marbles dad

I will try to keep this as succinct as possible.in may, picked up a hertz rental in Trapani, Sicily at the airport. the reservation was through auto Europe and I paid extra insurance to them . when I picked up the car I purchased additional insurance offered to me at the counter and I was told this would cover everything. this upped the price considerably but I wanted peace of mind in my travels. the rental was a Toyota with standard transmission for which I an experienced driver. I ordered automatic but none was available at the time of pickup. I noticed when driving that the shifting was sluggish but I didn't think it was worth returning the car for. in the mountains of Sicily the transmission gave out and we had to move the car to the side of the road to avoid passing cars and trucks. some nice folks passed by and helped us get in touch with the local hertz by phone . A flatbed truck came and took us and the car to a repair shop in Siracusa and we found a decent b and b to stay at. we were informed we had to go to Catania airport to pick up a replacement car which cost 100 euro taxi from Siracusa. at Catania we got without asking a nice automatic transmision car and had a good trip for the rest of the 2 weeks . when I returned the car to Palermo airport, my bill showed hundreds of euros in extra charges , even though I paid for every type of xs insurance. including no allowance for being without a car for almost a day. when I returned home , I received a letter saying that I had damaged the car and I would be charged on my credit card 600 dollars . they sent a picture of a broken car part . I swear that I did nothing to damage that car and it probably needed a new transmission long before I rented it. my diners club was not successful in helping although they tried. I would like to know what can I do to prevent this from happening again as I am returning to Italy and Sicily in October . I have seen on the internet there are rental car insurance websites but reading the fine print, there is enough ambiguity to cause concern. auto Europe claimed I was covered but with a 600 dollar deductible and coincidentally or not the extra insurance purchased at the counter also had a 600 deductible . please advise , all you experienced travelers.. thanks.

Dave Noble

It sounds like you rented a vehicle with no coverage and that you them purchased CDW with an excess applicable

Looking at https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/reser...D=CDW&EOAG=FCO , if I have the correct details, the CDW reduces the liability to EUR1500+ . if you damaged the vehicle you are liable to that amount

Hertz also offers Super Cover than reduces the excess to zero

You may find that booking a rate including CDW is cheaper than without rather than pay extra for it - then purchase super cover if needed

Some credit cards and travel insurances do offer coverage for rental vehicles, which could protect you

Perhaps check whether the Diners Card used for the rental has such coverage

glostix

Is Italy the capital of scams? I swear I hear about more trouble with rentals in Italy than anywhere. And all the various city charges for driving into the city etc. Even from a foot-travel perspective I hear of the "friendship bracelet" type scams in Italy. We Americans have have some serious competition for most hated country worldwide lol...

To answer OP: sorry but it sounds like you have already exhausted some options, like your credit card company insurance. To avoid this in the future you can get the max CDW direct from Hertz as mentioned above, and meticulously read the details of any CDW (or fake CDW) listed on a website, meticulously inspect a car before accepting, or return it immediately, call corporate to make a record of it, etc. You can also try contacting the Hertz executive contacts listed on various consumer advocacy sites.

Dave Noble

There is nothing fake about CDW - it reduces the liability by a substantial amount - it doesn't remove it entirely - being liable for , say GBP900 in UK is far better than being liable for the full value - and in UK the rates including it are typically cheaper than those without it

marbles dad

thank you everyone for your helpful replies. I suppose the most peace of mind would come from just going ahead and purchasing the super cover at the counter and not the cdw as that appears to be included. I will be using my amex platinum for the entire rental and I am hertz gold if that means anything. is there any more that can be done to mitigate the chance of a nasty surprise during or at the end of the rental?