Calling the hivemind…
Have recently rented a car to take a few Euro friends on a tour round Snowdonia. After a parking mishap the car was taken back with a <10cm scratch down to the primer caused by a tile sticking out on top of a wall.

The rental company’s quote for repair is just shy of the £500 excess (surprise surprise).

The rate seems incredibly steep for the north, and indicates that it’s a full day’s job. Does this seem realistic?

The actual panel can be had off ebay for £150, factor in a couple hours labour and I can see this being nearer £250, but double that…?

Has anyone successfully disputed a claim like this? Not denying liability, just calling cahoots…

As much as i detest rental companies, one thing that could be taken into consideration is the car will be out of action for 24hrs so there is a loss of rental income.

One thing I would be doing is asking for proof that the repair has been carried out as I suspect a lot of the time they take the £500 and don’t bother fixing it going on the amount of dents you normally find on rental cars. Nice little earner for them.

Ask them for an itemised bill. See exactly what they’re doing.

Mate has a big bodyshop and I pay about a third of that as long as there’s no dents.
That is a proper mates/insurance rate though

It depends on where the scratch is on the panel. If it’s close to the edge, next to another panel, then it may need blending in. Plus the days loss of rental.

As said above, ask for proof that it’s been repaired. At least you know you’ve only been partial ripped off.

Surely it’s up to them if they actually fix it. £500 of damage is £500 of damage. If they don’t fix it, the car will be worth less when they dispose of it. It’s a nasty sting, but I reckon you’re stuck with it; you’re not in any position to negotiate, I don’t think.

Surely it’s up to them if they actually fix it. £500 of damage is £500 of damage

not really.

If they are claiming the excess is to FIX the damage then they should do it.

If they don’t and the car gets a lot more scratches over the time they have it then will this scratch directly cause a £500 loss in value of the car when they come to sell it off?

What if they take £500 off say 20 hirers who cause a tiny scratch on it over 2 years of renting it out and dont fix it? That is £10k in excess charges they have pocketed and way more than the car has lost in value due to all of those scratches.

I don’t mean to alarm you, but this is my experience. Gets fun on page 2
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-ever-scratched-a-hire-car-having-not-paid-the-damage-waiver

If they are claiming the excess is to FIX the damage then they should do it.

I’m not convinced. A direct parallel would be when an insurance company offers cash in lieu of repairs. It’s recognised that a monetary amount of damage has been caused, it’s up to the owner whether they spend the money to actually fix it, or whether they accept the cash as compensation to the devaluation of the asset.

But normally when car insurers do that the cash in lieu would be lower than the repair costs would it not? Hence why it is beneficial for them to do this rather than fix the car.

That amount would also be based on an assessment of the damage and the age and condition of the car. In this case the rental company takes a flat fee of £500 regardless of the degree of damage. So if that devalues the car £300 now and only £100 when they come to sell it then they are still benefiting.

oh and if there is a degree of compensation for the car being out of action for a day but they don’t fix it so the car is not out of action for a day then again they are not reclaiming a loss but making a profit.

I should imagine it comes down to what it says in the contract, and seeing as the company gets to write the contract I would imagine it works out in their favour.

What you are not factoring in is that a cheap ebay panel will rot before a year up and ‘ruin’ a nice new car.

In bodywork, you get what you pay for in terms of quality of panels and time/care spent on the job.

And you say the ONLY costs are a panel and two hours labour? What about paint, sundries, electricity, etc? Easily another £150 at least

Yes that sounds a bit high but sadly thats exactly what you shoukdnexpect from the rental company. FWIW I had a small scuff (5cm) with a very minor panel compression on my car after neighbour parked next to it and dealer quote for repair was £1200

Too late now, but I’d strongly advise always taking out a rental car excess protection policy. (Not with the hire company).
They cost next-to-nothing, maybe £4 a day or £40 annual typically, and mean you can then take out the hire company’s most basic insurance cover.

Cheers for the replies all.

Good shout on the rental excess protection policy for next time, some good tips in Pook’s thread too – cheers for that.

Perhpas I’m getting off lightly with what they’ve quoted (the quote is for the damage only, no loss of rental income). They probably won’t get it repaired judging by the scratches on the car that were already there.

My main issue was whether or not it really was ~8 hours of work to remove a scratch, and that the hourly rate for the work was so high for the region (close to £40/hr). Appreciate that it’s the rental’s contract and they can probably do what they like, maybe I’m jaded but I’m thinking kick-backs here!

I’ll take a look to see what’s happened about the deposit from Pook’s experience, looks this could end up costing much more than the ~£500!

Thanks again

what you really wnt to know is if you’d have been better off taking the ar to a backstreet bodyshop yourself – no shame in that