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Done it many times. Varying degrees of damage and dirt and dog hair. Never been charged by Hertz or Avis or Budget.
I highly doubt the rental companies let cracked windshields and dented hoods and doors slide. That would be on the incident report and you or your insurance would have to pay. That is not what anyone would consider normal wear and tear.
That's very good for you. But as I already explained, the (rare) road trip I took last week in my own car resulted in: cracked windshield, stained seat, dented door and hood damage from bugs. I wish it would have happened to a Hertz rental instead of my car. My fault.
You would still have to pay to fix up the rental, no such thing as free lunch. Just because it's a rental does not give you free license to do as you please to the car and not face any ramifications. Also that must be a heck of a bug to dent the hood. Hyperbole much?
I've done this a couple of times. And may do it more and more as my car gets older.
Also, I'm at 206k miles and would like to hit 500k, so I find myself babying my 2006 4-wheeled "baby" more, as she gets older.
If a mileage figure is your goal, you're more likely to hit it with highway miles than with city miles. City miles are hard on a car; highway miles are easy. If you're maintaining your car well enough to trust in the nasty city, it should take a road trip without a qualm.
You might have other reasons to prefer renting--people have spoken of being more willing to subject someone else's car to the vagaries of drivers in unknown cities or getting a larger vehicle.
But saving the car from the miles isn't the better logic.
I highly doubt the rental companies let cracked windshields and dented hoods and doors slide. That would be on the incident report and you or your insurance would have to pay. That is not what anyone would consider normal wear and tear.
Chipped windshields, door dings and chipped paint on the hood from bugs or other road hazards are not things that most rental car companies look for. They generally look for damage that is larger than two inches wide. A few companies are pickier than others (I do not rent from them), but the ones I use (Hertz, Avis, Budget) do not care about damage unless it's big. You know, damage from side-swiping a concrete barrier or from someone backing in to the passenger door. I rent cars at least once a month and they barely look at the car when I return it. They focus on the front and back and sides of the car, they look for accident damage. This "review" takes 10 seconds at most.
Even if they did take exception to any of this damage, they are the ones to arrange for the time-consuming repair, not me.
American Express does really good supplemental primary insurance,
1) What is supplemental, PRIMARY insurance? (Sounds like an oxymoron to me) Does that mean that insurance covers any costs your insurance won't? Like say if you're insurance won't cover the rental company's "loss of use." That credit card coverage will. I've read that credit card insurance usually does NOT cover loss of use.
Quote:
Why are you buying insurance?
Your policy covers you when you use a "temporary" or "substitute vehicle".
Rental insurance is one of the biggest rip offs that exists unless you don't have a vehicle of your own that is already covered by insurance.
Also, if you have a decent credit card it should cover any collision damage waiver.
I sometimes rent a car if the vacation is a long, driving vacation and I can get a cheap rental car with unlimited mileage.
2) I get it so there's no claim on MY insurance. And as for the Credit Card insurance I've read that you have double check what exactly it does cover, because it may NOT be as 'comprehensive' as you might like.
Unless an accident in that vehicle somehow is forgiven doesn't get included in your claim count. A person's insurance could go up for years because of that accident....costing them a lot more than just getting the darn rental insurance.
Also IF there is an accident, MY vacation isn't ruined with trying to call my insurance company (which they want you to do as soon as you can), explain what happened, and deal with any of that.
One could say that yes you could get into an accident -- but if you don't you haven't unnecessarily paid for the car rental insurance. And if you rent a car even for times and the insurance costs you 100 each time that $400 you paid that you didn't have to. True. BUT that money wasn't wasted, and it wasn't for nothing. It was for peace of mind and coverage in the event a given incident happen. Just like what all insurance does.....
But as I said I will check with my credit card companies to see what they cover.
I sometimes book though EXPEDIA. Does anyone have any experience with choosing THAT insurance, through -- I think -- Transamerica and Aon. A family member said if we're getting the insurance get it through the care company because we already know there won't be any issues about how "we don't accept that insurance you booked elsewhere," since we don't really know theses companies whether they'll try not to pay or whatever. (And we don't have time to research it right now.)
So anyone ever get the insurance when you book though sites like Kayak, Priceline, Expedia, Hotwire etc.?
Chipped windshields, door dings and chipped paint on the hood from bugs or other road hazards are not things that most rental car companies look for. They generally look for damage that is larger than two inches wide. A few companies are pickier than others (I do not rent from them), but the ones I use (Hertz, Avis, Budget) do not care about damage unless it's big. You know, damage from side-swiping a concrete barrier or from someone backing in to the passenger door. I rent cars at least once a month and they barely look at the car when I return it. They focus on the front and back and sides of the car, they look for accident damage. This "review" takes 10 seconds at most.
Even if they did take exception to any of this damage, they are the ones to arrange for the time-consuming repair, not me.
Which is it, chipped or cracked windshield. You first said your car got a cracked windshield and would have preferred it been a rental instead of your own car. I'm certain if it had been a rental they would have noticed that crack.
1) What is supplemental, PRIMARY insurance? Does that mean that insurance covers any costs your insurance won't? Like say if you're insurance won't cover the rental company's "loss of use." That credit card coverage will. I've read that credit card insurance usually does NOT cover loss of use.
The AmEx $15 plan does cover loss of use, and requires the rental car company to show that it exists if they try to claim it.
Fortunately, we've never had to file a claim with them, but there are enough good reviews of their process online to feel confidence in AmEx. Since you can get the insurance with one of their bog standard Blue or Everyday cards with no annual fee, it just seems to make sense to keep one of them in your wallet for rental car purposes.
But saving the car from the miles isn't the better logic.
For me it's not about saving miles. It's about lowering the likelihood of irreparable damage to the car.
The car is in very good condition, 11 years old with 207-thousand miles on it. The more I keep it OFF the road -- (the less I drive it, period, for that matter) -- the longer I'll have it. My usual commute is less than five miles a day.
I was rear-ended in my last paid off car which was not as old and had viewer miles. And the insurance company totaled the car. I begged them not to. Sure I got a few thousand dollars for it. But that wasn't enough to replace my car and NOT have me go back to car payments. I was willing to fix the darn car myself. But they wouldn't insure it again for collision. And if I had used the totaled out amount to buy the car back, then I'd have to get a salvage title. From what I saw there wasn't likely and frame damage just my rear bumper handing off. I don't think that card HAD to be totaled.
I think they just looked at the car, age/miles -- didn't think about what was best for me. And just summarily said it was totaled.
My experience with all that just put a bad taste in my mouth about having a paid off car in damn good condition totaled and now I'm pack to car payments, when in my opinion it didn't really have to be that way.
Which is it, chipped or cracked windshield. You first said your car got a cracked windshield and would have preferred it been a rental instead of your own car. I'm certain if it had been a rental they would have noticed that crack.
It is a chip that has/is spreading into a crack. I first said chipped, then I said cracked. And in fact it's the same thing.
Windshield has to be replaced. Even if it wasn't cracking, it would still need to be replaced because I don't believe in chip repairs, especially when they are deep and in the driver's sight line.
Last edited by sinatras; 07-13-2017 at 09:13 AM..
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