Originally Posted by
nwflyboy
So, I have a question for the Autoslash rep...
I'm trying to set up a car rental in Mexico. Things there are, lets just say, a little more complicated than renting at US airports, for example. I used the Autoslash website to request a quote. They sent me one. It's a Priceline quote for a Hertz rental. The quote is for like US$3 per day, which is typical of deceptively low-ball Mexican rental quotes. But there's an important wrinkle: insurance. Renting in Mexico, you are legally required to have Mexican liability insurance (having good liability insurance is how you avoid spending a long time in a jail if you have a serious accident - the liability policy + insurance company is your get-out-of-jail-free card, so you really need it). Sometimes quoted Mexican car rental prices include some (unrealistic) minimum level of liability insurance, but you would be crazy to drive there with that minimal insurance, and the rental agencies won't rent to you anyway unless you but supplemental liability policies, which can be expensive - but they don't tell you how expensive in online quotes. Plus, you are going to want a solid CDW policy, too. The Autoslash/Priceline/Hertz quote did offer an option to purchase "zero deductible" CDW (at what seems to be an unrealistically low price, which leaves me wondering what there catch is there, too).
It seems there's no way to tell what the actual price is going to be - the quoted price does not include liability insurance that you must have and will want to have; it also provides an option for what they call zero-deductible CDW but that's can't be true for $10 a day.
The players here are Autoslash, Priceline, Hertz, and at least one (perhaps multiple) Mexican insurance companies. How is one supposed to know what they are actually going to be paying? I'd like to use the quite that Autoslash sent me, but it's really obvious that there are missing pieces that I will have to pay for, and others that I'm going to want to pay for ("super CDW"), and those items - which can be quite spendy - are not specified. From whom - and how - can I get those details?
Thanks for sharing any insights you can offer.
The short version is that you will almost certainly have to take the liability insurance offered by the rental company. There will be people who will tell you that it's possible to avoid that fate, but IME of renting in Mexico a bunch of times, I've never been successful at getting it waived. The problem seems most prevalent at Cancun airport. My parents did once avoid it in Playa del Carmen, but YMMV. If your rate is too low to be believed, then assume you will be forced into paying for liability.
As far as CDW goes, don't bother with what Priceline offers. Either take it from the rental company or much better, use a credit card that offers CDW protection in Mexico and
bring a leftter of proof of coverage with you so they don't force it on you at the counter in addition to liability.
With regard to pricing of CDW/LIS, you can either try pricing it out using the rental company websites directtly or call or email them. Renting in Mexico is often a bit of a scam in this regard. We wish it were not the case and companies there would operate above board, but it is what it is, and there's zero we can do about it.
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