Originally Posted by
fassy
I think there should be some International norm on these things. there is one thing I just hate: Being ripped off by unreasonable rules.
A car rental agency makes decent money with hiring our their vehicles. They should just suck up normal wear and tear, including minor scratches. Like they do in the US or in CH. Return the car and unless there is some major visible damage which did indicate some accident, just take the car back and be done with it.
Renting cars has become the second most hated things in travel for me. Even being covered by excess waivers or insurance, just the whole pain of dealing with it sucks so much.
I totally agree, without a car in Japan the experience is not the same. So despite all this crap I'd still rent a car when I'm there. There is an option to buy totally LDW but it's like 2500 JPY per day - as long as I have insurance covering that I'd skip that. It is very trouble when you have an accident with a rental car in Japan, regardless of the extent you have to make a police report. If you don't have it your insurance will void. After that scratch, I had to find the closest civilization to find a police station, and they need to take all my info and bla bla bla (it's funny to hear them trying to type my passport info into Kana) to write out a police report to hand it back to the car rental company.
The procedure is similar in Taiwan, very thorough checking and the same procedure in case of an accident.
In the US as long as you have LDW they don't seem to care. Hertz at LAX literally told me that I can return it with full of damages if I want to
Last time I rented with Avis at IAD and I had an accident at a parking lot and the bumper was dent. I filled in the form and ready to hand that in to the attendant, they said no need. That was in January and I haven't heard from them since. In Hertz we got a stone chip on the windscreen and we told them and they saw it and didn't even bother writing a report.
In Malaysia I rented through a car sharing service that I pay a deposit with my card and settle with cash when I pick up the car. Mr.'s first reaction was, "does it mean that you can drive the car away just like that?" I have rented with them 3 times and have zero issues whatsoever. They drove the car to the terminal, and I return it at departure hall at KLIA - much easier than having to drive to the rental place and then unload the bags, drag them onto a train/shuttle and then struggle to the airport.