rental car fees for speeds over 70??

[mousewardbound]

Is this just an urban myth? I have been warned for my upcoming trip that some rental cos have GPS systems in their cars (I know this sounds very Big Brother) or some such thing that keeps track of whenever the car is driven over 70, and ultimately the unknowing car renter gets slapped w/$$hundreds (actually my source said thousands, but that really sounds far fetched) in excessive speed fees. That its in the superfine print of the rental agreement.

Anyone experience this, or know of someone who has? Not that I would ever plan to exceed the speed limit (ha ha).

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

This did, indeed, happen in New Haven CT a few months back.
You can check the validity of this and other things by going to www.snopes.com
Perhaps this one is on there.

 

[madcoco]

I believe this is the incident Gail is talking about:
http://www.mvcf.com/news/cache/00400/

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Yes, that is the one.
It is a little hole in the wall nothing place with huge ideas.
I pass by it on the way to the tennis courts and often wonder why it is still in business.

 

[denisenh]

hmmm..... that is interesting.
We rented a hertz "prestige" car, a Jaguar, last week at West Palm Beach Airport. We had the Hertz" Neverlost" system in it which uses GPS, of course, to map out driving directions.
I found it somewhat inaccurate. One example, we were trying to find a certain restaurant, after following the route given, the Neverlost system announced "you have reached your destination" .... we were in the middle of a residential neighborhood!
We had already had several "lost" experiences using the GPS gadget, so we were at the point of laughing at the "lady" (the female direction giver) and referred to the system as hertz "alwayslost". Our kids thought it was hilarious.
Once we had more practice with it, we had better experiences. We carried and referred to a map when needed.
Just a GPS FYI.

 

[madcoco]

We just took a quick trip over to SoCal a few weeks ago and we have the nav system in our car and still trying to get used to using it.Printed directions from Mapquest off the PC to the area we were going to as a backup.They both were doing great until we came to a deadend on a freeway off of I-15 that was not completed yet.We ended up lost for a period in a residential neighborhood. Found a gas station. Got the Nav reprogrammed. It worked fine from then on The attendant overheard me talking about(well cursing )the nav and mapquest and was laughing his butt off.He said if he had a dollar for everyone who had stopped with mapquest directions in his hand he wouldn't be working here. He added"Do you want to buy a roadmap?" I said do you want to buy a GPS?LOL

Some "watchdog groups" are also getting worried about the newer chips that they have in cars now.A mechanic can download a ton of data to help in fixing your car.Some have suggested it can be used against you to void your warranty or pay excessive bills.Don't know if it is anything to worry about. But if one company tried to do it, others may find their way around the law.

 

[goofy64055]

There was also a story on NBC recently about someone renting a car in New Mexico and driving it to Texas I believe. The problem was in the fine print of the contract it said they couldn't take it out of state and the GPS on the car showed it had gone to TX. The rental bill when they returned the car was in the thousands!