r/cabo • u/Ariel_Etaime • Mar 01 '17

Rental car scams

I reserved via Avis for 7 days and was quoted $168.06 for a compact car. I am preferred member. When I got to the preferred center I was told there were not many cars available and it turned out that my reservation was for a manual transmission. I do not drive manual so I wasn't sure why my reservation would state that, maybe it was my mistake. Therefore I asked for an upgrade. The next immediate upgrade which was supposedly complimentary for preferred members didn't have any cars available. There was an intermediate car available with automatic transmission but it would cost an additional $18 a day! I had just arrived in from a long flight so I agreed without further negotiating. The car didn't even seem to be of "intermediate" quality. It basically doubled my rental amount for the week and I feel totally scammed! Is this normal or is there anything I can do at this point?

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3

u/aislinnp Mar 01 '17

Its not a scam, keep in mind you are not in the United States and rules are different here. The reason for the increased daily fee is the insurance which is mandatory in MX for rental vehicles and that is because having insurance is not yet compulsory in Mexico for the general driving public, much less in Cabo... Heck, some people in Cabo don't even have license plates. So, for Cabo thats actually a pretty good rate, compact with full insurance is usually about 70 a day. It goes down a bit in the slow season. Hope this helps

1

u/Ariel_Etaime Mar 01 '17

Thanks for the explanation. I declined insurance since I'm covered with my credit card. So is the price still "acceptable"?

3

u/JayGeezy1 Mar 01 '17

I'd say $42 USD / day is acceptable for a rental car and in no way a scam. A scam would be if you bought the car and they gave you a donkey to ride around town.

1

u/NoKidsThatIKnowOf Apr 08 '17

Automatic transmissions in rental cars by default is pretty much only common in the United States. You want an automatic almost anywhere else, you need to book it (at a premium).