Foxtbh

I'm still trying to make sense of what seem like quite a bizarre set of rules around which States you can and cannot take a SIXT rental vehicle into.

I am planning a rental for a 3 week trip out of Los Angeles to Denver and return, so I'll be travelling through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. So far, so good. SIXT seem competitive - not cheap, but competitive. Excellent. Until you get through the booking process and find this buried in the terms and conditions:

So, bizarrely, this bans me from making the trip I want to make if I pick the car up in Los Angeles (Well, it doesnt, but a 50c a mile excess renders the rental uncompetitive). This on its own is fairly strange - National, Alamo, Hertz, Avis etc all have no such stipulations.

But what makes it even more weird is that if I pick the car up instead from the SIXT depot in Phoenix, AZ, I *can* drive to all the States I want, including California.

What gives? Either Sixt don't like Colorado or they do - why can't I drive from California to Colorado and back but I can drive from Arizona to California to Colorado and back to Arizona - identical trips, identical mileage, just different start points?

The terms get more ambiguous as they go on to state:

I don't quite understand this bit. Is it implying that if the pick up is a location that serves an airport, the table doesn't apply and there are no restrictions?

I'd be grateful if anyone could help me make sense of this!

Thanks

studentCPH

Do you have a flight ticket back from LAX? If not, I think you're out of luck with SIXT at LAX. (subject to T&C not having changed since aug)

I showed my ticket when renting the car, and they were a bit confused but noted the flight number going back and all was fine.

Foxtbh

I will have a return flight ticket from LAX, yes.

Does this mean those limitations do not apply? I cannot find that in writing.

This all seems a bit strange, never had to show an airline ticket before or tell a rental firm where I'm going but if that's all I need to do then I might still consider it. How do you show a return ticket though - all my international flights to and from the US have been ticket-less - you don't get a physical ticket. Online booking confirmation enough?

The T&C's also say that if you are a resident of the state you are renting from (I am not) you cannot cross state lines without a return airfare so I dont know if that comment you got above relates to that element or whether it means you don't need to worry which state you drive through as long as you have a roundtrip ticket. I'd want to make sure I was 100% sure of the situation before booking - I don't want to prepay a significant amount for a 3 week XCAR booking only to find once I get to the counter they won't let me visit Denver with it.

seawolf

SIXT US imposes geographic restrictions. If you are an in-state renter (eg FL driver license picking up from FL location), the restriction becomes even more restrictive as you may be prohibited from crossing any state lines without paying extra (or prohibited from crossing at all regardless of cost).

Foxtbh

Why do they do this when nobody else seems to?

And why the bizarre discrepancy in restrictions?

I could do my trip without breaking the restrictions if I picked the car up from Sixt in PHX but not from Sixt in LAX. This doesnt seem to make any sense especially as it isn't a fleet specific issue as one-ways between those two locations are not only allowed but also cheap compared to other rental firms. National would hit me hard if I one-way'd to Phoenix.

seawolf

Only Sixt can tell you why.

Speculation is they are not nationwide and don't want to deal with car breakdown to far from a Sixt location? Their insurance does not cover? Take your pick.

Foxtbh

At first I thought it was that but it's not - otherwise why can you take a car from Arizona to Colorado? You are no further from a Sixt location if you take a car from Los Angeles to Denver than if you take it from Phoenix to Denver, which is allowed.

If you rent from Las Vegas you are barred from driving to Denver, but Denver is CLOSER to the Sixt depot in Las Vegas than it is to the depot in Phoenix, from which you CAN drive to Denver

seawolf

Like I said...speculation.

Also speculation is that there are different franchise(s) operating in the US for Sixt. So if Arizona is a different franchise than the LAX one, then yeah, it would make sense for Arizona franchise to allow CO but not LAX franchise to do so.

Auto Enthusiast

If they were truly independent franchises, they probably wouldn't allow one-ways so readily. If they were franchises in the way that Avis often "franchises" off airport, aka commissioned agents using a corporate fleet, they wouldn't get to set their own rules.

I think these rules are for 2 reasons:

To avoid fetching broken down cars from far away.

For the same reason that Enterprise neighborhood stores often have geographic limitations: To keep the mileage low by limiting demand. In places with lower natural demand, Enterprise has fewer, if any, such restrictions off-airport.