had called their roadside assistance to fix the flat and lost the car’s use, I’d agree to the loss of use but he decided to have it fixed on his own and at that point, he assumed responsibilty for its loss of use.

Here’s an LA Times article about no spare in the Elantra: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/20/business/la-fi-autos-spare-tires-20110620

I was biting my tongue on that one, Aaron, but thank you for pointing that out.  (I would guess you’re a fellow reader of “Eats Shoots and Leaves”?)

 That is correct. I have a 2011 Elantra Limited, top of the line, and it does not come with a spare. It came with an air compressor in the trunk. So, Dollar did not provide a car without a spare because it never had it.

The OP didn’t allow the rental company to fix the issue with the car

Unless the OP paid extra for Dollar’s “RoadSafe” service (which would make little sense if he’s already subscribed to AAA roadside service), then Dollar’s rental contracts state that flat tire’s (et. al.) are the customer’s responsibility.

A little disingenuous to blame the customer for failing to call a service that he had no rights to make use of.  Maybe he should have called customer service, but if this was after business hours then he would have been unable to speak to anyone until the following day.

he did not check to see if there was a spare prior to leaving the car rental lot

If you want to turn this into a “caveat emptor” world, soon we’ll need to hire our own mechanic for half a day to thoroughly  inspect every internal part before we can safely sign any rental agreement and drive off.

Half-way through reading the article, I was anticipating that the manager would blame the OP and hold him responsible for the “missing” spare.  At least I was pleasantly semi-surprised that this story didn’t take THAT turn.

 yes, that’s my point.

The various service charges in the article that you posted only applied if the OP was at fault.  Assuming the OP is innocent then he had every right to call and use the service for free.

As far as customer service, I’d be unpleasantly surprised if it wasn’t 24 hour given the realities of renting a car,

I have to wonder what good an air compressor does you when the tire won’t hold air.  I’d sell the air compressor and use that money to buy a donut tire.

The example was of a business traveler who encountered a tire change warning light.  What makes you think this was her fault?

She was instructed to drive 35 miles to the nearest Avis location or replace the tire at her own expense.  Because she didn’t purchase the Road SafetyNet feature.

I wasn’t really all that aware of that many new cars without spares.  I’d certainly heard of some sporty cars (especially the new Mini Cooper and Lotus Elise) come with run-flats rather than spares.  I had a coworker who had one of those, and put on some higher performance tires that weren’t run-flats.  He said he’d just stuff a couple of cans of fix-a-flat in the trunk, although I’m not sure that would do any good if he ended up shredding a tire on the freeway (I’ve personally been there).  Basically any new tire is going shred the sidewalls if driven for a few seconds after a blow-out at freeway speeds.

I’m not even sure that a whole lot of rental agencies would want their customers to be fixing flats themselves, especially with compact spares and some of the new cars in rental fleets.  A compact spare is usually rated for up to 50 MPH.  It’s generally safe to use one indefinitely as far as the tire is concerned, but it’s a lousy ride with funky handling, and how many renters will actually stick to the limited speeds?  However, they always come with limited tread (might be good for a few thousand miles) and shouldn’t be used for long trips.  There are some vehicles which shouldn’t be driven long term on a compact spare – especially many AWD cars.  The Subarus with electronic automatic transmissions (and I’ve rented one before) are notoriously fussy.  Some even come with a place in the fuse box to plug in a fuse that puts the transmission in front-wheel drive mode to prevent damage to the transfer case.  Then there are limited slip differentials which will make all sorts of noise if a compact spare is placed on the same axle; I’ve personally experienced that.

Still – when one has a flat tire in a rental, the first thing to do is contact the rental agency.  They will fix it.  Once one does something else, then it gets into strange things between the customer and the rental agency over what is the responsibility for later repairs.  For instance, using a fix-a-flat style repair may cost over $100 to clean out that junk from the wheels.  Throw in that all new cars come with tire-pressure monitoring systems, and that could be really expensive just to do it yourself.