Neither of them could drive a manual. They informed the agency that since neither of them possessed

Question : My husband rented a car from Hertz in Madrid last summer. The car broke while he was on his way back to the airport, and he had to abandon it by the side of the road in order to make his flight back to the States.
He informed the Hertz people at the airport what had happened and they told him it was fine and the car would be retrieved. Three weeks later, orlando florida travel info we received a letter that there was 850 euro charge for a burnt clutch on our credit card. We tried to contact Hertz Spain, both before orlando florida travel info and after the bill, to ensure the car had been collected and everything was fine but they didn't answer the phone or respond to emails.
Hertz sent us an email saying our insurance coverage did not cover "negligence" and that it was our fault and that we owed it 850 euro. It didn't answer any other emails, so we disputed the charge. The investigation by the credit card company orlando florida travel info came out in our favor, but now Hertz has sent the matter to a collections agency. Do you have any suggestions? Hadley orlando florida travel info Roeltgen , Philadelphia
Answer : Don't take it personally; credit card disputes that go in your favor are automatically sent to a collection agency. Some car rental companies also add you to a "do not rent" list, which means you're blacklisted from ever renting from it again.
The key to fixing this problem would have been to get it addressed before las vegas travel deal this became an 850 euro charge las vegas travel deal on your credit card bill. Calling Hertz and mentioning the breakdown before hailing a cab for the airport might have given the company a chance to offer you a ride back to the airport, where you could fill out the paperwork.
Getting assurances by phone is pointless. You need something in writing before you leave the country. Even if your flight orlando florida travel info home is imminent, at least stop by the Hertz counter las vegas travel deal to talk about next steps and get documentation las vegas travel deal that everything is "fine." But don't take a representative's word for it. It's not enough.
I can't blame you for disputing orlando florida travel info las vegas travel deal the credit card bill: Hertz seems to have been less than responsive when you contacted it, asking for an explanation. But what you might not know is that burned clutches are common problems with American las vegas travel deal renters in Europe. We don't have as much experience driving standard-transmission, and are presumed guilty for every ruined clutch.
If burned clutches are commonplace when Americans las vegas travel deal rent standard transmission vehicles, perhaps rental companies in Europe should las vegas travel deal suggest that all Americans rent only vehicles with automatic transmissions. If the customer insists on renting a standard shift, the rental company should require that he/she sign a waiver saying that the renter is responsible should the clutch fail. I m sure that many renters will decide to pay a little more money for a car with automatic transmission rather than take a chance on a clutch failure. orlando florida travel info Doing this will save both the rental companies and their customers from much frustration.
las vegas travel orlando florida travel info deal They re charging Europeans too. The problem with clutch failure is its hard to determine exactly who caused the damage because its not visible like a dent would be. Was it 3 renters ago, last renter, or current renter?
My issue with the clutch claim, is that it s not a question of if a clutch will fail, or burn out but when . This is normal wear and tear as a result of use. While many factors contribute to a mechanical failure, its not any one person but th collective wear for all previous users of the vehicle. Expecting a clutch to last forever is as nonsensical as expecting the whole car to last forever. The rental rate for a vehicle orlando florida travel info should include some portion of repair recovery or capture. Spead the wear across orlando florida travel info all users and renters who incrementally contributed to the eventual mechanical failure.
agreed. You can t burn a clutch over a few days even if you are riding it. Its a cost of having a manual and occurs over time. Even my dad, a notorious clutch rider couldnt burn his out until the car had 25k miles on it
We once had a customer with a brand new car burn out a clutch in 800 miles. It can easily be done, if you don t know what you re doing. In that case, even though it was obvious to me that it was the act of a novice driver, the clutch was repaired under warranty.
But that sort of abuse was rare, and there is no doubt that the vast majority of clutch wear is cumulative over the many different drivers of a rental car. Bad luck to be the one driving when it fails. There are some simple tests to see what shape the clutch orlando florida travel info is in before orlando florida travel info you drive off, You can try to start from a standing stop in fourth gear. If it stalls immediately, OK, If it slips and whines, get another car.
Burned clutches are common problems las vegas travel deal with American renters in Europe. Really? Probably only because the rental companies see you coming and purposely give you, an American, a car they know has clutch problems hoping orlando florida travel info the clutch fails and they can charge you to fix it since you will be too far away to fight the charge successfully.
The old excuse that Europeans prefer cars with manual transmissions is why the rental companies have mainly those is no longer true. I work with many Europeans who have never driven a manual transmission auto of any kind and wouldn las vegas travel deal t know how if they had to. I think the rental companies in Europe las vegas travel deal have the manual cars simply because the purchase price is less and it is mainly tourists from outside of Europe that rent them.
I have driven cars with clutches off and on my entire las vegas travel deal driving life. I have never burned las vegas travel deal a clutch or had any other transmission problems. orlando florida travel info I prefer automatics now simply because it is one less thing to think about while driving, las vegas travel deal even though the manual shifting las vegas travel deal becomes so automatic after a while I don t really have to think about it. And an automatic keeps my hand free so I can drink my Starbucks I paid too much for and text everyone! (Just kidding orlando florida travel info about this last part.)
But most of these rentals you get in Europe are much older with many more miles on them than the typical car you get at a US rental company. So it is not uncommon to get a car with 50K miles on it. 50K with people driving it that are not normally manual drivers and I understand las vegas travel deal why the clutch fails, but as mentioned it is a cumulative thing, not necessarily a single renter causing the failure.
Another Clio, this time in Germany, refused to start. I had to turn the car in the next day, I called orlando florida travel info Hertz. They said, Come to the the local agent and we ll give you a different car to get to the airport. The new car was a 6 speed turbo diesel Passat, and I had the opportunity to drive that on a wide open Autobahn (Kaiserslautern to Trier). So that was an unexpected thrill from a dead car.
Our 2nd Volvo 240 wagon came with a bad clutch, which finally failed at 65k miles. Volvo refused to replace it, the dealer told my wife she wasn t welcome at their dealersheip any more. But it was really hard to argue it was her driving, when she got 110k miles on the same car with no clutch problems.
It could well be that an inexperienced stick driver can burn out a clutch in a day or two (this was discussed on Car Talk a couple months ago), but given that clutches are by their nature parts that wear out, it s difficult to establish cause for a failed clutch to one specific driver.
I mean, I can see having a problem driving a stick in a country that drives on the left side of the road, but why in the world would anyone who doesn t know how to drive a stick accept a rental vehicle with a manual transmission?
orlando florida travel info I agree with the Fishplate person you can tell if a clutch if failing las vegas travel deal pretty quickly when you re driving orlando florida travel info one. If you don t know enough about a manual transmission to be able to tell whether a clutch if failing, you shouldn t be trying to drive a stick!
happened to me in wales about 30 years ago. we had arranged for the rental orlando florida travel info by phone from london and the agency was to deliver our car to the train station to meet us on arrival. they showed up with a manual. fortunately, both of us knew how to drive a manual, tho my mother was better at it than i, so she got us to the B B where we were staying that night. when we got there (with more than a couple brushes of the curb), she flatly told me that if i wanted to drive around wales, i was going to do the driving.
50,000 miles on a car rented in the US isn t unusual these days. It used to be that they got great deals from fleet sales and then turned over the car while it still had decent las vegas travel deal residual value. Now they keep them rather long and try to get as much as possible before selling orlando florida travel info a vehicle.
Neither of them could drive a manual. They informed the agency that since neither orlando florida travel info of them possessed the skill, they would like the refund las vegas travel orlando florida travel info deal of their deposit as the agency had not been able to fulfill las vegas travel deal their part of the contract. There was, apparently, some trouble with that from the agency, based on the desk clerk s opinion that they reserved a car, and they should take a car, even though they couldn t drive the car. This resulted in my mother calling AmEx s travel bureau (who they used for the reservation) and getting them to deal with the agency (no, I don t remember which one).
(the next time they went, both of them forgot their driver s licenses and called me at 2AM East Coast time, to get them to go to UPS first thing in the morning and overnight said licenses to them, but that s a totally different story.)
las vegas travel deal The key data point in this story is that as anyone who s been driving orlando florida travel info stick for 30-40k miles would know, you get warned well in advance las vegas travel deal when your clutch is ab