petrmazanec0732

Probably not, especially if you are a foreigner and not an Austrian and you consider a spare wheel to be part of the mandatory car equipment, which in Austria is not. Here is what happened to us.

We have rented the car from TAFRENT GmbH company (www[dot]tafrent[dot]com) in Villach. We have paid the insurance (KASKO) and the insurance to travel abroad to Italy (Auslandsversicherung).

All looked great until Saturday evening. In Dolomite valley, at one moment we found we had a flat tire. We stopped the car, take out all the mountaineering equipment from the car’s trunk, and while joking about the bad luck we prepared to change the wheel. To our surprise, we found that there is neither a spare wheel nor any repair kit.

We call the rental company to complain and ask what the next step should be, but they refuse to help us and we were told it is our problem and we must solve it. It was 6 PM on Saturday in February and the temperature was 17C below zero and was dropping, so we started to Google and call Italian car services one by one. After several calls, we found an open service with a nice lady who knew few English words. We explained the problem and she told us they can come and tow a car to a garage to fix the tire if we pay in cash. They were unable to fix the tire on the road immediately.

After 3 hours of waiting, they arrived and took the car. We meanwhile ordered a taxi and drove to the apartment.

The next day they fixed the tire and towed the car back. We were happy even we lost a day of climbing since we were unable to travel without the car.

We collected all invoices and send them to the rental company. Naively we were expecting that since there was not a spare wheel and we paid the insurance they will pay us the bills back.

But as usual, the situation was quite the opposite: We were told the insurance does not cover such problems and the spare wheel is not required by Austrian law and we must cover all costs.

Well, I am not a lawyer and I do not speak German, so I assume they are right, and the law is on their side, but according to my opinion it is against the customer interest and common sense.

First – a flat tire is a common situation, which can be solved in 15 minutes if there is a spare wheel and the only result can be a photo on a social network, not a loss of 1000 EUR and a day of holidays. Second, the rental company should inform the customer about such a risk and offer insurance that covers this problem. And last – if I would be traveling with kids in winter conditions in a more abandoned valley without the GSM signal and temperature around -20C such a situation can quickly turn into something much more dangerous and might require either police or mountain rescue assistance. And it is all because the car does not have a spare wheel or repairing kit, which costs 100 EUR.

What is the lesson? Choose a better car rental company, check if there is a spare wheel in the car so you can prepare yourself for the problems, and have your tire repairing kit with you.

bilboburgler

I doubt many rental cars in Europe carry a spare wheel, you normally get a can of spray foam to inflate the tyre and stuff the hole. You then drive at restricted speed to get a new tyre.

I live in the UK and drive on the continent and have not seen a spare tyre in a car for many years, I have only had one puncture in my 40 years of driving, so not really a regular problem.

I think I would focus on why there was no can of spray. I'd also ask if you rang them with your problem. My normal solution for all such problems would work on the basis of "its your car, you fix it". The other benefit of doing that is it puts a marker on the contract that costs are going to rise so they prepare to pay for you. Nice to have no surprises.

"We call the rental company to complain and ask what the next step should be, but they refuse to help us and we were told it is our problem and we must solve it" now that is surprising and again I might try and find out if that is their normal form of contract.

One of the reasons we here recommend hiring cars through a broker like AutoEurope is the prices are often very aggressive, they use the larger rental companies and when things like this go wrong they step in and sort stuff out. AutoEurope fill in the gaps where the client doesn't have language skills and legal training which is a great thing do.

Welcome to Fodors

balthy

I rent cars very frequently in Europe and have never seen a spare tyre. I don’t think spare tyres even exist anymore for new cars. Car rental insurance does not cover tyres, windscreens or undercarriage damage, collision with wild animals etc.

I have an extra yearly insurance policy to cover those items and any excess. It’s up to the renter to check what they are covered for. Not all rental companies can offer additional insurance for stuff not covered in the standard policy.

Autoeurope are great and I use them for the majority of my rentals but they can’t sort out an issue like this.

bilboburgler

Agreed, but they could at least explain the situation to the OP who doesn't speak the language and seems frustrated.

tracilee

My husband’s wife has twice hit curbs while driving in Europe resulting in flat tires. Once in Italy and the other time in Switzerland (car rented in France). Both cars had spares. In Italy we only had a day left on the rental and were a couple hours from the return city. Auto Europe advised us to finish out the rental using the spare tire, taking care not to exceed the designated speed for the tire which was around 50mph. In Switzerland we were able to return the car to the local rental office within a couple hours and exchange for a new vehicle. As I recall, we might have first gone to the hotel and called Auto Europe who helped arrange the trade of vehicles.

I never hit curbs at home…