For sure I would never ever let anyone not on the contract drive a car I am renting. If something happens, expect insurance nightmares, not to mention the possibility to be on the hook financially for damages and, God forbids, for hurting other people. It is so bad that only a moron would let anyone not on a contract use a rental car. Yes one has to use the “moron” to qualify someone who lets someone not on the contract drive the car and maybe even with the official renter not present.
Taking the car off-road is another no-no. Yes, if nothing happens and the off-road is a mild off-road, no harm is likely caused, but with GPS, if the rental company wanted to know, they could and any major off-road will cause you trouble with or without apparent damages to the car. When in breach of an agreement one can expose him/herself to liabilities. Only once in Alaska I was tempted to take the SUV I was renting off-road, but after 0.5–1 mile and having hit my head against the roof 3 or 4 times already, I changed my mind and decided “f..k off-road!” Contracts also forbid driving on gravel roads which can be a problem if one plans to visit certain areas (in Alaska, in particular). It is not rare (and it happened to me and others) that when you call and book directly in Alaska someone tells you that the car can be driven on gravel roads. I was suspicious and checked with the national office and I was told “absolutely not!” They must re-sell those cars after 2–3 years, after all. But once I got there and read carefully the rental contract, gravel roads were banned. Do not go with what you are told, go with what is in the contract!
In the old days, it was relatively easy to rent a car and drive forever. Apparently too many LA-NY trips, or something like that, prompted rental companies to change policies. This is the only time I was caught by surprise as I always assumed that the old policy was in place. Luckily I read the fine prints and realize that from California I was only allowed to drive in Nevada and Arizona, outside of California. But I was planning a 2 week trip and needed to go to Utah. I went back to the office and explained the situation. Maybe as a gold member I was treated better than average, but they wrote that I was driving to Utah and that I was fine. They just do not want people to put an ungodly amount of miles like LA-NY in a few days on their cars. That, they told me, was the spirit of the limitation. Visiting the parks in Utah over a period of about 2 weeks was fine, they told me. Still better check, before if you get stopped by the police or something happens and one gets in trouble. It is never wise to get into legal battles with a car rental company that has deeper pockets than most normal citizens.
There is another issue that affects very few but it can be bad from a financial point of view. Often car rental companies tell you that you can use regular fuel even in some fancy cars. I know for once I rent a BMW model which I used to own. I did remember that my car said premium only or at the very minimum 89 grade. The rental office (a major one) told me I can use 87. That is why I would never buy a fancy car which was owned by a car rental company. Basic cars, maybe, fancy ones, definitely not. Dirty injectors after 20–30k miles can be quite expensive to clean. However, if one rents exotics (yes, Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc) do not even try to put in there anything less than 91 (and often they want 93 or higher). When you return them, they actually do check the fuel grade and if you put the cheap one, they will clean the tank and charge you a $250–350 fee which will by far exceed your savings at the pump. Besides, it is in their fine prints so it is not an out of blue thing.
Those are the elements that caught my attention since I started renting cars and I did rent a big number of them over the last 20 years. Unfortunately, there is no way to punish those who trash the cars. I wish it were possible for, often, I have found cars, less than one year old and with less than 10–15k miles on them, and the back or, in some instances even the front, seats were lurid. In my opinion, that is an area where car rental companies should try to hit their renters the hardest instead of all the other fees or CDW/LDW they try to sell you.
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