AI rental car scanners are now operating in Hawaii, changing what can happen after you return the keys and head for your flight.
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87 thoughts on “Returning Your Hawaii Rental Car? New AI Can Still Find Damage.”
If I saw too many door dings or dents all over the vehicle before renting I would be looking for some tracker or request a different vehicle. Too many things can happen to vehicles after people go to sleep at night or in parking garages. In other words if the driver or renter didn’t do the damage who really did?
At $80 dollars plus administrative fee’s wouldn’t most of these vehicles be paid for in 200 weeks or 200 rentals especially if they were acquired with fleet sale pricing? That would make the rental fee’s all profit. Bet these rental car companies are laughing all the way to the bank. That’s in proportion of who takes the same photo’s and damage prior to driving off the lot. A couple missed photos may cost you hundreds especially damage under the vehicle or in the wheel wells. The word double dose might now have a new meaning.
Looks we all need to get used to what we voted for … a new world run by AI, bots & robots … and be charged more for a high tech world of automation that will be closely policing us … it’s coming while we have all been asleep.
This rental inspection report should be offered online before you ever rent the car. It would help if the state of Hawaii mandated ducks or pawns to go rent some of these vehicles to catch hidden or not fixed damage after a rental is brought back. But no nothing to protect the consumer. Most of the damage done to these vehicles probably occur in parking garages by door dings or tourist haters who look for rental license plates and do the deed. As the saying goes make the tourist Pay, Pay, Pay to come to Hawaii.
I vote for the visual inspection method. That’s why I will be renting from Avis, which does not have AI machines (yet) at the airport in Kahalui.
The AI scanner company sales pitch to the rental car industry is as follows. They use a business model that by purchasing or more than likely leasing the scanners it will do 2 things. First lower overhead by reducing staffing needed to inspect vehicles for damage and second create a new stream of profit for the rental car company by hitting renters with small repair fees that consumers will pay without argument.
I’m in the car business when buying rental cars at auction the ones you avoid are the ones coming from Hawaii. The rental car companies ship the cars to the west coast with no repairs done, they’re full of sand, sunblock, water spots and Hawaii is a Honeymoon destination, so you can only imagine what has gone on in these cars.
💯!!!
Absolutely makes sense…
Is there anything in Hawaii that doesn’t involve a hidden cost? Hotels, parks, beaches, restaurant fee’s and tips, and now car rental returns. When will tourist’s ever learn? Your wallet is the main topic and everything else is just used as a big magnet (especially the beaches) to just draw you in. Diamond head, Volcano Park, all just used to magnetically suck you in so certain business can make big money. Hawaii described in a coconut shell.
Another detail is they should show you the AI report that was done before you left with the car, otherwise how we establish the true damage already present?
How foolproof are these? What happens when it rains? Or the car is dirty? I’d be curious how often the system says something is wrong and it turns out not to be.
I actually see both sides of this. If the scanner catches all the existing damage before I leave the lot, that could protect me too. I’d still want my own pictures though as I am not that trusting.
$80 for the dent and $115 in fees? The fee was more than the damage. This is just getting weird.
This would make me take even more pictures and video than I already do. Half the rentals we’ve had in Hawaii already had so many dings and scratches all over them when we picked them up.
It’s partly because parking spaces in Hawaii – or Maui, at least – are distinctly narrower than parking spaces on the mainland. You could be the best driver in the world and someone bangs their car door into yours while you’re parked at a restaurant. Rental car or our own, we always park as far away from other cars as possible on Maui.
There’s a ti e when some minor dings and scratches were expected and written off. I remember being told: we don’t worry about anything a quarter can cover. Now its more added fees, bigger prices, plus these tools finding micro abrasion useen by the human eye.
I’m not against the AI scanner, but I don’t like finding out after I’ve already left the car. If there’s damage, show me while I’m still standing there please.
We had an issue in Maui 8/25 with Budget. 36 hours after picking up the car the a/c stopped working, called them and the had us bring it back to the airport to swap out. Upon the turn in the attendant says “you’ve got damage” I said where, he shows me a small scratch etc on back passenger door, who knows when that happened, girl in the office asks me for my insurance info and I told her no, we didn’t do that send me a bill etc. 2 months after we get home I get a packet in the mail with pictures of all kinds of scratches, dents etc and a bill for almost $3000 including “loss of use” and “admin fees”. I called the point of contact in the packet, explained it to her and never heard another word. We’ve been back to Maui twice since then and my wife takes a complete video of the car while I load the bags etc. Haven’t had an issue since.
I think this is what happened to me in Phoenix. I got a bill for $80 car repair. What car repair is $80?? I fought it. I’ll never return a rental car now without taking pictures before I exit and once I return the car. Lots of people won’t fight an $80 charge so it’s a good way to skim but soon people will be on to the scam .
Totally agree! Hawaii residents traveling to many of the popular/frequent destinations (hint, LAX and LAS) should be wary of the scanning technology that is in active use at many airports. Take the time to fully inspect And photograph the rental before you leave the lot. Don’t underestimate even the smallest dings or scratches (even the windshield, the roof and license plates), and document your inspection with photos. It’s really hard to tell what the AI scanners pick up, and the rental car companies have no incentive to be transparent. But it’s clear that certain rental car companies are using this as a way to route repair bills to unsuspecting renters, even when they were absolutely not responsible for any of it.
We have always rented from Alamo, even if it’s a few bucks more. They’re head and shoulders above the other rental companies.
We were saved several hundred dollars by having before pictures in Ireland at Enterprise. They were going to charge us for someone else’s damage. I’ve heard of glare being recorded by AI as damage. There needs to be Both a physical inspection and AI inspection Before the customer leaves. It’s hard to prove anything once you’re gone.
Specific to the Big Island –
Should you buy the (very) expensive rental car damage insurance if you want to be covered should you choose to see a volcano eruption and car is damaged by falling debris from the eruption? Or does the rental insurance even cover such a situation?
We got nailed in Zürich (Europcar) with this technology – at drop off, agent claimed we had a chip in the windshield. Maybe it was there before, maybe it wasn’t, but it was tiny. Didn’t matter, they charged us for a full windshield replacement, €1400 or we weren’t going out the door. I had video at pickup (different location, maybe that added to the “charge”?) but it didn’t matter since I didn’t zoom in on that small section of glass.
Fortunately we had trip insurance that eventually covered it, but we had to pay it right then.
Had that issue with Styx car rental(Portland Airport). Was charged $1200 for damages I didn’t cause. Damages were even identified by the agent during the initial rental. I took pictures before and after. Styx continued to charge me the cost and ignored the pictures and rental agreement that indicated the damage. Issue is still unresolved 10 months later. Never trust these companies any more. I now use Turo. Better service and and prices without the hassle.
If airport AI scanners are as accurate as the AI used for “voice to text” text messages … Heaven help us.
If I knew for a fact that I didn’t cause any damage to the rental and I saw nothing new in my walkaround and I was charged for damage, I would no longer use that rental company. This sounds like just another way for rental companies to remove $$ from your wallet on top of all the excessive fees they already charge!
100%. Will never rent from Enterprise again, have a very large community of similar stories.
Perhaps there needs to be a class action to force these companies to prove how accurate their AI scanning is with assessments as there is a lot of proof already out there on how it is Not.
Anyone know if they are using these in Kaua’i yet? I assume they will start in O’ahu so I am hoping I am beating them to the punch when I visit mid-September.
Yes! These AI scanners are in use at Lihue Airport. Take your own pictures.
Thank you for this informative article. And thanks to everyone who left a comment. I will be in Oahu, Hawaii in late September and staying outside of Waikiki and need the use of a car. I have a reservation with AVIS. But after reading this, I might consider renting from another company. This is absolutely ridiculous. Thanks again!
Enterprise charged me $800 for a dent I did not cause. It was in Tempe, AZ. I tried to get the agent to take a picture of some damage, he said it was too small. I hasseled with them for months. I ended up paying over $600. I will never use them again.
Enterprise tried to charge me for a paint chip on a car that I drove from one location to another without any stops – so I had no real chance to cause damage. I’d call it routine wear and tear from typical use. I told them I would post about the experience on all the social media I could, and that finally got them to change their mind. I wish we had a government to protect us from our wealthy and powerful overlords.
Enterprise is the worst. We returnedca rental in Lexington KY and they tried to charge us using the AI scanner, with 12 tiny B&W low quality photos, I argued for weeks, finally showed them my before and after full color hi quality images, and they immediately dropped their claim. Fraudulent in my book, they try to pass off previous damage to customers who don’t buy their extra insurance.
Contact your credit card company and do a charge back. I had a “mechanic” destroy my boat engine, give me a quote for a new engine, had me the thing back in pieces in a box. After a fruitless argument with them, I toad the boat and boxes home. Contacted Visa and they reversed the charges. Found another guy to out it all back together!
To address this scary article, just do one thing. Get a premium credit card that provides primary insurance coverage for any damage to a rental car. Let them handle it. And then you can forget about microscopically inspecting your rental car.
Dug-
While that is sage advice it ignores the bigger picture. This is a fight for things like Right to Repair and Right to Own.
Be it bricking devices via software updates so your previously working unit no longer works, discontinuing a product where you bought a lifetime subscription with updates…only to later relaunch a reskin “new” product, “selling” digital media that is not a permanent ownership but actually a rental until that company loses that right, or simply something like click to cancel dying because of corporate greed or now AI to charge you for “damage” to your rental.
So yeah, if you have no other choice then use a CC with rental insurance. But that money still goes to a company that doesn’t care about the consumer. Just like CC’s offer perks for free checked bag to counter those Checked baggage fee’s helped, look what happened there. Now nobody has free checked bags.
I will now only rent a car with my AMEX card because it literally does cover everything unlike the AA Citi Executive card which makes you deal with your own car insurance with its deductible and then use Citi’s insurance company. It literally took months to settle it. Fortunately I had lots of pictures from when someone hit me in the hotel’s parking lot.
This now appears to be a newfound income stream that they have complete control over and Hertz’s administration fee means that they are paying big bucks for the AI package they have bought in to!
The majority of credit card’s rental insurance is secondary or supplementary. It kicks in to reimburse you for any unpaid costs from your own insurance carrier.
Be sure you understand your own insurance coverage as well as what the credit card company is covering.
I lived on Maui 6 years. Always check to see what kind of car is in the. In te rmediate and full size at each rental company of you need a larger car. When I lived on Maui Budget rents a particular model car a n d called it an intermediate car. The other companies called the exact same model car a full size car. I always went with the intermediate size from Budget if family was visiting. Same car but cheaper. I don’t think they do this anymore but rental companies in Hawaiinused to give you a c I upon booklet fir discounts with your rental. Budget gavecyou coupons that you could actually use a n d save money. Others not so much,
These companies are going to learn the hard way, if they continue to make traveling a hassle; people will just stop traveling….