Car Rental Rip-Offs

[Driver101]

I recently hired a car from Enterprise. The car was less than £50 for 4 days.

They now have a £1000 excess regardless who is at blame for an accident or the damage. It also doesn't matter how minor the damage is. A windscreen or a tyre means £1000 apparently. That's wrong.

To remove the excess they wanted £65 extra. That is an excessive amount for insurance.

I guess the cheap prices get people in the door to start with.

[sealtt]

Driver101 said:

I recently hired a car from Enterprise. The car was less than £50 for 4 days.

They now have a £1000 excess regardless who is at blame for an accident or the damage. It also doesn't matter how minor the damage is. A windscreen or a tyre means £1000 apparently. That's wrong.

To remove the excess they wanted £65 extra. That is an excessive amount for insurance.

I guess the cheap prices get people in the door to start with.

That's not how an excess works. It just means you pay the first £1000 of any repair, not £1000 for any repair. So the windscreen you would only pay the actual cost of repair, say £150 for example, not £1000.

[Driver101]

sealtt said:

That's not how an excess works. It just means you pay the first £1000 of any repair, not £1000 for any repair. So the windscreen you would only pay the actual cost of repair, say £150 for example, not £1000.

That is my understanding of an excess, but the guy was very clear on it after I questioned him.

He's either a pushy salesperson telling lies, or its a very harsh policy.

[oilydan]

My excesses for theft or collision damage were still GBP1000.

I did not take the excess waiver.

[ferrariF50lover]

sealtt said:

That's not how an excess works. It just means you pay the first £1000 of any repair, not £1000 for any repair. So the windscreen you would only pay the actual cost of repair, say £150 for example, not £1000.

You're half right. Take the grand up front, repay what isn't used later.

Even with £1000 excess, repairing cars and dealing with PI still costs large rental companies many millions a year.

[Sheepshanks]

sealtt said:

That's not how an excess works. It just means you pay the first £1000 of any repair, not £1000 for any repair. So the windscreen you would only pay the actual cost of repair, say £150 for example, not £1000.

Windscreen would typically be way more expensive than that, and the other thing is they'll charge for the car being unavailable for hire.

[surveyor]

sealtt said:

Driver101 said:

I recently hired a car from Enterprise. The car was less than £50 for 4 days.

They now have a £1000 excess regardless who is at blame for an accident or the damage. It also doesn't matter how minor the damage is. A windscreen or a tyre means £1000 apparently. That's wrong.

To remove the excess they wanted £65 extra. That is an excessive amount for insurance.

I guess the cheap prices get people in the door to start with.

That's not how an excess works. It just means you pay the first £1000 of any repair, not £1000 for any repair. So the windscreen you would only pay the actual cost of repair, say £150 for example, not £1000.

I've had this discussion with them. They will take the full amount there and then and refund what they don't spend.

I use Hertz nowadays and rarely have problems, although there online quoting does sometimes get a bit erratic, and needs a phone call to book.