Funny of the day

That was probably the most expensive plastic bag you ever had. Or did they not charge your, as a courtesy?

They didn't charge for the bag, just for the oil change and brake-job (72,000 miles on the original pads) I already had scheduled. ...Jim Thompson

Hopefully, that didn't cost much. If you had taken it to any of the more "experienced" authorized repair shops or dealers, they would have plugged their diagnostic machinery into the OBD2 connector, ran your Infiniti through its paces, send the diagnostic results to India for interpretation, and returned with a neatly printed proclamation that you need to replace literally everything in the cooling and air conditioning system for flat fee equal to just under the value of the vehicle. At no time, would anyone have looked under the hood and seen the plastic bag. Even if they had seen it, it would have been ignored. You were lucky that someone recognized that the plastic bag did not have an Infiniti part number and therefore deduced that did not belong under the hood.

r was

I had car trouble too the other day. On vacation in Orlando, the rental car had a flat tire (some boys had hammered a spike into the tire, was still w edged in). Called the rental company, they wanted 70 USD to change the tire , so I did it myself.

While changing the tire, probably 5 different guys asked if they should hel p, didn't need it though, but amazing how helpfull americans are. If it was in Denmark, max one would have asked....

Cheers

Klaus

I'm curious, what rental car company? I don't know of any that wouldn't have sent out either AAA or their own service truck.

...Jim Thompson

Sno-o-o-ort >:-} ...Jim Thompson

car was

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car had a flat tire (some boys had hammered a spike into the tire, was stil l wedged in). Called the rental company, they wanted 70 USD to change the t ire, so I did it myself.

Alamo

Smart salesmen. I asked for a Fullsize car, they will upgrade free to a lux ary. But I want just a Fullsize, why don't they just bill me less? They wan t 24USD per day for insurance and extended liability, sums up to 500USD for my trip.

Ordering for the Danish website (alamo.dk), I get insurance for the same co vered amount for 20USD total. They are sure ripping people off that just ta kes their sales pitch for granted

Cheers

Klaus

my car was

s,

iti

stic

is

l car had a flat tire (some boys had hammered a spike into the tire, was st ill wedged in). Called the rental company, they wanted 70 USD to change the tire, so I did it myself.

uxary. But I want just a Fullsize, why don't they just bill me less? They w ant 24USD per day for insurance and extended liability, sums up to 500USD f or my trip.

covered amount for 20USD total. They are sure ripping people off that just takes their sales pitch for granted

Hey, they even want 12 USD per day for a GPS. So I just went to BestBuy and got one for 100 USD (I can use the GPS next time I go to the states...). T hey wanted 10 USD per day for a child seat, so went to Target and got a sea t for 8 USD.

Cheers

Klaus

I have a rental car rider on my personal auto insurance. Costs me about $10 every six months. ...Jim Thompson

Sounds like you've got it all figured out! ...Jim Thompson

Probably not useful for foreigners, but Amex has a rental insurance plan that is way cheaper than the rental company charges. This presumes you already have insurance, so Amex just covers the loss of use for the rental company. I think it is $25 a year.

If you are not familiar with the "loss of use" clause, rental car companies not only expect the vehicle to be repaired if you have an accident, but they all except you to cover the money they are losing while the car is in the shop. This is totally bogus because these rental car companies are only allowed to put so many miles on a vehicle before they have to be sold. Thus your accident just delays the day the vehicle has to be sold. That is, the money they didn't collect this week will be collected a week later.

The rental car companies have these deals with the car manufacturers that they will get the vehicle at a special price, but have to limit how many miles they put on the vehicle. That is, they get a good price on the new vehicle, but have to replace the vehicle on a schedule agreed to by the manufacturer.

There is so much behind the scenes shenanigans with rental car companies and the car manufacturers that you never want to own a car they like to use as a rental. Those models are quickly devalued due to the glut of that model being on the market thank to it being used as a rental. The Tarus was a prime example of this.

uxary. But I want just a Fullsize, why don't they just bill me less? They w ant 24USD per day for insurance and extended liability, sums up to 500USD f or my trip.

covered amount for 20USD total. They are sure ripping people off that just takes their sales pitch for granted

wow! I stuck with Hertz, because they always had a car no matter where I wa s. I was upset at $45/day total in Greece, but renting here before going th ere makes it cheaper. That even included, at no charge, a rental return not properly returned to their office! We were so late for the international f light, I parked the car with three wheels up the stair steps into the Athen s airport and threw the keys to the flight attendant while running into the check in area! oh, the good ol' days of flying when customer was king.

Once I thought I'd save money and rented locally going from Rome to Florenc e, taking the A-90 at speeds I'm NOT used to driving, well at least for tha t long, in a car that had 'less than adequate' suspension. Still was being passed by the 'biggies' I was floored at the $795 cost for the short drive . back in the late 80's too. I could have hired a driver AND a car for tha t. Oh, yeah, PLUS petrol! And, we all know what petrol costs in Europe - s end in your first born.

Glad you found people helpful in Florida. There is hope after all, eh?

Loss of use (downtime) is a very common kind of expense in business accounting.

Remember, for a rental car, cars are the means of production, so a car in the shop is downtime - the business is still paying off the loan to buy the machine, but is not making any money on it, so the machine is making a loss, not a profit. So, charging for downtime is legitimate.

The rental companies choose to charge for downtime because they will suffer it, and they want to help us to understand that we should buy their overpriced insurance.

Joe Gwinn

I notice that they made it illegal to charge for a second driver in Kalifornia. That was/is a prime rip-off for those without loyalty programs or some other 'out'-- $12/day x 14 days = $168.

Another thing is not to take their "return it as empty (of gasoline) as you want" deal. Say you'll fill it. You'll never want to risk the tank being very empty on the way back to to the airport going home, so they make a lot of money on the deal. Usually there are gas stations close enough to the airport, and if you can't find one (had trouble one time), you have the GPS with its 'points of interest' database.

A friend of mine bought a car for parts that had been in an accident and had the roof cut off

Just for fun he put it on the tester, only error was a missing antenna (it was on the roof)

-Lasse

Yep. That happens a lot. Car restorers buy bodies from Arizona (no rust) and engines from the northern states (low mileage, because the bodies rusted out ;-)

Years ago a neighbor bought a burnt-out-interior classic T-bird (electrical fire), then elicited my help in figuring out how to re-build the wiring harness... fairly easy in the '60's... no uP's to contend with.

WHO/WHAT is causing the rash of multi-spaced replies? Really a royal pain :-( ...Jim Thompson

Fill it before you get near the Orlando airport. Thousands of complaints of excessive gas prices at those stations, and tiny signs that people can't read. They hope you'll fill up before looking closely at the pumps. It's on the news every few months.

We're always helpful. We assume they are all snowbirds. We just want to make sure they can get back to the north, as fast as possible. ;-)