pinniped

I find the entire practice of rental car pricing to be rather ridiculous with all of the garbage fees (including ones that are *not* direct taxes passed on to the governments involved), but I religously compare before-and-after total invoices and they usually don't add *new* fees at return time.

Other than the gas scam. Once or twice a year, some return agent will attempt that one.

In this case, my Sixt receipt from booking-time (with a bunch of junk fees) matched the final invoice.

silver-tls

One time returning in Seattle I had a bunch of cardboard boxes in the SUV after helping a friend move. Running late for my flight so didn't have a chance to dump them in the recycling bin. Kid taking the return said no big deal, people leave all sorts of stuff in the car and boxes are the easiest to remove. Said someone left a pile of dirt and tree branches before.

9Benua

I don't clean it, I just collect the trash and make sure there's nothing left in the car. One time I rent a car & drive it from YYZ - YUL - YYZ. It came back with lots of bugs killed in the bumper .

piper28

To me that would seem like it would be reasonable for a rental car company to consider excessive and charge for.

The only times I've ever washed the outside of a rental car have been when I've done a little more driving on roads that the rental car companies don't like.

Leviticus

In the US or Canada I clean up my mess, basically take the trash out as it seems every rental car company has their own car wash and vacuum systems these days. The same does not apply if I am renting in Europe, I have seen options/clauses for cleaning charges several times and always make sure that car is clean. A couple of times I have even taken it to a car wash and vacuumed it myself in order to avoid a fee (usually when dealing with Sixt and Budget).

Annalisa12

I remove the odd bottle of coke I might of drank in the car but other than that there is no mess to clean up. I just fill it up and return it.

roberino

I had a nice surprise when I got a free upgrade to a Porsche Boxster S last week in Germany. It was only an overnighter but the outside was dirty as I had spent all of my free time driving it, but the inside was immaculate still as all I had done in there was drive. The lady checking me back in said that the performance cars always come back that way.

ediemac1

This topic was a plot point in the season Premiere of Breaking Bad.

For those unfamilar with the show, the lead charactors (husband and wife) are using a car wash to launder drug money.

A former drug associate shows up to talk to the husband. His wife (who has never met the associate) is suspicious because she's in a rental car and no one ever brings a rental car in for cleaning!

SANspotter

Before I got married, I'd do my best to return the car clean - but I wouldn't worry about a stray water bottle or paper on the floor.

My wife on the other hand, will go through the car and make sure it's spotless and free of garbage. Perhaps I can learn something from her.

t325

I throw away papers and trash. I'm not about to spend my time and money vacuuming it or taking it through a car wash though. I think the only time I'd take a rental through a car wash is if a bird took a big enough dump on the windshield that a squeegee at a gas station couldn't remove it. That hasn't happened, yet (at least not in a rental. My own car, that's another story).

mbstone

Women like milkshakes?

Reindeerflame

I washed a vehicle in Alaska recently ($8) after driving it more than 120 miles on unpaved roads.

Mr. Elliott

I always dump the trash from the car before I return it, but I do not worry about any dirt on the carpet, like beach sand or how dirty the outside of the car is, because they always run the cars through the car wash and vacuum the carpets anyway.

The car rental car washing units do not blow dry the car, like we see at commercial car washing places and I often get cars so spotted up from the droplets air drying that I have to clean the windshield with the windshield wiper washers to see clearly out, and don’t get me going about how dirty the insides of the windshield are, they never clean the inside of the windshield and sometimes its so hazy that I have to get a towel from the hotel and clean the windshield so I can at least see clearly out at night.

The only time I ever apologized for returning a dirty rental car was one time driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on I-15 during the monarch butterfly migration season and hit the main migrating bunch just north of Barstow, there must have been hundreds of dead butterfly’s splattered on the front end and impaled on the radiator, it was so bad that we had to pull into a gas station in Barstow to clean the windshield to continue the trip.

On another rental car, this time in Florida driving from Sarasota to Orlando during the love bug mating season in mid June, the front end of the car was also splattered with bugs, but in Florida love bugs are a way of life in June so we did not say anything about the mess. I saw one car in the return line that had about a half inch deep layer of bugs on the front end.

I understand in Florida the car wash places have power washers to remove the bug residue because the love bugs don’t come off easily during the car wash.

Mr. Elliott

jozdemir

I ensure I get all the rubbish out of it, but that's about it...

However we've got some minesite spec landcruisers that we have where I'm working at the moment rented from Avis...those things get absolutely flogged and covered in mud etc. The one I have now we've rented for nearly a year!

If we've ever had a drama with them we just drive to town and swap them out no questions asked so I'd say in some situations it just comes with the territory.

Bwillis

In Hawaii , they have a reminder in the rental agreement that you will be charged extra if the vehicle is returned with excess sand. I have returned cars several times with sand on the floorboards ( not a lot ) and have never been charged extra.
I can relate with Mr.Eliott and the Love Bugs in Fla. The Turnpike rest stations have a water spray system...You pull up and it activates the water spray while you turn on your wipers and try to remove the remains of the Love Bugs.