Cars typically don't break when travelling on unpaved roads, especially when driven carefully. I have years of experience with that.

By the same token, one could argue that there is significant risk in renting a car and staying on pavement without purchasing the CDW. After all, even with one's own insurance and supplemental credit card coverage, there's always the possibility of a hassle....if something goes wrong.

Having rented cars for 35 years, including many trips on unpaved roads, as well as on "forbidden roads" on Maui as well as the Big Island's Saddle Road, I have had a total of one incident involving a rental car. That occurred while the car was parked on a (paved) residential street in San Diego, and a resident carelessly backed out of his driveway. Presumably that person's insurance paid for the damage, because I never again heard from the car rental company. I'm still waiting for someone to claim the $500 I received from a credit card which they sent me after I reported the incident; it's being held in escrow, likely in perpetuity.

In 1986, I drove extensively on unpaved roads in the Yukon and Alaska in a Buick Skylark, including the then-unpaved Klondike and Eagle highways, and a portion of unpaved road in Denali National Park. At one point, the car did look rather dirty, but 2 days of rain on the Kenai Peninsula at the end of the trip washed it clean...just in time to drop it off at ANC.

For some, a one-mile walk in a city park is strenuous; for others, it's just a walk in a park. It all depends on how you look at it. Perhaps most FT members are reckless drivers, and would get into trouble on unpaved roads, because they just can't avoid it. Likely that's not the case.