Your Car Is in the Shop. Here Is How a Rental Fills the Gap

Almost nobody plans this one. The repair was going to be two days, a part is on back-order, and now it is two weeks — and somewhere in that conversation you worked out that you have no way of getting to work tomorrow.

The good news is that this is one of the more straightforward reasons to rent. You know roughly how long you need it, the vehicle does not have to be anything special, and the only genuinely time-sensitive question is one you should ask somebody else first.

Before anything else, ring your insurer

We cannot tell you what your policy covers, and anybody who does tell you without reading it is guessing. What we can tell you is what to ask, because the answers change what you book:

• Does the policy include a rental or replacement vehicle while yours is being repaired, and for how many days?
• Is there a daily limit on what it will pay toward one, and does that limit apply per day or across the claim?
• Does your existing comprehensive and collision cover extend to a rental vehicle? That is the part that matters to us.
• If the repair is running through a claim, does the insurer need to authorise the rental before it starts?

That last one is the one that costs people money. An authorisation obtained on day one is administration; the same authorisation sought on day nine is an argument.

What you need to have on you

The requirements do not change because the reason is unplanned. Four things, and all four are usually already in your wallet:

• A current driver's licence, on you rather than in the glovebox of the car that is currently on a lift.
• To be 21 or over — and from 21 to 24, a young renter fee of $20 a day applies, quoted with the booking.
• Verifiable comprehensive and collision coverage that transfers to a rental vehicle. If yours is liability-only or you have none, CDW and SLI cover is offered when you reserve.
• A card in your own name — Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover — for the refundable deposit of $250 to $400, set by the vehicle class.

Getting to the vehicle when your car is the problem

This is the circular bit, and it is the reason delivery exists. You can collect from our office inside opening hours and that costs nothing — but if the reason you are renting is that you have no car, getting to the office is exactly the thing you cannot do.

So a delivery to a home, a workplace or the shop itself is quoted with your booking, worked out from distance and the pickup time. You get the figure before you commit rather than at the kerb. If your car is at a body shop and you are being dropped there, that address works as well as any other.

Booking it for "however long the repair takes"

You almost never know the real end date on day one, and you do not need to. Book against the dates you have and ring us when they move — extending is a conversation rather than a new booking, and it runs on what is actually free at the time.

If the repair stretches from days into weeks, say so, because the terms are agreed against the dates you actually need rather than assumed from the first booking.

Nobody knows on day one how long a repair will take. Book the dates you have, and move them when the shop moves them.

Handing it back the day your car is ready

Shops rarely finish at a convenient hour. We are open Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and an after-hours drop-off is available on request — worth arranging when you book rather than discovering on the afternoon you get the call.

The vehicle comes back at the fuel level it left at, and the deposit is released once it is back with us in good order. That is the whole of the end of it.

← All guides