Rental car issue/Ford MoCo supplied legal question...

Billydroveit

Billydroveit

Club Member
Ok, so i have a Fiesta in for a second round of service, repeat transmission/drive issues. The dealer granted me a rental for the inconvenience. Fine, great, pregnant wife happy she has a ride! I have broad collision, comprehensive coverage on my cars, so i'm covered for rentals. Here's my dilema/question.

First, I am responsible for the taxes on the rental, ok i don't understand why, and the explanation i got from the rental agency didn't make sense, so i move on and take the car. It
s 2.40 a day in taxes, i'll get over it.

I decline the insurance, which he waited to ask/explain to me untill we were outside in the cold noisy parking lot. I decline of course, even after he pressure sells me.

Now i have this vehicle for 3 days, and it's parked in my Drive and some scum bag breaks into the new loaded Town and Country with DVD system, and steals the head unit and breaks the console. I call and told i am responsible for a 100 deductible (still cheaper than taking the insurance from the rental agency). Now here is my question...

Since the rental is technically provided by Ford, should they be responsible for covering the deductable, and all costs in the rental, since they approved it for me? I mean it technically (don't flame me) is Ford MoCo fault i had the car, as my new vehicle was in for repeat warranty work. More so, doesn't the rental agency assume some sort of risk of theft by renting and owning the rental vehicles?

State Farm sees the rental as a temporary ownership of a vehicle and covers it accordingly.

Thanks for reading my long story, if you have any input, or something i missed let me know. I'm just kinda in thought about this, and pissed i'm out 100 bucks to replace something i don't own, and didn't really want to have to begin with. BTW i have the car untill Monday at least. I decided to keep driving it instead of trading it for something else, which would just invite a repeat. So i have a rental with no radio...lol
 
Pretty sure you're SOL. Whether Ford or the dealer is covering it, it's not their fault it was broken into while in your care. You signed that you had insurance which I believe you means that your insurance/you are responsible for the vehicle. I know we do not give our personal rental cars to folks with Citizens insurance because they will refuse a claim if the insured has an issue. That's all I can help with.
 
91trunk said:
Pretty sure you're SOL. Whether Ford or the dealer is covering it, it's not their fault it was broken into while in your care. You signed that you had insurance which I believe you means that your insurance/you are responsible for the vehicle. I know we do not give our personal rental cars to folks with Citizens insurance because they will refuse a claim if the insured has an issue. That's all I can help with.
Click to expand...

Thanks man, i was hoping you would chime in. So i'm guessing it wouldn't do me any good to bark up the Ford Customer Service tree to get a resolution? I am waiting to hear from the area manager from the rental agency to see how their policy is written as to stolen vehicle property. But i just figure since i wouldn't have this car in for warranty i wouldn't have the rental. Not usually the mentality i subscribe to, but a curiosity none the less. If it were an issue i had control over i would have no issue paying (actually wouldn't have to pay a dime with the way my insurance covers me) but since this was far out of my control, and wasn't my personal property, it just doesn't sit well with me.

100 bucks hurts right now since personal issues, and the recent holiday kept me from my full pay the last 3 weeks, and going to have a baby Wednesday, and another holiday is coming that will keep my income a lil on the low side!
 
Billydroveit said:
Thanks man, i was hoping you would chime in. So i'm guessing it wouldn't do me any good to bark up the Ford Customer Service tree to get a resolution? I am waiting to hear from the area manager from the rental agency to see how their policy is written as to stolen vehicle property. But i just figure since i wouldn't have this car in for warranty i wouldn't have the rental. Not usually the mentality i subscribe to, but a curiosity none the less. If it were an issue i had control over i would have no issue paying (actually wouldn't have to pay a dime with the way my insurance covers me) but since this was far out of my control, and wasn't my personal property, it just doesn't sit well with me.

100 bucks hurts right now since personal issues, and the recent holiday kept me from my full pay the last 3 weeks, and going to have a baby Wednesday, and another holiday is coming that will keep my income a lil on the low side!
Click to expand...

From our side (I work at a dealer too): The customer is ALWAYS right. I work for GM, and if you're mad they'll do anything to keep you happy.
 
FSTSOHC said:
From our side (I work at a dealer too): The customer is ALWAYS right. I work for GM, and if you're mad they'll do anything to keep you happy.
Click to expand...

Well, me being mad about their service is one thing...lol I haven't been pleased with either Southgate of Taylor Ford service department... I think that's the only reason i got the rental to begin with, they didn't fix my initial issue, and messed up on a separate service they performed.

Do i (in your opinion, or anyones for that matter) have a justifiable right to pursue the dealer for the deductable?
 
My personal opinion would be to just pay the $100 bucks. I think it would be more of a headache trying to get around it. I know times are tough and you have alot going on at the moment but i do not believe you will get anywhere with the dealer...
 
svtlightning99 said:
My personal opinion would be to just pay the $100 bucks. I think it would be more of a headache trying to get around it. I know times are tough and you have alot going on at the moment but i do not believe you will get anywhere with the dealer...
Click to expand...


^^^^^ Well that is one option, another is fight, fight, fight!

The “squeakier wheel gets the oil”, if you fight this, at the Ford
Corporate level, at the dealership level and the insurance level &
fight hard, you will win!

I don’t know about you, but a $100 is worth a few letters & phone
calls to save me a Ben Franklin.
 
You'll never get out of the $100. But I'd be pissed about the taxes. Ford is paying for the rental. They need to pay the taxes...
 
Not related to your issue with the break in , but it is common practice for Ford to not cover the tax on a rental. I'll have to look it up but when they had a MAJOR recall that involved 100's of thousands of vehicles and required them to put the owner in a rental. Ford didn't cover the tax. Even if you had a $40 a day allowance and your rental car was $35 they wouldn't pay anything towards the tax. What some rental places did was opt to pay the tax out of there pocket because a lot of these people were in the rental cars for over a month.
 
How did you pay for the rental car? I know with my credit card, if any portion of the rental car coverage is on the credit card itself, they provide 100% insurance on it.
 
I'm at a Chevrolet dealer. They would never think of trying to stick a customer with the taxes on a rental. If Ford won't pay the tax, the dealership should step up.
 
89-LX said:
How did you pay for the rental car? I know with my credit card, if any portion of the rental car coverage is on the credit card itself, they provide 100% insurance on it.
Click to expand...

I didn't pay for the rental, I was provided it by Ford. I did have to put a deposit on the car for incidentals, in which they will deduct the taxes from. Coincidently they also took the deductbale from the card I used for the deposit(debit card)

Thanks for the help guys. Guess ill make a phone call to customer service and see what I can do.
 
it is called the USE tax...you will be responsible for them. it is used for a service or good that you are not charged for.
http://michigan.gov/taxes/0,1607,7-238-43529-155460--,00.html

you can read more why you are charged the sales tax in the above IRS link.

as for the ded...since you declined the optional coverage you will be paying for the ded. Matt is right though...we never rent to citizens insurance carriers either UNLESS they take the coverage. Citizens fought with us about a claim when a customer smoked one of our cars. Matt remembers me going round and round with the insurance company.
 
LITTLEMAGS said:
it is called the USE tax...you will be responsible for them. it is used for a service or good that you are not charged for.
http://michigan.gov/taxes/0,1607,7-238-43529-155460--,00.html

you can read more why you are charged the sales tax in the above IRS link.

as for the ded...since you declined the optional coverage you will be paying for the ded. Matt is right though...we never rent to citizens insurance carriers either UNLESS they take the coverage. Citizens fought with us about a claim when a customer smoked one of our cars. Matt remembers me going round and round with the insurance company.
Click to expand...

I am finding that out, which is what it is in the long run since i will have had this vehicle 8 or 9 days by the time they get mine done. So at 13 bucks a day at 8 days is over the 100 i paid, so either way it was gonna get paid. I just gambled that noone would steal anything from it while i had it. I lost, and still saved myself atleast 24 bucks.

And BTW i don't have rental coverage in my warranty, and it isn't a standard thing with a Fiesta.

Thanks for finding the law, which is what i figured it was that kind of deal.
 
Billydroveit said:
I am finding that out, which is what it is in the long run since i will have had this vehicle 8 or 9 days by the time they get mine done. So at 13 bucks a day at 8 days is over the 100 i paid, so either way it was gonna get paid. I just gambled that noone would steal anything from it while i had it. I lost, and still saved myself atleast 24 bucks.

And BTW i don't have rental coverage in my warranty, and it isn't a standard thing with a Fiesta.

Thanks for finding the law, which is what i figured it was that kind of deal.
Click to expand...

How many miles, and what is the problem with the car?
 
91trunk said:
How many miles, and what is the problem with the car?
Click to expand...

Driver auto power window malfunctioning (kept rolling back down)

Motor was spark knocking

Trans was jerking in first, slipping and chattering into third, second time in for this repair, the TCM update made it worse.

Air bag recall

They couldn't replicate the spark knock, fixed the window, and replaced the clutches in the traans.

During test driving it it ran very low on gas charged me 10 bucks for gas.
 
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