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chstr

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
672
0
I rented a car last week from Budget at JFK airport and as I was returning it this morning I must have hit a pothole and it blew a tire. I put the spare donut tire on and drove to a walmart hoping to be able to fix it cheap, but walmart said the rim had been damaged, so I just drove the car back to JFK and the budget return guy made me fill out an accident report. I didnt tell him about the bent rim but I'm sure it will be noticed. I am hoping they only charge me for a new tire but if it needs a new rim it's gonna be expensive. Anyone else have a similar situation and what did they do? thanks
 
I rented a car last week from Budget at JFK airport and as I was returning it this morning I must have hit a pothole and it blew a tire. I put the spare donut tire on and drove to a walmart hoping to be able to fix it cheap, but walmart said the rim had been damaged, so I just drove the car back to JFK and the budget return guy made me fill out an accident report. I didnt tell him about the bent rim but I'm sure it will be noticed. I am hoping they only charge me for a new tire but if it needs a new rim it's gonna be expensive. Anyone else have a similar situation and what did they do? thanks

If you bent a rim you know exactly when and how it happened! Chances are that there is also now an alignment problem and a bent suspension part or two. Expensive stuff.

Rental companies make you take out their insurance if you don't have your own, so either you took out their overpriced policy or you have your own policy with collision coverage. In that case you will have to pay the amount up to your deductible and they will pay the amount above that if necessary.
 
be sure to check what coverage your credit card offers you when use the card to rent a car
 
the bent rim doesnt look terrible, just a tiny bend. I heard a loud pop when the tire blew but didnt feel anything as far as movement in the car. I have a $100 deductible on my collision insurance so I guess it's going on that
 
You bent the rim and popped a tire. Purposely or not, you did it. Be honest. It's ridiculous how many people try to hide things that were their fault.

Like said before you either took out insurance through the rental company or had your own. Use one of the those, be honest, fix it and move on knowing that things happen and it's a part of life.
 
You bent the rim and popped a tire. Purposely or not, you did it. Be honest. It's ridiculous how many people try to hide things that were their fault.

So true, people that get in car wrecks and are at fault always try and blame the other person, and in this case mother nature. To bad this isn't a 3rd world country when lying gets your tongue cut off, wouldn't that be interesting.
 
Yes you're right. I purposely got out of the car and took a crow bar to the tire so I could pay my insurance deductible and have my rates go up. You people are brilliant. It must be a sad untrustong world you live in.

I'm just trying to find out if it's their policy to stand by there product, and if not how much it will cost? Any constructive response?
 
If you purchased rental insurance when you rented the car, then you shouldn't owe anything, but if you didn't, then you are responsible for the damages. Simple as that. This isn't a political issue.
 
Yes you're right. I purposely got out of the car and took a crow bar to the tire so I could pay my insurance deductible and have my rates go up. You people are brilliant. It must be a sad untrustong world you live in.

I'm just trying to find out if it's their policy to stand by there product, and if not how much it will cost? Any constructive response?

I don't think anyone is saying you got out of your car and used a crobar, I think what we are saying is that you "accidentally" had your tire pop but it seems that you are trying to weisel your way out of it. Maybe we just misunderstood the way you explained it, but whats the message most of us received obviously.

As for the insurance, you can use yours or if you got insurance when you did the rental theirs. If you have a 100$ dedicutable I would probably use yours since you probably wouldn't do that with a rental company. Also due to mother nature your rates will not go up. ie My wife had a deer run out and hit her driver side door. I payed my $500 deductable and nothing went up to fixed over 2grand worth of work. Some things you just can't help and that "rock" in the road that messed up your tire you just can't help and insurance companies will understand, unless you have Geico and you're in Texas =).
 
Yes you're right. I purposely got out of the car and took a crow bar to the tire so I could pay my insurance deductible and have my rates go up. You people are brilliant. It must be a sad untrustong world you live in.

I'm just trying to find out if it's their policy to stand by there product, and if not how much it will cost? Any constructive response?

Super awesome comment:

Like the above quoted comment makes any sense whatsoever with the replies taken into consideration. No one said you hit it with a crowbar, I think what they said was it doesn't matter how you did it, but that YOU did it, and that YOU should be responsible for what YOU did, because YOU rented the car. Budget gave YOU the car for YOU to use and YOU mauled the tire in whatever fashion YOU managed to do it in, be it YOU hit it with a crowbar or YOU hit a giant hole in the road by accident. The end result is the same, and therefore YOU should have to pay for the damages YOU caused while YOU were driving the car. Get it?

Alternate comment:

Say I'm your friend and you loaned me your sick ass Kia Sedona (or whatever you rented) and I rammed the everloving **** out of the biggest pothole in the road by accident and had a blowout, bent rim, and bent tie rod + alignment issue. That's not cheap, but should you have to pay for what I did? No.

Alternate comment v2.0:

Am I screwed? Yes. Men in black suits are coming to your house right now to break your legs courtesy of Vito Corleone's Budget Rent-A-Car.
 
I rented a car last week from Budget at JFK airport and as I was returning it this morning I must have hit a pothole and it blew a tire. I put the spare donut tire on and drove to a walmart hoping to be able to fix it cheap, but walmart said the rim had been damaged, so I just drove the car back to JFK and the budget return guy made me fill out an accident report. I didnt tell him about the bent rim but I'm sure it will be noticed. I am hoping they only charge me for a new tire but if it needs a new rim it's gonna be expensive. Anyone else have a similar situation and what did they do? thanks

Hitting pothole not your fault - pothole blame belongs to local government problems with roads and this is your story. You filled out accident report and leave it at that. If Budget calls back blame horrible road conditions; tell them you installed back up tire and did what you could to return car. Not to worry chstr... this sort of thing happens more frequently than you know.
 
Hitting pothole not your fault - pothole blame belongs to local government problems with roads and this is your story. You filled out accident report and leave it at that. If Budget calls back blame horrible road conditions; tell them you installed back up tire and did what you could to return car. Not to worry chstr... this sort of thing happens more frequently than you know.
Oh for crying out loud. Does your anti-government rhetoric have to extend to everything including people having rental car mishaps??

To the OP: I had this happen on a family road trip last year. Didn't damage the rim, but the rental car we were given had what looked like two very worn front tires. (Don't anybody blame me -- I didn't make the rental. And of course the guy who did didn't get insurance.) Sure enough, one tire blew out in the city in New Jersey. When we talked to the rental company, we were told we'd have to replace the tire with the same specific kind, and we had to drive quite a ways to find a tire store that had one in stock. On the way back, in the middle of Nowhere, Pennsylvania, the other front tire blew. Again, we had to drive quite a bit out of our way to find that specific tire.

In the latter incident, the hubcap blew off and rolled down a steep embankment. We were not about to get out and climb down (with no rope) to try to rescue something that was surely damaged. Well, the company (Alamo) gave us grief about that. I gave them plenty of grief about letting the car go out to a customer with two almost-bald tires.

I tell you this story to illustrate that ItN doesn't know what he's talking about if he thinks the rental company is going to simply accept some story about "bad government potholes". :rolleyes: And to warn you (for future use) that just going anywhere to get repairs or tire replacement might very well not be acceptable to the rental company.
 
Hitting pothole not your fault - pothole blame belongs to local government problems with roads and this is your story. You filled out accident report and leave it at that. If Budget calls back blame horrible road conditions; tell them you installed back up tire and did what you could to return car. Not to worry chstr... this sort of thing happens more frequently than you know.

Or maybe we need to raise taxes *gasp!* so local governments can afford to fill potholes. :rolleyes:

FWIW, a few weeks ago, at around 1:00 PM I reported a bad pothole by my work parking garage to the city streets department. By the time I left work at 4:00, it was filled. Government can do good.
 
Regardless of differing viewpoints in the PRSI forum (the beauty of such a forum is we can disagree but no need to personally attack), it's simple logic that he did the damage (accidentally or purposefully, it doesn't matter) and should repair it via his insurance, the insurance he may of taken out for the rental car or by cash if he feels the need.
 
Why does it always seem like EVERYONE (save very few) skipped class on "personal responsibility" day?

FYI, to all those who missed it, intention (i.e. Whether or not something was an accident) does not remove responsibility. Ever heard of "you break it you buy it?"

OP, you are not screwed. However, you are responsible. If you didn't want that responsibility then you never should have driven the rental car. Welcome to adulthood.
 
You can put a tire on a bent rim, the bend will affect it's balance so it may vibrate a little. Should have just had them put a cheap 50 dollar tire on and been done with it.
 
Why does it always seem like EVERYONE (save very few) skipped class on "personal responsibility" day?

FYI, to all those who missed it, intention (i.e. Whether or not something was an accident) does not remove responsibility. Ever heard of "you break it you buy it?"

OP, you are not screwed. However, you are responsible. If you didn't want that responsibility then you never should have driven the rental car. Welcome to adulthood.

Thank god somebody said what I was thinking when reading this thread.
 
Check the credit card you put the car rental on. See if the rental company has added any charges since returning the car. They may just add charges to cover their perceived loss, without informing you.
 
Regardless of differing viewpoints in the PRSI forum (the beauty of such a forum is we can disagree but no need to personally attack), it's simple logic that he did the damage (accidentally or purposefully, it doesn't matter) and should repair it via his insurance, the insurance he may of taken out for the rental car or by cash if he feels the need.
I'm sorry, I did not mean that to be taken as a personal attack. I was more commenting on another poster assuming that chstr was painting all Texans as right-wing nut jobs. It was my clumsy way of pointing out that chstr might not have been making a sweeping generalization of all Texans, but may've formed an opinion of you (justified or not) specifically via the forums.

Though on re-reading it, it does look more like a sweeping generalization. So again, I apologize.

(I could say something more about sweeping generalizations re: that "You lie!" picture, but I think I'll quit while I'm ahead.)
 
I rented a car last week from Budget at JFK airport and as I was returning it this morning I must have hit a pothole and it blew a tire. I put the spare donut tire on and drove to a walmart hoping to be able to fix it cheap, but walmart said the rim had been damaged, so I just drove the car back to JFK and the budget return guy made me fill out an accident report. I didnt tell him about the bent rim but I'm sure it will be noticed. I am hoping they only charge me for a new tire but if it needs a new rim it's gonna be expensive. Anyone else have a similar situation and what did they do? thanks

1. Bent rim means you hit hard, you had to feel it.
2. If you have insurance, all you do is pay deductible.
3. If you don't have insurance, you paid Budget's insurance plan, which I have no idea how it works exactly.
4. No, you are not screwed. Worst case, you end up paying for new rim + tire.
 
My credit card provides a pretty good rental car insurance plan as long as you pay for the car with it. It's not a well publicized feature and I only found out about it by reading the fine print literature that came with the card, but it is something to think about. They'll even pay the deductible from another insurance plan I believe.
 
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