Originally Posted by
IAHtraveler
I've had at least a half dozen flat tires in my Avis cars & have never been charged for it. If you took the car to a local place, they will reimburse you for the tire replacement/installation of the spare, etc, so long as you provide a receipt at check-out. You should have told Avis of the smoke/stickiness before leaving the lot. Failing to do that (maybe you didn't notice the sticky console/missing cup holders, oil light before leaving) I would have called Avis immediatly upon noticing that stuff. Without either of those, though, I recommend that you email Avis and tell them of the issues with the car with the comments that you expect to be reimbursed for $x from the rental. I've usually had decent luck with this. If it's not solved to your satisfaction, dispute it with your credit card and/or the better business bureau; that seems to get the best results IMO. Good luck and keep us posted.
Avis's rental system, last time I was there was called "wizard", has a specific line item location for on the road expenses. This is for lightbulbs, tires, wiper blades, oil, antifreeze, trans fluid, key stuck in ignition, battery. They will reimburse you via check for any item that exceeds the time and mileage cost of the rental and reduce the time and mileage charge of the rental by the receipt amount. As a courtesy before you do this, if its going to cost more than 20 bucks, call avis and explain the situation and tell them what you are going to do. If they insist on a tow, tell them you cannot wait for however long they tell you is the wait and in most cases they will just tell you to keep the receipt and fill out an incident report form explaining reasoning for the purchase (like in a case of a tire. For fluids, don't even bother, just keep receipt and tell them at the time you return the car, bulbs and wiper blades too.)
Heck ive even known cars to get the change oil light go on jiffy lubed by customers while they ate lunch and returned to not only get reimbursed for the jiffy lube for lunch too. Even that is acceptable so long as you make sure avis knows before you do it. (note, the nearest avis/budget location as 400 miles away and after checking records the car had not been properly oil changed in 7,000+ miles on a ford, whose maintenance cycle is 4500 miles. Driving it home was a risk to voiding the turnback criteria, so avis was happy to do it in that instance).
WHATEVER you do, if you get in an accident, do not take the car to a body shop to repair it!!!! get an estimate, yes, if you are inclined to do so. But repairs need to be done by the avis approved process if they are to return the car to the car shop.