Car Insurance

Car rental is no longer a domain of the upwardly mobile set, or people traveling on a business. Ordinary Americans use car rental as an affordable way of dealing with their transportation requirements. Dozens of multinational car hire companies, occupy booths of every major airport. Hundreds of the less known auto rentals operate along the major thoroughfares and from the parking lots of every major commercial center.

And because of their accessibility, car rental services are often the first port of call, when it comes to getting a mean of transport, to cross the city, or move to the other end of the state. Yes, no special sophistication is required on part of the hirer.

The formalities are short and virtually anybody holding a drivers license, can get a key to the car he, or she, knows very little about…

No, I’m not talking about your driving skills, or your level of proficiency when driving an unknown model or make. The problem lies with the fact, that you’re taking a temporary possession of somebody else’s property, not knowing anything about its hidden faults, damages and limitations.

And don’t count on the staff at the hire yard. They are there to get you to sign the rental form, and receive the car back. And if you don’t know how to take care of your interests, you may be for a nasty surprise…

In case you thought that once you’ve paid an insurance cover, you’re fully protected; think twice. Have you taken more care, and read the “fine print”, you would found out the limitations that make paying your $30 or more per day extra, a waste of money.

There are so many restrictions contained in rental car’s insurance policy, that it’s a virtually useless defense against paying for damages, from your own pocket. Especially so, in the case of relatively minor problems, costing $500-1000 to fix, at the neighboring panel beater.

What? Are you trying to explain, that you didn’t know? No excuse. It pays to read and know the regulations, or… pay from your own pocket. While it’s not the rule, given the opportunity car rentals’ employees will try to hide their own errors, and you’ll be the victim. Here are some typical examples of the situations that if prevented, could have saved the renter considerable monetary expenses, and mental anguish:

- Hired car had existing dents and scratches that were not listed on the hire agreement. The work to remedy them was charged to the current car user.

- Upon returning the car, petrol level was not checked and confirmed as being full. Hirer’s credit card was charged for a gas “top up” despite the fact, that it was not needed.

- Car was returned to the location different than the pick-up point. This incurred a surcharge of $170 being the transfer fee, for moving the vehicle to its original location.

Although all of these money costing situations could have been prevented by the hirer reading the rental agreement carefully, none would actually have arisen without the personnel acting dishonestly.

Without much generalization, these problems are more likely to occur when dealing with smaller car rental businesses where the owners will attempt to improve their “bottom line” at any opportunity. In case of the larger car hire companies, it will often be a result of the employees acting maliciously, or to cover their own mistakes.

Regardless of your individual circumstances, it’s your responsibility to make sure that you’re fully aware of the legal implications of your signature under the car rental agreement. If in doubt, ask at the service counter; visiting some related online sites like www.carrentaldeal.info will help you understand the issues concerned better, and act more responsibly.

Sometimes you would just take a car and head without a planned route to unknown destinations, seeing places without a schedule and stay a couple of nights in motels on the road and on the next day drive again, alone or with somebody accompanying you. It is a perfect possibility to get away from the routine and you are the driver, you decide where you get and what you in the next hours. It is good when you have your own car, but those people who do not own one, sometimes dream about it and even do not think about such an interesting service as car-rental.

The reasons to rent a car are various. Some people live and work in a city where the public transport infrastructure is really good developed and there is no need to own a car to get to work, for shopping or even sightseeing in the local areas. Sometimes it is even financially not really clever to have a car in a big city, because the public transport does the same thing, even faster and the monthly ticket covers all the possible transportation means and is even cheaper than the fuel costs to get to work. But the idea to take a car and head to some location is still in the air and of course, most people would not buy a car just to use it on weekends.

Another reason to rent a car and not to own the same one for a long time – is the chance to try various cars, before you buy one, or just try something different, for example to compare Japanese and German cars.

Such a possibility is being offered for a reasonable price by various worldwide companies, such as Sixt, Alamo, Hertz. You could place a reservation for a car directly at the web-sites of these companies or use the service of such travel services consolidators as TraveLime.com or Expedia.com, who are contracting with most car-rental companies all over the world and will give you the price and class comparison to the given time of reservation.

These companies offer normally quite new cars, not older than for example 2 years. That depends on the legal regulation of each country where you would rent a car. For example in Europe they offer cars that are not older than 3 years. I have driven a BMW 3 Series that had only 200 miles on the counter. And I felt this amazing interior smell of the Bavarian beauty that has left the conveyor nearly a couple of weeks ago.

The funny thing about these companies is that they offer several classes of vehicles – for example A – some small cars like Peugeot 206 just to get from one place to another, B – a little bit bigger cars, like Volkswagen Golf, C – kind of BMW 3 Series and so on. And if you would place a reservation for a vehicle and when you come to the selected office to pick up the ride – and they do not have a car in that class at the moment – they offer you a ride from the higher class for the same price!

There are some secret tips to get almost always a car a class or even 2 classes higher. First you should choose an office for the pick up of the ride – that is not really a large one. Usually they try to have a couple of cars available from each class and the on-line reservations are normally offering all classes without checking the availability of the vehicles in each office. In fact, if a class is right now given away – they have to give you a car from the higher class at the same price. I have only once had an offer to take a car that had lower class – and only because this office did not have any cars from the ordered class and classes higher – they were all taken. And I got this ride almost for free for the whole weekend! Second, you should take some middle class that is actually most popular. People rarely take the smallest vehicles, because you step on the gas and wait minutes till it goes. And the higher classes are almost always available, because they are quite expensive.

I have driven many various cars for the price of previous or even lower class just because I have ordered always the same car and it was not available! I have been ordering the BMW 1 Series and I’ve always put a remark that I need exactly this model, because at most companies you have such an option – if you need a specific ride. I thought that I actually would not pay much, but at the same time I would not need to wait till this thing runs after I step on the gas, because it is still BMW. And it is from the middle class and it was always not available. I even did not drive it once in my life! And they gave me instead of it Audi A6, BMW 3 series and once I got the wonderful BMW 330 Coupe. That was a marvelous ride. And I got it for only 78 Euro with full insurance for the whole weekend!

So, even if you already own a ride, think about taking something different and use these tips to get the best out of it.

Have fun with the various rides in this life.