steph280

Brought my car in for service today. Turns out they are overbooked for Friday so they have to keep the car over the weekend. Gave me a lame Lincoln Continental as loaner car through Enterprise rental, but better than nothing. When it was time to go home from work, I noticed there was a ding on one of the door. I didn't notice it there before, and it wasn't marked on the contract during delivery. Now I'm kicking myself for not paying that stupid $14/day insurance coverage.

Any suggestions on how to get out of this?

idrive

deny it

StephenK

I would say just hope your car when you get it back from the dealer doesn't have a ding.

A ding would be BS for rental car company to try to charge you! You could look closely at most rental cars and find serveral dings.

BklynBenz

i wouldnt worry about it, i take the ml loaners off road thru the mud and give them back that way everytime

deuxslow

I worked at a Benz dealer in SoCal, the best thing to do is not bring it up, no one will check, just drop off the car and go. The guys that wash the cars put dings all the time with the hoses, so don't worry about it, unless it's a huge one. then they may ask for some insurance info.

mleskovar

Door dings are considered normal wear and tear. Even with leased cars a certain amount of door dings are acceptable. Once I was told if a credit card covered the area noticeable by the ding it was OK. I returned a lease car once with a tail light lense that someone broke while it was parked. The rental car return person noticed and pointed it out but said since there was no body damage it was OK.

mick1

the check-in guy at the dealer told me they don't pay attention to small dings on loaner cars but they do care about major body damage.

Bigdot

ive dinged up loaners pritty bad. never got charged. even stained the back seats terrably from coffee, and dented the roof and scratched the paint from driving it into bushes.

MArk

revstriker

I used to work for a rental car company (long time ago). I also am a frequent renter (business). I agree with the posts here. Door dings etc. are not a big issue for them. Still though, officially, you are responsible for ANY damage to the car. I would just drop it off and not say anything. If they notice it while you're there, just act surprised. However, if it's just a door ding, I doubt they will even take the time to do anything about it.

Couple of things to note: I just noticed that you said it was a Lincoln. Sometimes, rental companies are a little more aware of the condition on their luxury car lines. Since they have fewer of these in their fleet, and people pay a premium for them (and are less accepting of imperfections), they may say something about it. Also, I don't' know how Enterprise works, but some small franchise companies actually own their own fleet. In other words, they do not share them with other offices. They also tend to be more "aware" of the condition of the cars. This is more common in rural areas.

Even if they do go after you for this, it should be a big deal. If it's just a door ding, it shouldn't cost too much to fix. Depending on your insurance, it may not even hit your deductible.

steph280

Thanks to all those who responded.

I just got back from the dealer and they didn't even check for dings. You guys were right!

BTW the Lincoln is another POS. I kept on hoping US luxury cars would have improved after all these foreign competitions. The engine was loud and gutless, interior was no better than a Chevy Pinto, just everything about it sucks. The only positive thing was suspension, it felt firmer than I thought, nice and sporty. But I guess that's because it came from a Jaguar or something.

agentMurdoc

didn't know that chevy made a pinto :p Did you mean ford?

Man I have been trying to get these dealers around here to give me a rental for a while now. I ordered a key and it was the wrong one and they think they can program it, but they want the car for 3 days and won't give me a loaner. I want a car to beat on dammit!

Tishers

LOL, if I forget, remind me not to loan you my ride!

I had a similar experience with a Pontiac Sunbird iin Beaumont TX about 20 years ago. I used it to pull a backhoe out of a swamp. Tore the tow rings off the car. They never said a word.