CAR

6 best car rental companies of 2013

April 22, 2013

This year’s race for best car rental company wasn’t even close. Hertz took a commanding lead from the beginning and never let go, crossing the finish line first.

Readers voted Hertz the agency with the combination of best service and prices. They also lauded it for it conservative approach to damage claims, noting that it pursued only cases where it was certain the damage was caused by a customer.

It was followed by Enterprise, the largest car rental agency, and Avis. National and Alamo, two other brands owned by Enterprise, gave that company a dominant presence in this year’s top 6 list of car rental companies.
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14 comments

Forced to buy car rental insurance that didn’t cover her

April 19, 2013

From time to time, a case comes across my desk that gets me turned upside-down, because it doesn’t make sense on so many levels. Julie Yu’s dispute with Dollar is one of them.

A few weeks ago, I shared a problem of one reader’s mandatory car rental insurance charge in Mexico. Basically, her vehicle ended up costing a lot more than she thought it would, even though she’d purchased insurance through a third party.

Turns out this happens often. But Yu experienced the same problem — with a dark twist.
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51 comments

How can you be sure I damaged my rental car?

April 6, 2013

Question: My husband and I rented a car from Hertz in Munich last summer. The rental process was incredibly time-consuming and after 45 minutes at the rental desk, a five-minute walk to the garage and then another 30-minute wait in the garage, we finally received our vehicle.

It was parked in the travel lane, so we hurried to load our luggage and ourselves into it and get out of the way. We were not offered the opportunity to examine the car. It was also dark in the garage and the car was black.

When we returned the car an attendant took a flashlight and examined the underside of the car bending down so her eyes were about six inches off the ground. She stated that there were “scratches.” She also pointed out a depression near the right side of the back window.
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44 comments

Do I really have to pay for this broken windshield?

March 15, 2013

1-IMAG0070 Accidents happen. Even freak accidents, like the one Jonathan Perkins experienced in his Dollar rental car.

He’d rented a Ford Taurus in San Antonio. It wasn’t in the best shape, with 50,000 miles and a coat of grime on it, but it ran just fine.

“I drove the car two hours west, to a small town called Sonora, and stayed the night in a motel,” he says. “The next morning, I walked out to the car and got in, followed by my mom. As she closed her door, the rear window cracked, and fell into the car.”

The result? Well, see for yourself. The image above was taken right after the incident.
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129 comments

Oh no, Budget had second thoughts about my discount

March 2, 2013

Question: I’d like to share my recent Budget Car Rental experience with you that has me committed to never doing business with them again.

A couple weeks ago I received a voicemail saying the Budget at the Kansas City airport would be charging me an extra $104 because an “internal audit” found they gave me too much of a discount. My receipt shows the $85 discount, which seemed right since there was an advertised discount.

So, they billed my credit card without my authorization, and then added in all the additional taxes and fees to bring the amount up to $104. I called Budget corporate and the franchise, but nobody would help fix the issue, even though I had a receipt to prove we “agreed” on the lesser amount.
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85 comments

Would you rent a car from this company?

February 19, 2013

You don’t have to read this site every day to know that fraudulent car rental damages are a big problem, at least as far as customers are concerned. If you’re a car rental agency, you might call it something different, ranging from “no problem” to “profit center.”

But at least one car rental company says it’s on our side. It’s Bandago, a San Francisco company that specializes in van rentals. After I wrote a story about the problem of fraudulent claims for Auto Rental News, a trade magazine, last year, I got an unexpected call from its CEO, Sharky Laguana.
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147 comments

I rented a damaged car from Dollar — why should I have to pay?

January 19, 2013

accident Question: I’m having a problem with Dollar Rent A Car. When I picked up my car at Southwest Florida International Airport, they did not inspect the car with me, but told me to just go “pick one out.”

The car had some minor paint damage on the rear bumper, but a sticker was attached indicating that the damage was previously identified, so I didn’t give it any further thought. Prior to leaving for the airport on my return trip, I walked around the car to make sure that there was no damage to the vehicle. There was none.

When I returned the car to Dollar at the airport, the guy didn’t bother to inspect the car, so I pointed out the sticker and damage on the rear bumper, and he said, “Yeah that’s previous damage.”
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30 comments