A terrible experience with Sixt. (bald summer-only tires on M5 in December)
 

In late December reserved a Maserati Ghibli for pickup at MUC airport.

When I got there, they had subbed a BMW M5. That's cool, have driven that car before, knew the controls well (as an M3 owner), not disappointed.

I noticed every time I stopped on it, the traction control kicked in even on non-freezing, non-wet, perfect roads. Didn't think all that much about it, just "wow, I forgot how much power this car has!"

Nope. Car was equipped with bald, summer high-performance tires! Same tires that it is equipped with from the factory-- and I feel these were the very same ones (as in never replaced-- many kilometers after they should have been) One of the fronts even was a mismatch-- a Continental of some type.

So, my entire trip-- a driving trip around the Dolomites-- was ruined. Every time I hit anything even -resembling- winter weather (remember-- this was late December) the car would go nuts.

I was 3 hours south of Munch when I started my many, many, many calls to Sixt. Some reps were very sympathetic. One came up with a "stay there, we'll get you a new car delivered from Bolzano" So I did. Nothing. More calls, more broken promises, more unreturned calls. More excuses. Waited 48 hours before being told Bolzano is more of a franchise, and they won't do anything (and never were considering it.)

In the town I was staying in Italy, the one time I took the car out, I spun out in the town square-- good thing I've been to BWW M-school! The town police then forbade me from further driving the car upon seeing the bald, summer-only, high-performance tires, albeit with a great sense of humor, like "they screwed yo, stupid American!" :)
Full disclosure, it was remarkably warm where I was and very little snow and ice. But EVERY time I hit snow or ice, the car's traction control kicked in and I still spun, sometimes rather hilariously.

Finally I gave up on the trip and returned the car to Innsbruck airport. I had planned to go to some ski areas, but that was completely impossible due to the tires.

I did a January Euro delivery on my M3 (which had rental snow tires) and have pretty good competence in snow and ice. As I mention above, have been on BMW's skidpad in S.C. both for an all-day private M-school as well as another time during performance center delivery and have been to Skip Barber. I know how to handle a car in winter weather IF the tires are suited.

Sixt responded with like a meaningless credit and-- bizzarely-- claimed that I got a "discount for renting a car with summer tires"

The bolded is completely made up. My rental agreement says the EXACT OPPOSITE-- it says "tires suited for winter use"

I have disputed the entire charge in hopes Sixt would at least contact me to discuss, they have stonewalled and Chase says they have gotten absolutely no useful input from Sixt.

Won't use Sixt again, needless to say, and really, really disappointed with all the lies and nonsense and incompetence they showed during this.

If memory serves me correctly, several years ago, winter tires stopped being a requirement, at least for rentals at MUC. I've rented many times at MUC from Avis, Hertz & Sixt and, whereas, winter tires used to be mandatory, they have become an option at extra cost.

I'd say you're right about that-- not a legal requirement.

A couple of factors:

a) my reservation explicitly states "tires suitable for winter" By absolutely nobody's definition is bald Michelin Pilot Super Sports on a 2015 BMW M5 "tires suitable for winter" They are tires deadly for winter.

b) BMW M5 w/ it's factory summer high-performance tires is just, plain dangerous in snow and ice. This is not a question of "not winter tires"-- this is summer-only, high performance tires (Michelin Pilot Super Sport) on a car with incredible torque and horsepower. The compound on these type of tires actually freezes at extremely low temps. Not safe/suited/sane for use in winter conditions.

As opposed to a regular rental car with it's regular "all season" tires like you'd find on all regular rental cars-- even "sporty" ones. These Pilot Super Sport's are an entirely separate category of tire and are -never- used in any kind of freezing or wintery conditions-- never.

c) tires were also WELL past acceptable remaining tread-depth, had them checked at at service station and the verdict was "oh my god!"

In my experience Sixt will try to upsell you on winter tires. I always decline, banking on them not renting cars with summer rubber in the dead of winter.

I guess I will need to rethink that strategy!

;)

Oh, summer compound tires are dangerous not just in snow, but in temps under 40F. The glass transition temperature renders them quite hard, and a hazard even in dry or wet conditions (ie doesnt need to be snow or ice)

Sixt seems an odd company to deal with... family owned, German business as I recall.

This has been one of the bigger frustration in dealing with people at Sixt; they don't understand the difference between all-season tires, dedicated winter tires and the unique summer-only tires that this car came equipped with-- with that compound that turns to rock in freezing temps.

You're obviously a car-guy, so you instantly see what I'm posting and think "what?? how is could they give you those tires??" but the Sixt people I was speaking to were sort of befuddled about cars and tires and probably thought I was asking why I didn't get full-on winter tires, or, whatever they thought. Still they knew enough to tell me to stay put in the small village I was in while they "arranged a new car with Bolzano"-- only to tell me days later Bolzano wasn't really a six-owned location and was basically laughing at the request. The folks at MUC airport were great throughout, just had no way to fix anything.

But, for sure, summer-only tires have NO business being on the road in the middle of winter (even they weren't -well- past their prime, these tires were approaching home-made racing-slick status) and, on a M5, was like driving on ice a lot of the time and on very challenging (read: normally, fun!) roads.

Sixt's lack of understanding of their product and lack of communication and any kind of follow-through was downright scary at times-- I've never experienced anything quite like it with an airline, hotel or car rental company.

Two higher level observations.

First, please keep us posted on the Chase dispute. If the CC issuer itself acknowledges that the merchant vendor is "stonewalling," it has the juice to simply determine that the vendor is not responding and grant the chargeback. Push Chase to do that. A company such as Sixt will learn by brute force only. You are entirely correct that whether there was a legal requirement here, Sixt chose to enter a contract with you to provide you with the equipment and did not. It then committed to fix the problem with a replacement vehicle and did not. That seems to be a simple sustained dispute for a US-based CC issuer. It may take escalating the matter at Chase.

Second, the pattern here on FT is that someone from Sixt will magically appear and tell you that he will make it right if you handle it by PM. There must be hundreds of threads like that. The pattern adds up to horrific customer service with no consumer response and then individualized opaque attention only after social media (including FT complaints).

Obvious failure in business process concerning rental of sports car with summer tires.

Sixt do remove convertibles from being rentable inventory during the winter. I'm surprise they don't do the same for sports cars or at least have a business process to swap out all summer tires on sports cars to all-seasons from October to Easter.

While technically it is the driver who is responsible for complying with the winter tire law, I'm also surprise Sixt is willing to rent out with summer tires from an institutional risk/insurance perspective.

They were _very_ short on cars the week I rented (between Christmas and New Years) and had zero other cars when I asked "Hmmm, got anything besides that M5?" (only because I'm super familiar with it, so I thoughts something other might be more fun) The -very- helpful woman at Sixt at MUC, Marina, was very clear that I was lucky -anything- in the category was available. That notwithstanding the fact that 1.5 days before the reservation, Sixt at MUC pretty directly confirmed the Maserati Ghibli (again, not that that issue bothered me at all.)

Point is, I think they were just plain out of cars in this category and I think it's possible this M5 was pressed into service as an emergency measure. As in they pulled it from somewhere and someone forgot to say "No! Can't until we change the tires!"

The car's service menu also indicated that service was overdue -and- the counter person at MUC informed me that she couldn't extend my rental officially as her system was prohibiting it since the car was so overdue for service (but that I could just keep the car until I was done with it anyway.) I kinda can't believe I forgot this till just now! Wow, what a cluster this rental was.


I couldn't agree more.

You might find that there are German regulatons, (not exactly laws, but regs) listed on TUV or other car safety/inspection sites. Whiile there may be no law about renting a car without winter tires, their may be regulations, warnings or other restrictions on the use of summer rubber. I CAN'T read german, which limits my ability to search.

It seems that renting a car with bald tires that rendered it unsafe and unuseable, should be enough to support your contesting the rental charges. Add to it warnings from the tire MFG; then maybe a TUV reg that requires tires rated below 40F and you have a pretty good argument.

Im a sixt platinum via some other program- decent upgrades, etc. But anything that requires departure from a very narrow customer service process and you fall off a cliff...

Germany does mandate M&S tire use only in snow and ice conditions. Basically, you're on the hook when you drive around on summer tires in these conditions, although there is no general mandate to have winter tires.
Italy, however, definitely has regional M&S tire mandates - especially in Milano and Bolzano provinces. In the Aoste Valley, there's a blanket winter tire rule in effect from Oct.15 to Apr. 15.

BTW, German law stipulates a minimum thread depth of 1.6mm (the TWI bars are set at that level). Should your tires have been really bald, that car wasn't roadworthy no matter the road conditions and should not have been rented to you.

My own experience with Sixt is pretty much the same as yours - don't expect them to be forthcoming with anything. I had to settle for whatever vehicle was available on the lot with winter tires or a diesel engine regardless of what I had reserved all too often with them, and that's one big reason why I rent with the competition nowadays.
Pursue the chargeback, that'd be likely the only avenue with any meaningful outcome. Pretty simple, actually: you had a confirmed reservation for a vehicle with AWD (the Ghiblis here in Switzerland have AWD) suitable for a winter time excursion to Italian ski resorts, and that service wasn't delivered.

Definitely what I'm noticing.

Wow, great details and info, thanks! I certainly -am- pursuing the credit card dispute, but it appears that I'm nearing the end of the road and that Chase is not going to support my claim-- they've "prepared me for it" as it were.

I'm certainly going to cancel that Sapphire card *instantly* as soon as they tell me that (not that I'm thinking they'll care at all, but I'll do it anyway.) And, I intend to pursue Sixt on this even if I equal-- or exceed-- the cost of the rental in doing so.

The more I read and think about it, the more inexcusable Sixt's renting me this car was. Just absolutely, insultingly inexcusable and really-- without resorting to melodrama-- put me physically at risk.

I have a lot of time and resources to make sure people find out what a terrible, terrible customer service department they have. And I will.

In my 15 years on flyertalk, I've never gone on one of these "campaigns"-- if I don't like the way a company treats me, I simply move on, usually, but this REALLY is bothering me now.

On that note, I think I'll "promote" (for cost) this Tweet again...
https://twitter.com/xJonNYC/status/705946706660204544

If I read it correctly you made a reservation for a car with winter tires (your screenshot of the reservation). Sixt claims that you signed a contract at the counter for a car without winter tires and you received a discount for that. If this is correct it sounds to me as if they didn't have the Maserati and offered you some alternatives. You selected the M5. Did they tell you something about the tires at this point?

Absolutely no discussion of tires, I never would have agreed to that.

And, there was only one option offered-- the M5. So not something I selected, it was selected for me (again, with the right tires, not a bad outcome at all-- but wasn't any choice of car given at time of my arrival at MUC.)

I specifically asked if that was the only option and was told-- not rudely, but effectively-- "you're lucky we have anything!" And, again, had no objection, per se.

As far as whatever "discount for received for a vehicle with summer tires"-- if that's in their paperwork somewhere, they would have snuck that in there and it absolutely is NOT something I agreed to. NOR DID IT COME UP at -any- time during my *numerous* conversations with them during the rental.

It's a very reasonable question you ask-- don't want to in any way come off as otherwise. But cannot emphasize strongly enough-- there was NO discussion of me accepting a car without winter tires-- or any discussion of tires whatsoever with anyone at MUC Sixt at the time I picked up the car. I hadn't the slightest idea such a thing was possible (again, not talking all-seasons vs. true winter tires-- rather summer-only high-performance tires vs. the "tires suitable for winter" that I reserved.)

Also, probably of no real significance, my reservation comments did include my comments "Travelling to: Austria and Italy"

You are a reasonable and patient guy....this kind of service is inexcusable.

As frequent travelers, we know that stuff happens. We accept this, hope for clear communication and a fair resolution, and move on.

You have thus far received neither clear communication or a fair resolution.....I hope Sixt improves their service