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$440 Charge For A Wheel Scuff Raises Questions About Hertz's AI Rental Car Damage Scanner
(www.jalopnik.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
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Cars get damaged, it's part of USING a GOD DAMN CAR. To me if something is damge that is invisible to a normal human eye and doesn't impact the function of it, it's part of renting cars.
Dents and scratches are not part of "using a car"
A pebble flung up from a passing car cracked my van's windshield the other day.
And I suppose you expect Hertz to eat the cost of replacing the windshield?
Windshields crack sometimes. Tough titties. It's a giant pane of fragile glass exposed to the elements.
If it's clearly not malicious, then yes, they should suck it up and pay for it. That's cost of doing business.
LOL I don't even know what to say to that. "Tough titties" indeed. You're the one responsible for anything that should happens to the vehicle while it's in your possession, even if it's not entirely or even partly your fault.
And what if the windshield cracks due to temperature fluctuations? It happens. And on a rental car? Not my problem.
Then that would be a warranty issue. But good luck proving that.
Normal wear and tear isn't the renter's problem in any way, shape, or form; and that includes dings and scratches on the paint, wheels, glass, and interior, simply from everyday use and being exposed to the elements. Anything outside of unreasonably extreme damage is entirely on the rental company simply for the fact that they are the ones who own the car. This is part of why I will never use my vehicle for anything outside personal usage.
I, and thousands of other customers every single day, already pay over $500 (or much, much more) just for the privilege of being given the keys to a new-ish vehicle for 3 days. On top of whatever other bullshit they try to tack on. Where the fuck do you think that money goes? I've never even had a car payment that high.
Given that price, I expect the vehicle to be clean, properly maintained (they get the bare minimum, btw, I've witnessed this firsthand from the shop side; they won't even replace wiper blades unless a customer brings it up), and every single square inch to be inspected and documented, with "wear and tear" clearly defined in customer-friendly terms - none of this bullshit "redefining of commonly-accepted terms" that every corporation seems to be jerking it to these days.
Cars are not investments; they never have been. A car is a highly-complex machine - a tool that can serve multiple purposes. These, like any other highly-complex machine, requires regular maintenance, inspection, and repair. Some things are merely cosmetic, but others can become safety issues - such as a cracked windshield. And yet rental companies, like every other company, are charging more and more for less and less. What exactly are they doing with that money if the customers are the ones being charged for issues that aren't even getting fixed?
Why?
Because "line must go up".
Which is why I said it's a warranty issue.
We're going around in circles here: dings and scratches are not caused by normal use.
The price of the rental and the responsibility of the renter are different problems. If you think you can do it for cheaper, give it a shot. You can list your car on Turo and make a fortune undercutting these terrible companies.
There's a myriad of expenses in rental that are not incurred by simply owning a personal vehicle (you've already listed a bunch of them), and a profit margin on top, so that makes a ton of sense.
What makes you think they're not being fixed? Even if they're not, those issues decrease the resale value of the vehicle.
I see you have never driven behind a pickup truck on a gravel road.
You don't even have to be on a gravel road. My van's windshield got cracked the other day simply from a pebble getting kicked up from a passing car.
I have actually, for several years of my life, which is how I know it doesn't cause that.
E: downvote this comment if you have never driven on a gravel road.
You've driven on a gravel road behind other cars and never had a windshield crack? Not even a rock chip?
Now I know you're full of shit.
Now I know you're full of shit.
Not you again. Yesterday you were annoying people about trump.
Immediate downvote.
I tend to "annoy" people about fascist dictators frequently but it's nice to know you have no counterargument and you downvote based on hate instead of the content of the comment itself.
If you're close enough to another vehicle on a gravel road that you're getting stones flicked up, there's no way that's a safe following distance, especially considering the increased stopping distances.
It's easy to armchair quarterback when you have the benefit of hindsight.
Go ride a motorcycle and then come back and tell us how many pebbles got enough in your direction, despite following at safe distances. I can assure you that you will be very surprised.
I have had nicks in my windshield due to gravel thrown up by vehicles traveling in the opposite direction.
gravel travels fairly far when the vehicles are going 50 mph
If you're going 50mph on a gravel road, you are fucking up.
if the government doesn't want me going 50 they wouldn't have set the speed limit to 45
Your safe following distance on gravel at 50mph is more than that. 3 seconds is your minimum following distances on normal surfaces (used to be 2, advice has changed), you should have a 4 second following distance on gravel. https://www.drive-safely.net/safe-following-distance/
Vehicles also skid very far at that speed.
Have you tried not doing that?
It's really as easy as not doing that.
Wear and tear is specifically not allowed to be charged for home rentals in Australia. Damage that is not wear and tear can be I would assume it would also apply for car rentals but I haven't checked.
I recently hired a car from eurocar. And they did have a reasonable wear and tear policy.
Whenever I've rented from Enterprise here in the US, they explicitly do not charge you for simple scuffs/scratches that aren't deeper than a specific amount (like 0.5cm or something).They've always told me they don't charge for dents that are smaller than around 2-4cm in diameter. In other words, basic wear and tear on cars being used by hundreds of people over their rental lifespan.
If Hertz ultimately goes down this path and their competitors do not, I would almost guarantee they'll lose tons of business.
Yeah but they'll lose that business next quarter, and the current shareholders will have already sold thier shares by the time that's reported so it doesn't matter.
Hertz pretty much oens every rental company that isnt Enterprise at this point
But they'll have some AI machines instead, so the shareholders will be happy. The shareholders of a different company, but still...
Have you considered.... Line go up?