Wear and tear is specifically not allowed to be charged for home rentals in Australia. Damage that is not wear and tear can be I would assume it would also apply for car rentals but I haven't checked.

I took my car to the dealership (begrudgingly) for recall work, and they have one of these scanners. I'm not sure if AI is attached to it, but it clocked hundreds of dings and dents as "needing repair" despite everything being simple cosmetic scratches and dings.

A friend of mine works for a dealership, where they have one of these things too, and even raindrops will register thousands of dings on these readers. They're so full of shit to siphon every single penny out of their customers.

Normal wear and tear isn't the renter's problem in any way, shape, or form; and that includes dings and scratches on the paint, wheels, glass, and interior, simply from everyday use and being exposed to the elements. Anything outside of unreasonably extreme damage is entirely on the rental company simply for the fact that they are the ones who own the car. This is part of why I will never use my vehicle for anything outside personal usage.

I, and thousands of other customers every single day, already pay over $500 (or much, much more) just for the privilege of being given the keys to a new-ish vehicle for 3 days. On top of whatever other bullshit they try to tack on. Where the fuck do you think that money goes? I've never even had a car payment that high.

Given that price, I expect the vehicle to be clean, properly maintained (they get the bare minimum, btw, I've witnessed this firsthand from the shop side; they won't even replace wiper blades unless a customer brings it up), and every single square inch to be inspected and documented, with "wear and tear" clearly defined in customer-friendly terms - none of this bullshit "redefining of commonly-accepted terms" that every corporation seems to be jerking it to these days.

Cars are not investments; they never have been. A car is a highly-complex machine - a tool that can serve multiple purposes. These, like any other highly-complex machine, requires regular maintenance, inspection, and repair. Some things are merely cosmetic, but others can become safety issues - such as a cracked windshield. And yet rental companies, like every other company, are charging more and more for less and less. What exactly are they doing with that money if the customers are the ones being charged for issues that aren't even getting fixed?

Why?

Because "line must go up".

I'm assuming they stuck a camera to an LLM?

Tech companies are treating LLMs like how people back in the day would put asbestos or mercury in everything. "It's good at this one thing, it's gotta work for other stuff too."

You do realize that you are allowed to read the article, right? Cause if you did, you would have noticed the picture of the setup in the article, along with a basic description of it.

Returned a multi-week Hertz rental a couple of days ago and had to fight with the staff to get to get a written acknowledgement of no damage.

Customers are supposed to just trust Hertz employees will self-report damaging the car after it has been turned in? Absolutely laughable considering how many times rental companies try to screw over their customers.

This is great info and I won't be renting from Hertz again.

Why would anyone rent from a company that was convicted of persecuting their own customers because of the incompetence of the company?

Hertz will pay $168 million to customers it falsely accused of stealing its cars

Faulty recordkeeping and failure to rescind police reports led to more than 360 false accusations by the rental car company, resulting in arrests, felony charges and jail time for some customers.

NPR (www.npr.org)

Hertz fucked up repeatedly and people lost their jobs, were imprisoned and had their credit scores wrecked because Hertz couldn't find it's own cars on it's own lots.

Why anyone would give them a fucking nickel is beyond me

You've driven on a gravel road behind other cars and never had a windshield crack? Not even a rock chip?

Now I know you're full of shit.

holy shit! i worked in travel insurance organizing rental cars in case of breakdowns, with hertz as one of our primary partners in some areas, and at least in central europe i didn't see cases like this. That's quite shocking to learn for me!

And just like that, I never rented from Hertz again.

You do realize that you are allowed to read the article, right? Cause if you did, you would have noticed the picture of the setup in the article, along with a basic description of it.

I can’t load the link but the human beings at places like Enterprise where I usually rent are totally reasonable. They’re always like, don’t worry, only big things are an issue.