Do rental car companies track where you drive their cars?

July 21, 2013 10:53 AM

Most car companies offer unlimited mileage if you stay within states that border the one where you rented the car, but how can they know whether you went outside of that range?

For instance, I live in Southwest Missouri and I need to make a trip to Dallas, which would mean I'm not illegible for unlimited mileage since Texas doesn't border Missouri. However, if I had to drive to Chicago, a much further drive, the mileage would be free.

How can rental car companies enforce these stipulations without tracking where you travel?

posted by bjork24 to Travel & Transportation (11 answers total)

I am making up this answer based on renting many many cars for leisure and business. First, I never had difficulty renting cars to travel to non adjacent States ( I frequently drove from Ohio to Colorado/Florida/New England). Second, i doubt if they have GPS or other tracking systems though this may be changing. What would happen should they discover you violated he terms of the lease ( traffic citation/accident/parking violations) are imposing penalties (mileage charges etc) contained in the small print and invalidate any insurance you may have obtained from them. I would suggest you look for rentals that do not have adjacent State clauses.
posted by rmhsinc at 11:03 AM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

in my experience they do not. it only becomes a problem if you have an accident. IANAL, etc.
posted by Dashy at 11:05 AM on July 21, 2013 [1 favorite]

Plenty of car rental agreements don't have the within-state restriction. Many just ask you to disclose if you plan to take the car out-of-state.

In lots of places (especially near borders and on the east coast of the US), not taking the car out of the state would be tricky.

I also do not think rental cars are equipped with GPS tracking devices. This would be too costly to implement, let alone to monitor. I think what is more likely is that you'd get penalized if you had an accident, got a ticket, or your car broke down out-of-state. You would probably be charged a per-mile fee.
posted by yellowcandy at 11:05 AM on July 21, 2013

I recently rented a car to drive from NY to NC and back and didn't mention where I was going. Technically I was only supposed to be driving in NY and immediately surrounding states. No one said anything.
posted by fromageball at 11:28 AM on July 21, 2013

I rent once or twice a year for trips averaging 2000 miles. I've mentioned to the rental agent on several occassions that I'm heading for the Midwest (from New England), and they haven't blinked an eye. One even suggested a different vehicle than the one I was eyeing, saying it would be more comfortable for my long trip.
posted by spinturtle at 11:45 AM on July 21, 2013

I definitely have friends who drove a rental car into a neighboring *country* 5ish years ago and didn't hear anything from the rental company.
posted by town of cats at 12:48 PM on July 21, 2013

A couple of months ago I rented a car from Avis in Illinois and drove it to Boston, NYC, and back, unlimited mileage. I just looked at the rental agreement and there was nothing in the terms limiting the states traveled to (it did specifically limit me to the US, plus Canada with specific permission), though there was a limit on how much of the time the rental car could physically be in the City of Chicago. The car did have a working OnStar system, so tracking it would have been entirely possible, and they knew that I was in NY because they billed me for a toll.

Though my rental was not limited by state, it does have a clause voiding the agreement if you contravene certain restrictions, one of which is misrepresentation. So if you misrepresent your intentions (e.g. rent the car in order to take it to a non-authorized location) the rental and its associated liability and other insurance is terminated, leaving you entirely on the hook if you get in an accident. I suspect all agreements will have such a clause.

It is possible that companies use different agreements for different states, but I suspect that the large national chains have reasonably consisted policies across their locations, so you should be able to find someone who will give you unlimited mileage without the neighboring state restriction, though it might not be the cheapest base rate.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 2:26 PM on July 21, 2013

Speak to someone knowledgable at the car rental center; not a first level but higher up. Get the agreement in writing. Agencies do use GPS, you can be liable, & they can & do charge different rates. A trip we planned recently involved a rental car until we informed the rental agency we would be going out of state: this agency and its name brand competitors all charge significantly more for the ability to leave the state, plus mileage.

This is a recent change - even seven years ago this never happened (we used to rent to do road trips all the time).
posted by tilde at 3:06 PM on July 21, 2013

I frequently rent cars and take them into other states. I am mindful of whatever the agreements are and always explain where I am going and write something into the contract that adds another state if there is one that I am going to that they seem to disallow. The agencies have never had a problem with this, and I get the feeling that at least sometimes they wouldn't really have been able to check. This is a gut feeling, not based on real known facts.

Back in the days of truly unlimited mileage, you could rent a car for a few weeks for a few hundred dollars and basically put 8000 miles on it (do not ask me how I know this) and I think they want to make sure you are not doing this. Some fleets track with GPS (sort of) and some do not. If you are concerned you can call them and specifically outline your trip and they will, in my experience, be okay with it.
posted by jessamyn at 4:56 PM on July 21, 2013

I rent all the time from a company that doesn’t care where you drive it. They’re all different.

If they have restrictions the problem is if you have a wreck, or some trouble. Then it might be a big problem.
posted by bongo_x at 9:05 PM on July 21, 2013

For instance, I live in Southwest Missouri and I need to make a trip to Dallas, which would mean I'm not illegible for unlimited mileage since Texas doesn't border Missouri. However, if I had to drive to Chicago, a much further drive, the mileage would be free.

Find a different rental agency.
Last summer, my daughter rented a car from Enterprise to drive from Indiana to Oklahoma and back. That was unlimited miles at no extra charge.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:21 AM on July 22, 2013