Originally Posted by
joburghfx
Apologies if an answer to this has been posted elsewhere, but I can't seem to find anyone else with a similar issue. I have the standard Canadian Amex Platinum. Thought I knew most of the exceptions (vehicles over $85k, pickups, vans, exotic cars, etc), but have run into an issue with being denied coverage. Reserved a rental in Germany with Hertz. Reserved a mid-size or full-size (don't have the docs here at the moment) Ford Mondeo or Similar, and when we picked up we received a Jaguar XE 2.0d sedan with 70k kms. Didn't think anything of it at the time. It's a compact, 4 cylinder diesel sedan, MSRP in Canada would be approx. $45k.
Had a minor accident (thankfully). Submitted a claim immediately to Amex within the 72 hour window. Hertz liability coverage took (I assume, never heard anything else) care of the third party's damage. From the time of the accident, to driving to the closest Hertz outlet to exchange the car and dealing with paperwork, we were back on the road within 2 hours (gotta love German efficiency).
Anyway, Amex Canada's insurer RSA has denied coverage for the vehicle, because they claim the car is an "exotic" vehicle under their policy. Here's the definition in Amex's Certificate of Insurance in Canada, where you'll see the issue I've encountered:
"Exotic” means any automobile which is not a standard Rental Auto offered by most of the Rental Agencies in the province or state, or in a country without provinces or states, where the vehicle was rented or is a vehicle totally or partially custom made, hand made, hand finished or is a vehicle of limited production (under 2,000 vehicles per year by the manufacturer). Exotic automobiles include, but are not limited to the following models: Aston Martin, Bentley, Bricklin, Daimler, De Lorean, Excalibur, Ferrari, Jaguar, Jensen, Lamborghini, Lotus, Maserati, Porsche, Rolls Royce and limousines.
As you can see, Jaguar is listed as an exotic vehicle. But the Hertz office had a number of them in the garage, along with lots of other base model Audi, BMW, Mercedes, etc. and the XE sells way more than 2000 per year and is not hand made or custom. Given that that definition includes Bricklin, De Lorean, and Excalibur, I think the definition likely hasn't been updated in a while. I mean, you'd think a Tesla Model S would be more exotic than a Jaguar XE. I have submitted an appeal of the decision to RSA, and am waiting for it to be considered, but wondering if anyone else has had similar experience or tips for resolving this sort of ludicrous situation. I'd prefer not to be personally responsible for a few thousand dollars in damage.
Thought I would come back with a quick update on this situation. After the insurer denied the re-consideration, we filed a formal appeal with the insurer's internal appeal committee. They again denied the appeal, based solely on the fact that the word "Jaguar" is included in the definition, and again completely ignoring the first sentence of the definition.
In Canada, you can appeal decisions of insurers to a private, "independent" ombudsperson, GIO Canada. It's funded by the insurers, hence my use of "independent". Anyway, we filed an appeal with them, and got a bit more traction with our argument. I'm now being forced to prove that the Jaguar XE is a standard Rental Auto offered by most of the Rental Agencies in Germany, where the vehicle was rented. Suffice to say, that that's going to be a bit of a pain.
If anyone has rented a Jaguar, from any agency in Germany, and would be willing to help provide proof (a redacted, recent rental record would likely work), please let me know. I'll maybe post this on other sub-forums as well, to see if anyone can help. I've done a ton of searching, and found that Sixt has Jaguar XEs in their German fleet (shoutout to Sixt for having such a detailed fleet guide:
https://www.sixt.com/php/fleet/vehic...p_list_dynamic). Also, who knew that National rented Jaguar XEs in Croatia! I've also contacted all of the major agencies in Germany by email, but I'm not hopeful they'll provide details on their current or past German fleets including Jaguars. ha. I've also searched social media to see if anyone has posted photos of renting Jaguars in Germany...down the rabbit hole we go.
I'll provide a further update once I hear anything further. There's a FURTHER appeal mechanism within GIO Canada if they deny the appeal, before the potential for a Small Claims Court filing. Hopefully it doesn't come to that though.