How much will the rental company charge for a scratch?

[swift]

We have discovered an 8 inch scratch on the side door of our mini van! It is through the black paint down to the white below. Any idea how much the rental company will charge us when we return it? Thanks.

 

[plutolovr]

I would just go to a auto parts store and get some scratch fix or black touch up paint. Perhaps when you return it they won't notice.

 

[swift]

That's what I was thinking. I'm guessing the rental company would charge quite a lot.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I would just go to a auto parts store and get some scratch fix or black touch up paint. Perhaps when you return it they won't notice.

That's what I was thinking. I'm guessing the rental company would charge quite a lot.

That's fraud, honestly. You damaged the vehicle (or it was damaged while in your possession). I doubt you would accept a haphazard repair on your vehicle if someone was borrowing it from you.

 

[swift]

I think the real villain here is the person who scratched it and drove off.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I think the real villain here is the person who scratched it and drove off.

I agree that the person who did it was wrong, but regardless, you had possession of the vehicle and part of that possession is responsability.

 

[swift]

I had a quick look through my rental agreement and I think the bit that covers this is "Collision Damage Waiver". There doesn't appear to be an excess so I think we are fully covered. It may require a bit of an argument with them when we return the car and keeping a close eye on our credit card charges just in case.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I had a quick look through my rental agreement and I think the bit that covers this is "Collision Damage Waiver". There doesn't appear to be an excess so I think we are fully covered. It may require a bit of an argument with them when we return the car and keeping a close eye on our credit card charges just in case.

Did you purchase CDW (Collision Damage Waiver)? Look at the itemized charges, it will be a line item, around $20 - $30 per day in addition to your rental charges.

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

If you rented from a major company and return the car to a major airport such as MCO, they're not going to notice the scratch as they're way too busy scanning barcodes and printing receipts. You're under no obligation to point the scratch out to them. Once you return the car and leave the area, they can't claim you damaged the car. They've waived that right.

The smaller companies, particularly those off site, will scrutinize the car and bill you for the repairs.

BobK/Orlando

 

[SamSam]

We often have rental that have many, many small scratches and we make note of everyone of them when we pick the car up, so that we won't be charged for something that didn't happen while we had the rental.

 

[DVC-Don]

Last year we had someone carve a Mickey head (large) in one door of our black Chrysler 300 that we rented from Dollar. Never heard a word from Dollar.

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

My DM rented last yr in CT from enterprise. She parked the car across 2 parking spaces at an apt complex she was staying at. (she didn't want another car hitting hers). When she went out to leave there was a nasty note about her parking. A few days later she noticed the car was keyed on the entire passenger side of the car. Granted she can't say for sure it happened at the apt complex (which wasn't in the greatest part of town).

Enterprise billed her $800 for the repair. She had her own insurance coverage but the deductable was $1,000. She never took out the damage coverage.

Good luck

 

[tggrrstarr]

My husband takes car insurance claims and says the cost can be high if you don't take their insurance.
But, with that said, I had a rental car a few months ago and very stupidly backed into my house. It created a large scratch on the back end of the car. I washed the paint transfer off the car so all that was left was a light colored scratch and decided to try my luck when I returned it. (There already were quite a few scratches on the car when I rented it.) Now this new one was faint in color, but took up about a 4"x4" area on the car. I didn't bring up the scratch, and they didn't even check it. She just did a very quick look to make sure there wasn't anything severely wrong with it.
I think you should be ok, they probably just want to make sure you didn't dent or smash anything.

 

[Lewisc]

That's fraud, honestly. You damaged the vehicle (or it was damaged while in your possession). I doubt you would accept a haphazard repair on your vehicle if someone was borrowing it from you.

It's also fraud when the rental agency charges the customer for a "real" repair but only does a quick touch up, particularly if the rental agency then charges another renter for the scratch.

Parking in two parking places is very annoying if you either park in front or if the lot fills up later in the day and another driver can't find a spot. It doesn't justify vandalizing a car. I can sort of understand the frustration of a driver who can't find a spot and finds a driver who decided he was special enough to deserve two spots. Very hard sell. My gas guage didn't show F when I picked up the car, I was told that was normal for the car. When I filled up the needle went above F. I waited in line and made them give me a few dollars off.

edited to add a few years ago I rented from Thrifty in Las Vegas. They had clear stickers on each car indicating scratches and dings. They said anyone who doesn't buy their insurance will be responsible for any ding/scratch that doesn't have a sticker on it.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

It's also fraud when the rental agency charges the customer for a "real" repair but only does a quick touch up, particularly if the rental agency then charges another renter for the scratch.

Actually, the claim would be mitigated by a third party company and fair market value for the repair would be charged, just as in any accident/repair situation with a claim on a personal policy.

Like a personal policy though, claim reimbursements are not required to be used to repair a vehicle. If someone rear-ends you in an accident and the insurance company pays you $500, you are not required by law to repair the vehicle. You cannot claim that damage again until it is repaired and any claim made for additional damage from another accident will need to be discounted by the unrepaired damage. In the end, it's not fraud to not repair your own vehicle (in this case the rental company's), but if they claim damage that was already there to multiple renters, that is fraud, but doesn't happen as often as people would like to believe (but, yes this would be fraud if the intent is there to claim on damage multiple times).

 

[dpmfloyd]

we are also forgetting they will ding your for anytime the vehicle is off the road - loss of use. if they hit you with a loss of use charge, make sure to request the appraisal. an 8 inch scratch would be a 1 day repair, max 2.

 

[Brian Noble]

If you paid for CDW (or booked with a legitimate corporate rate that includes it), then you won't be on the hook for anything. If you didn't, you'll have to take your chances with the rental car company, at which point your own insurance policy, any credit card policies, etc. will kick in. But, if that's the case, don't feel too bad---it's not going to be outrageous, and in the long run, probably cheaper to pay a deductable every once in a while than to always pay for the (rather expensive) CDW.

 

[DMRick]

Most credit cards will cover you as well, if you paid that way (although some won't cover specialty cars such as convertibles and large vans). Someone did some damage to our rental van in CA, so I called our credit card, and they said don't worry about it...they cover what our insurance doesn't including time down. It was for naught, because when we returned it, the guy actually felt the damage with his hand (we thought it was a lot) and wrote something in his machine and told us we were all set!