rrapynot

We rented a car from Sixt in November 2016. We drove from California to Arizona and noticed the out of state mileage charge once we had already been in Arizona for a couple of days. When we made the reservation, we made sure to check that it was unlimited miles.

We dropped the car off and got our final invoice a few days later for the rental price that was shown when we made the booking.

Its now February 2017 and Sixt have charged me an additional $1004.50 for out of state mileage.

Do I have any other options other than rolling over and paying?

Auto Enthusiast

Sixt's website Terms section has a table showing unlimited miles from CA to surrounding states, including AZ. It says miles are charged for travel beyond, unless you have a one way rental.

rrapynot

Only if you rent from an airport location and arrive by air. Otherwise you can only drive in the state that you rent in. It's buried in the small print though. California requires that any mileage charges should be verbally described and printed in 12 point type. Also, California requires consent for a rental agency to use electronic tracking. If they don't gain consent, they are not allowed to charge fines or fees. Looks like I'll have to bring a small claims action.

t792

That seems so unfair. I wonder what if you had a future flight planned from your home state? Even if it was unrelated to the rental, couldn't it be used to show intent? i.e. An AZ rental until May 30th then a flight from ZA to NY on July 1st.

Auto Enthusiast

No. The thinking is that people flying in and out are visitors likely to do just local miles, or distance miles spread over a long time. Local customers probably have their own car, so if they rent another one, it's more likely for long distance over a short time. "Abusing it."

rrapynot

I rented in California and drove 2,007 miles on a roundtrip to Arizona.

3 months later I got hit with an additional charge of $1003.50 for mileage even though my reservation stated "Unlimited Mileage".

It turns out they use GPS tracking.

In California they need your permission to track you. They must also print mileage restrictions in bold 12 point text, notify you verbally and have you initial the text.

I got my local DA involved who wrote to the franchise. Franchise agreed to a refund so long as I removed my bad Yelp review.

xZ4sdDMlSu4aiq63

A while ago I was planning a road trip around Washington, Utah and Idaho (I ended up never going) and asked Sixt. This was the response:
"Please be aware that following applies to Washington's territorial boundaries: British Columbia (Canada), California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon
Travel to other states that are not shown above is prohibited from the state of Washington.
Also, please be aware the following applies to travel when renting from an airport or port and being a resident of that state:
Local renters may not take the vehicle outside of the state of pickup and may be required to provide proof of insurance depending on the state of pickup."

So is "Local renters" in this case US residents/citizens?
I'm from Europe so I would therefore be allowed to drive out of state?

"If you rent from airport and arrive by air" This is worrying me a bit since I got two trips booked.
First one to Los Angeles, flying in on a friday but we're in no need of a car until monday. So instead of paying for a car and parking we'll pick the car up at LAX on the Monday. Are we therefore not allowed to take the car out of CA ?
Second one is to Las Vegas, flying in on a Sunday and I don't need the car (don't have time to pick the car up) until Monday and after that I'm driving up to Denver then to Los Angeles and therefor crossing a few states, which are all in the list of the territory restrictions. Is this not allowed and will I be charged for each mile outside of Nevada ?

I've asked Sixt but I haven't received an answer yet. And even if I get an answer I guess it will be in the likes of the last response I got. Which in a cryptic way doesn't guarantee that I won't be charged for miles outside the state of pickup. Especially after reading this, about using GPS trackers and fine print...

I would appreciate every recommendation possible, I will also ask Sixt for written confirmation just in case.

Auto Enthusiast

My recommendation is to be safe and book with another company. I understand you said you like Sixt, perhaps because you use them successfully in Europe. However, as this and other threads will explain, many aspects of the Sixt customer experience translate poorly to the American market.

xZ4sdDMlSu4aiq63

I'm not a frequent renter and I've just used Sixt out of LAX less than ten times, and always stayed in CA. And just a couple of times in Europe. Have had one semi-bad experience and that was when i requested a car with a tow bar. Happily I called a couple of days before and they had no clue what I was talking about, but they fixed that.

Come to think of it, I had a car from Alamo and drove Florida to Alabama without thinking of state lines. Googled now and it seems Alamo allows renters to drive wherever in the US, lucky me.

The thing I like about Sixt the most is the premium cars and the service there feels way more personal than eg. Alamo.

I wrote to Sixt, waiting for a response now (I'll share the response here) . Hopefully it will be positive. Because ones I have a written confirmation from them then there is nothing to worry about, right?

Auto Enthusiast

You probably did the FL driveout with Alamo. This is one of the major philosophical differences that Sixt ran into when they came to the US. We are a huge country, with sparse regional train service, a lot of leisure demand for cross country drives, demands for a consistently good customer experience, and expectations of a rewards system. Europe is more compact, has viable long distance trains, most people pick up the car at the airport or urban center, want to return the car to where they picked it up, and are used to laws that limit earning and redeeming travel rewards.

Sixt's model of independent franchises with a small footprint works well in Europe and elsewhere, but they belatedly discovered they need a large corporate presence to try to attract American customers. At first Sixt grew quickly by franchising key one-way markets, and to Rent a Wreck type of owners who were not interested in offering a premium experience. Sixt still has not recovered from these challenges to its business model, which is why their US expansion is proceeding much more slowly here than in the beginning.

xZ4sdDMlSu4aiq63

Thank you for that explanation, makes sense sort of all though one would expect from Sixt to have this sorted.

Yeah that was Alamo. I will wait and see what Sixt says otherwise I'll go with Alamo, had a god experience with them the only time I rented with them, car was boring but you can't get everything.
Complete coverage with insurances is all I think about when renting a car. I'm not looking for accidents but if something happens I want to be covered. I hade someone drive into my rental car in a parking lot and then drove away. I had all insurances/waivers possible so I called Alamo, they told me to get a police report then go change cars. Besides waiting for a cop this was fixed really fast, imagine being stuck paying for that even if it's not your fault.
I've read Sixt's T&C and from what I can read they cover everything and provide really nice cars, but I've only rented in CA so crossing states is a new case for me that's why i'm looking into this just to be sure.

Okay so with independent franchises each franchise can sort of set there own rules? I.e. the answer I get from Sixt Facebook support or [email protected] might not be correct for the LAS franchise ?

The T&C says that 0.5 cent/mile driven during the entire rental is charged. So I guess that people I've read about must've in some way gone in to another state just for a few miles and expect to be charged just for those miles?

Auto Enthusiast

Sixt bought out its CA and Las Vegas franchises after a big fight. Sixt belatedly realized they need these to be corporate offices to tap into the regional synergies and resulting one ways customers there demanded. Sixt had been hoping that by growing at large airports with a lot of European flights, the demand profile would be similar to what they were used to at home.

xZ4sdDMlSu4aiq63

The response I got back is that I can drive across state lines as long as I'm staying within the restricted area. They asked me if I was a US resident, which I'm not, so I guess that that makes a difference.

But just to reiterate : If you go outside the state restrictions they charge 0.5$ for each mile during the entire rental not only the miles driven outside the state restrictions​​​​​​​. Remember that because it will get really expensive

demue

Hmm, my experience from maybe 1.5 - 2 years ago. IIRC, depends on the State you rent in which may allow travel to select other states. Case in point was me picking up a car at PHX and going to LAS and on to SFO returning the car there. I was allowed to drive in AZ, NV and CA with the car (can't recall if UT was included) and the 12 day rental of a Volvo S80 (LDAR?) was around 420$ incl. Full coverage. Not bad.

A121604

Thank you so much for this information. How is this even legal? How can they provide a territory region that is "safe to travel across state lines" and turn around and charge for mileage that crossed through states within their listed territory? I am trying to cancel my reservation now and they say I have to pay $148.+ because this was discounted booking. These guys are scammers!!
Not only did they not display the terms and conditions before I confirmed and paid for my reservation, they emailed it to me after. Now they are saying that the Terms and Conditions are posted for anyone to review prior to booking which is a copout because no one goes researching a website beforehand.

What should I do? My reservation is for the end of next month.