Rental Car Hit-n-Run
 

Welp, sooner or later it had to happen.

I park the 2005 Kia Optima LX V-6 (crappy FE BTW) at a public parking lot and a co-worker and I get some pizza (business trip -- in Oxford, Mississippi).

We come out of the restaurant to find some moderate damage to the car! It looks like someone backed right into it on the rear, driver's side -- ripped the bumper, pushed it inward, swiped the quarter panel and dented it.

Sooo...rental policy is to call the Police to get a report (check), call the rental agency (check), pick up the police report (tomorrow), write-up an incident report at the airport rental place (leaving tomorrow afternoon), and lose a lot of crucial, on-site work time in the process tomorrow.

All I have to say is: Seriously, WTF?

RH77

they got lucky that nobody spotted them. I don't care if i'm in a rental, if it causes me hardship, lost wages and etc some *** kicking is in order!

parking lot mayhem...That really sucks, not much you can do when they just run off...

Roller Coaster
 

It's just been a roller-coaster of emotions today and this didn't help. I'm always insured through the company, so I shouldn't have to pay for the damages, but the hoops are a pain.

Oxford is a College Town (Ole Miss), and some inexperienced/intoxicated driver probably wasn't paying attention. Nothing I can do to prosecute -- But, it's a slight set-back, and we'll move forward. I'm not angry, just kinda disappointed in humanity. Oh well...:( I'll be back home tomorrow :thumbup:

RH77

running
 

wow...Two alums from my high school go there...

They dont have cars there...

One thing to watch for you and/or your employer.

In the past (some?) rental companies will charge for "lost income" on the car when they cannot rent it out, happend when a late friend smacked up a Jaguar down in Florida. A grey area not covered in your insurance, their extra insurance or by your credit card policy in many cases.....

They do everything that they can to **** the customer. They charged some obnoxious fees for my employer when we rented a car for a long distance road trip for a shoot because the car was dirty and there were scuff marks on the dash because I put my feet up there when I fell asleep at night (we drove all night).

I hired a 2 month old car for my last home country trip last year , a nice Hyundai Elantra.
When we checked the car at the hire yard it was perfect , just cleaned and polished.

On the way out it started to realy rain hard.
Then when it dried I saw on the bonnet (hood) these realy deap scratches that looked like a kid had been rubbing rocks against the paint.

The were VERY obvious , and down to the white undercoat.

I felt that the car company knew about these but covered them up with scratch filling (colored) polish ,,hoping that one day they could get someone to pay for a respray of the bonnet.

That wasnt going to be me ..so i bought some red polish and did the hood again and took it back after my week.

No problems :-)

Things worked out -- so far
 

Well, once we found the Police Station, the report was picked up, drove to work, kicked it in high gear and met the deadline.

On a side note, the University of Mississippi turns out to be #5 on the "Party Schools" -- odds are someone had partied a bit too hard and left their mark.

Oxford is a beautiful town -- the downtown square has many restaurants and shops. Ole Miss' campus is rather striking. I usually enjoy staying there. But after summer ended, EVERY weeknight, the square has been packed with parked cars and you really had to hunt for a space. Don't these people study???

Anyways, I've worked with the rental agent almost every month over the last 14 months, so she remembers me and made it very simple to file the claim. The damage was considered "minor" by the agency, and with 23000+ miles on the odo, the '05 Optima will likely go to the auction. They just got a shipment of '07s (mostly Corollas :thumbup: ), so loss of use is unlikely.

Since I didn't drive the car efficiently, I'll do a quick review here:

2005 Kia Optima LX-V-6
2.7L DOHC Engine
4-speed Auto/Manu-Matic

A snapshot of some city driving and considerable highway showed 25.1 mpg -- rather abysmal. It dropped to a final 23.x after some quick driving.

The exterior is classy looking but the interior disappoints. The seats were very uncomfortable and likened to a "Park Bench", despite the 8-Way manually adjustable drivers seat -- I just couldn't get comfortable. The radio was very fiddly to adjust, but sounded good. The ride was soft, but surprisingly handled well. It didn't suffer from the front/rear disconnect of the newer Koreans.

I admit that I don't usually like small-displacement 6-cylinders (except for the 2.7L Flat-6 in the Porsche Boxter ;) ) The car probably would've been just fine with a 4-banger. It had mid-range power, but that's it. No big deal. In addition, it needed a 5th gear.

Problems: The passenger-side front door didn't shut tight enough and the bright red "door open" indicator randomly blinked annoyingly on the instrument panel -- the plunger that detects if it's open was not being pushed-in far enough. The next morning I McGyverized the button by taping a folded tissue over the plunger so it got that 2mm when the door shut. It worked.

Conclusion: don't risk it. Korean cars have significantly improved for the 2006 model year. The classic indecisive, soft-shifting transmission is the same as most Kia/Hyundais and the FE/features point the buyer toward a used Accord or Camry (even much older) or perhaps a Civic/Corolla to get what you want.

RH77

BTW damage photos available to post upon request.