Sixt Car Hire - take care

A snowHead

A note of caution....

I have booked a car at Innsbruck from Sixt. As ever, I did not take the various insurance options, as have an excess policy. BUT what I failed to spot is that Sixt, unlike any other car rental I have ever used, do not include the usual CDW insurance as standard. I am therefore covered only for legally required third party insurance, and because of the lack of CDW, my excess policy will also NOT cover me in this situation (I spoke to them to see if they could add, but the answer was no).

To add insult to injury, when I look again at the Sixt site, CDW is available at around £5 per day at the time of booking. However, if you want to add it to your booking later, that jumps to over £30 per day!

I found a useful website, www.moneymaxim.co.uk, which allows you to search for policies that allow you to add CDW to the more normal excess policies, and have taken out one of them (I have no connection with moneymaxim, other than found the site very helpful), so all is not lost, but annoying to have to pay out extra, which means that Sixt is not as competitive as they look at first site.

I guess it will teach me to read the small print, but wanted to draw the risk to others' attention. Do check what insurance they include as standard, and you cannot just rely on a standard excess policy if no CDW is included.

I have no other issues with Sixt - have used them in the past and found them helpful, good cars and no rip-offs, so was rather disappointed to find this issue.

A snowHead

This happened to me too. When I checked, there was a box to tick to get the basic CDW on the booking which would have been free at the time. I was gutted when I got stung at the check in. Definitely one to watch out for and it only seems to be a Sixt thing.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@rg1, yes it has been like that for a while. Basically you are responsible for the entire value of the vehicle unless you take the basic CDW, the value of the vehicle will be beyond the cover supplied by any excess insurance. I guess they are making the headline hire cost look as low as possible but this could end up with customers getting a very large bill if the vehicle is written off or stolen.

As far as I know Sixt are currently the only hire company doing this, it makes no sense from a customer point of view except for a small number of business customers who can use their company insurance. They should make this much clearer on the website when booking as it is far too easy to overlook.

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Glad it was not just me.... (well, not glad that others have also been caught out, but it makes me feel less stupid...)

The additional point to stress is that it is likely that your excess insurance will not be valid AT ALL in such circumstances, not just that the value of the vehicle will beyond the excess cover. I spoke to icarinsurance (who I have an excess policy with) and they explained that their policy is only designed to cover the excess over the "normal" CDW cover provided by the rental company. No CDW cover, there is no excess and therefore the excess cover is useless. So do check what your excess policy covers if you fail to take out the Sixt CDW.

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@rg1, if you write off €40ks worth of BMW the €7.5k provided by any excess insurance would not make a big difference but can see it would not be an "excess" anyway. Hopefully others will see this and take note.

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Sixt are the biggest charlatans I've ever had the misfortune to deal with. Avoid. There are no really good car rental companies, but there are certainly a few very bad ones.

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Useful, @rg1 - thanks.

After all it is free

@rg1, We've been caught-out by this hiring from Sixt out of GVA. The car we'd hired was brand new, 30 kms on the clock when I drove it away but didn't realise the lack of CDW until half-way through a week long trip. We actually returned the car early and collected a properly insured car at the same time, we lost half a day of the holiday but needed to head close to GVA for shopping. It wasn't a winter trip.
The brokerage sites, Holiday Autos and the like always included CDW so I think the risk comes when you go direct to the hire company.

Try getting a car hire excess insurance. I use insurance4carhire & it's around £40 for an annual policy. Well worth it

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@jilly29, this is not what this thread is about.

It has been reported on here before ...essential to make sure you have CDW then the excess policy on top

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I cancelled a sixt booking after reading a similar thread. Went back to Enterprise - never anything but brilliant service there.

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I also got conned by this. It's put me off spending much time checking Sixt prices ever since, to be honest.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@Themasterpiece, I would be very interested to know the outcome. I use them, but finding feedback of claims actually settled is difficult. Hope it works out well for you!

A snowHead

A snowHead

Conversely Sixt have an option to reduce the included daily "mileage". You can choose to only have 150km a day included. The reduction this gives pays for the CDW. Of course this assumes you dont drive more than the specified amount, going over is expensive. However on a typical trip to a ski resort the car stays parked up most of the time so this should work out.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

I usually use autoeurope for booking, generally get good rates (though last time the Ryanair version was even cheaper). Flying into Munich I go for the Buchbinder option even though they're not usually the cheapest as they offer a 2nd driver at no extra charge and that works out being great value. Just double checked after reading this thread, collision damage included, so excess is all I have to cover (done via annual policy).

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I use Sixt a lot and realised this nuance which is starting to creep in with other insurers too. I use insurance4carhire and has their European policy as above but when I spoke to them apparently all hire companies in the US do this so they have a worldwide policy which covers for collision damage aswell, think it cost me an extra £40 for the year so Sixt ended up still cheaper than others.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@2020rules, does it cover the vehicle being stolen?

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That’s covered under the loss damage with Sixt, the entrance bit you need is the collision damage waiver

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@2020rules, as far as I know that's not correct. My understanding is that if you do not take at least the basic waiver you are responsible for any damage or loss including theft. Sixt only cover third party loss (legal minimum). To quote their T&Cs (which could be confusing)

Loss damage waiver (incl. theft protection) reduces the lessee's responsibility to a certain excess in the event of damage to or loss of the rental vehicle.

If loss damage waiver (incl. theft protection) is accepted, the lessee is entitled, depending on the vehicle, to a deductible of EUR 950.00 to EUR 4,100.00. In addition, a reduction of the deductible is possible.

In the event of willful or grossly negligent damage caused, a claim on the agreed fully comprehensive cover (incl. theft cover) can be reduced or lapsed.

If no fully comprehensive cover (incl. theft cover) has been arranged, the leaser is responsible for all damage to the car not proven to be caused by a third party, and shall be liable for up to the full value of the vehicle.

I read that to mean the hirer is responsible for any loss however incurred (which would include theft) unless it can either be recovered from a third party or is reduced by the waiver.

After all it is free

Loss damage waiver is always included in my rentals so I assumed that was the case for all, never knew you could take it out not that I want to!!!

Slightly off topic but people hiring cars abroad also need to check what exactly in terms of breakdown cover is included, and whether any insurance they have taken out separately fills the gap (towing charges for instance may not be covered by the rental company nor by the excess policy)

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I also got mugged off for this at Munich, 4days at 36 euros a day, it’s a complete scam.

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It isnt all bad. I dropped off a Sixt car on Monday, no issues or grief returning the vehicle, the usual fairly cursory check. The invoice arrived via email on Wednesday afternoon. I was rather surprised to find an additional charge of around €1,200 as it was claimed I had driven the vehicle nearly 6000 kms in less than 6 days. It was clearly a mistake but still. Getting through to customer services was a bit of a pain but when I did get to talk to someone they were very helpful and promised to get back to me. This morning an updated corrected invoice arrived along with apologies and a voucher for €100 off my next rental.

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@munich_irish, I would rather use a company that didn't issue nonsense invoices like that rather than delight in €100 off a future rental that I'll never use (because I don't do business with rip off merchants).

Avis do me well - good rates, zero hassle, no claims of damage (even when I had a closer encounter with a bollard than intended) - and Avios for good measure.

IMHO the best deals and service come from joining the 'frequent user' option of any of the major companies. As soon as you ask to join you are assumed to be a regular and valued renter. Zero cost to join and a genuine attempt to make the process simple, wherever in the world you are.

@Alastair, it was a simple mistake, we all make them, the invoices are sent out automatically. What is more important is the level of customer service provided to fix any problems and in this case the only bit I would have any gripes at all about was how long it took to wade through the automated phone system but that is a very common thing. Sorting the problem itself could not have been easier or more efficient.

I agree with you about being a frequent user helps. I have been using Sixt for the 20 years I have been in Munich with never any complaints or issues (even when the car I hired ended up with €12ks worth of damage), I used to have a gold card but no more as my car hire needs have dropped off. All the car hire companies can provide poor service and all of them have various hoops to jump through. You really do need to read the small print. Personally I avoid any really cheap deals or companies as experience suggests it just causes more grief in the long run. I would stick with Sixt, Hertz, Avis or Europcar and book direct.

You know it makes sense.

Earlier I wrote “ On a different matter I have a £350 claim in right now from an accidental scratch on an Enterprise car, using icarhireinsurance.com (underwritten by Zurich) so will report back on that.”

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I've just received a payment from icarhireinsurance.com following a car hire booking at Alicante Airport through Easyjet.

Complete and utter scam (in my opinion) from the hire company but icarhireinsurance.com were great.

Pick the car up at night from a parking space between two other cars under artificial light. Hard sell from agent whose attitude changed from "vaguely nice" to "fairly aggressive" once I told him that I had my own insurance. Told me that I would be at the back of the queue when dropping the car off at the end of the break and that I may miss my flight because of it. I was slightly taken aback...

Returned car and a different agent found some damage to the bonnet. I certainly didn't see it at pick up, despite taking photos of other damage that wasn't on the form. Slightly miffed at having to pay out but i was confident that I would get the money back.

The claim was easy and efficiently dealt with...took about a month from start to finish as I had some extra questions to answer.

A snowHead

Payment in days from insurance4carhire...but if you got a result in the end, great news

A snowHead

I know this is an old thread. But...

Regarding CDW, it seems it's standard practice to include that in hires for the continent.

But be aware, it's NOT standard practice hiring in the US!

Reason being, many people have auto insurance that covers hired cars already. So most people do not want to pay the extra for CDW. As a result of that, CDW in the states are quite expensive (as it's a "add on" for most). Make sure you price your total cost with that included.

Not sure about Canada.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Thread necro - but relevant I hope.
I have taken the personally terrifying decision to rent a car from Munich airport for the drive to Hopfgarten in early Jan
I have decided to go direct to a car hire place.
In ascending order of cost it goes
Sixt Enterprise Hertz Europcar Avis.
I have read the small print and included cross border charges for all.
For Sixt I included their Basic Protection which reduces the deductible to 1100e. With No protection its the full car price (no deductible at all). Is that Basic Protection = LDW discussed above? The other rental companies seem to have that Basic Proctection in the rental price.
And I then need an excess insurance policy in addition?

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Normally the only extra insurance is the collision damage waiver (CDW, I presume that's what you meant to type?). The rental cost includes insurance and will specify the amount you could be liable to; consider it like the excess on your normal policy. The CDW removes that liability, i.e. you won't need to pay anything at all. In all my years of renting cars (and boats, similar system) I've never taken out this extra protection, but that's your choice.

It looks like these people are discounting their base rate to exclude what is normally included, so their Basic Protection is just getting it up to the levels provided as standard by the others, so no, it is not equivalent to the CDW.

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It's always a great relief when you get a rental car back into its allocated (and inevitably awkward) parking space unscathed. Phew.

After all it is free

Surely you need to book with a well-known consolidator like Auto Europe, Holiday Autos, Expedia, Opodo, Booking, etc rather than direct with the company. Never had any issues with them not including CDW on Euro rentals. Still need the separate XS insurance though.

But did have an issue with Sixt at Salzburg in 2019, The garage returns guy went straight to a tiny dent on the wing of my mate's hire car. My mate stupidly lost his paperwork, so we couldn't check whether it was existing damage. Thankfully, the young guy at the desk confirmed it was existing damage and nothing came of it, but the garage guy was definitely angling to charge him for it.

@luigi, one of the reasons my first step when picking up a car is to photograph from every angle and search carefully for damage, photograph every wheel and do a walk round video too. Same happens when returning it.

@Origen, indeed, gone are the days of being the mental in a rental and thrashing it.

@ado, you've summarised it as I understand things. You need at least some type of insurance from the rental company, usually with a giant excess/deductible. They then usually have an increased tier which effectively reduces that excess. If you're taking out a separate policy then you don't need to pay the increased tier, as long as the policy you have will cover the giant excess...at least that's my best guess.

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Sixt Car Hire - take care

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