Car Rental, Nice, damage to car

Masterkey01

Looking for some help/opinions on this one guys please.

Rented a car in Nice France last month
2-3 days intk the hoilday i noticed a mark on the car which was not there when we received the car. I know fact i did not damage the car I was very careful. Anyway the mark was on the front bumper about golf ball size paint had burnt off and plastic bumper was bulging outwards (not in)
I work with cars on a daily basis and straight away i thought somthing behind the bumper was causing extreme heat to cause this.
Anyway we dropped car back and fee days later i got an email from company with a photo of the damage and a quote saying how much it was.
I put it in very plain english with my response that the mark was in my personal opinion caused from somthing getting hot behind the bumper cause it to melt hench why its outwards etc, That i would appreciate it if he could look into the issue as i do not belive it was caused by me and it could possibly be a fault with the vehicle and very dangerous.
The response i got was fairly abrupt with it was my fault and my card would be charged full deposit if u do not agree to pay damages. Anyway today the charged the full deposit ( Not happy)
What should i do ?
Thanks guys

keithclancy

Masterkey01 wrote: »

Looking for some help/opinions on this one guys please.

Rented a car in Nice France last month
2-3 days intk the hoilday i noticed a mark on the car which was not there when we received the car. I know fact i did not damage the car I was very careful. Anyway the mark was on the front bumper about golf ball size paint had burnt off and plastic bumper was bulging outwards (not in)
I work with cars on a daily basis and straight away i thought somthing behind the bumper was causing extreme heat to cause this.
Anyway we dropped car back and fee days later i got an email from company with a photo of the damage and a quote saying how much it was.
I put it in very plain english with my response that the mark was in my personal opinion caused from somthing getting hot behind the bumper cause it to melt hench why its outwards etc, That i would appreciate it if he could look into the issue as i do not belive it was caused by me and it could possibly be a fault with the vehicle and very dangerous.
The response i got was fairly abrupt with it was my fault and my card would be charged full deposit if u do not agree to pay damages. Anyway today the charged the full deposit ( Not happy)
What should i do ?
Thanks guys

Unfortunately you are in a bad situation.

Usually that problem occurs if someone hits off you or you hit off something and something was lodged between the Metal Bumper and the Plastic at the time of impact.

Take it as a lesson learned and next time take out an annual insurance policy:
www.insurance4carhire.com

They reimburse you for any problems within the excess of your car rental.

delahuntv

sounds like another car hit your car at very low speed (possibly while they were parking).

Problem is hire companies will want it back as new and will probably replace the bumper and unless you purchased their extra insurance or had excess insurance yourself, they will charge this amount to you.

keithclancy

delahuntv wrote: »

sounds like another car hit your car at very low speed (possibly while they were parking).

Problem is hire companies will want it back as new and will probably replace the bumper and unless you purchased their extra insurance or had excess insurance yourself, they will charge this amount to you.

They won't replace it or repair it, they just want the compensation for this activity.

They don't have to repair it either unless it's necessary to put the car on the road.

Hence why cars have scratches/dents when you rent them

megabantz

I worked for a very well known car hire company in Dublin and unless you had FULL insurance then it will be very difficult if not impossible to win this argument.


Without full insurance then even if you park on the road and somebody keys your car or damages it in some way then you as the driver is responsible. unless of course you can sort out the third party who caused the damage to cough up and pay the repairs.

I know you say this was prob caused by something under the bumper getting hot but as far as the hire car company is concerned you returned the car with damage that was not there upon renting it to you so they wont be out of pocket and it will be unlikely they will take the vehicle out of service (lose revenue as a result) to investigate the issue.

Im curious tho, what could be causing heat under a bumper? apart from light fixtures but they are encased in light surroundings.

keithclancy

megabantz wrote: »

Im curious tho, what could be causing heat under a bumper? apart from light fixtures but they are encased in light surroundings.

I've seen it three times before ... it's usually from a stone behind the bumper and when the bumper gets a slap off something it pops outwards.

dudara

Did you bring it to the car hire company's attention when you returned the car? Unfortunately, I don't think there's much you can do about it as it did happen while you were renting.

megabantz

keithclancy wrote: »

I've seen it three times before ... it's usually from a stone behind the bumper and when the bumper gets a slap off something it pops outwards.

so it had to be caused by an impact of sorts... problem solved it't the OP responsibility unfortunatly...

the hire car game is a dodgy one unfortunatly!