Tip 9: Be proactive about worn tires

Flat tires have happened often enough on our self-driving trips that we just have to say something about it here. First, I have to warn you that this easily overlooked aspect of the car rental can come back and bite you as it has us on the handful of occasions that we have had to deal with this. You see, the big problem is that some car rental companies try to maximize their operating margins by minimizing the amount of preventative maintenance on them, especially when it comes to tire maintenance. Indeed, we’ve often driven out of the lot with worn tires, and lo and behold, one thing leads to another and before we know it, we have a flat tire or at least one tire is losing pressure. At that point, we then have to stomach a delay (and possible additional costs) in getting the problem fixed, which is a waste of precious vacation time. Moreover, it can be downright dangerous as most of the roads we drive overseas involve winding and steep mountain roads, where any loss of traction can be fatal.

Just to give you a sense of the flat tire incidents that we’ve had to deal with over the years, here are some examples. Our first example is a domestic rental example in Buffalo, New York in 2007. That was when we woke up to a flat tire on the day we were to return the rental car at the Buffalo Airport. Since we didn’t have any insurance, we were responsible for them changing out $500 worth of tires. I was not happy about that incident, but I didn’t feel like there was much I could do, especially since we were going to Iceland immediately thereafter. We were probably naive about how worn the tires were at the time so we didn’t pay as much attention to it at the time of hire.

A few weeks later, we had another flat tire when we were at a farm stay in Northern Iceland. This time, we were very lucky that the friendly owners of the farm stay had a very capable jack (his tractor) and we had a fully-inflated full-sized spare. When he told me tongue-in-cheek that the “tires looked tired” (i.e. they’re very worn), that was kind of my wake-up call that maybe rental car companies (Budget Rent-a-car in this case) aren’t very honest when it comes maintenance cycles (or lack thereof). Once we had the spare tires put on, and we made the necessary phone calls to the rental car company, we’d eventually make time to take it to a garage in Akureyri, where they could then replace all four tires. Not only did this waste some precious vacation time, but they even wanted us to pay for all the new tires! Again, we were lucky that reason eventually won out and Budget didn’t charge us for these new tires.

On a trip to the UK in 2014, we had to deal with another flat tire incident when I noticed in Fort Williams, Scotland that one of the tires was starting to get low on tire pressure. But given that we didn’t want to waste too much time on this issue (and it was a weekend while we were staying in Glasgow so the garages were closed), we didn’t take care of this issue until we eventually made it down to Conwy, Wales. After pumping up the tire a few times throughout the long drives to get to this point, I saw that it took less than 24 hours after pumping in the air before the tire was low on pressure again. So that was when we finally decided to give Auto Europe a call. After spending nearly an hour talking with the company, we were told to wait at a supermarket near the Llandudno Junction. We were given a two-hour time window when the emergency roadside service would show up, but that was two hours we couldn’t afford to waste. I guess in my irrational and furious state of mind, I just decided to go to Swallow Falls, then come back to the meeting spot, but it turned out that the emergency roadside service showed up sooner than what was told to us verbally. So when we saw that roadside service van leave right in front of us, we chased him until we got to the garage. I guess that guy was mad at us for making him wait and he charged us through the rental company some ridiculous fee of 75 pounds for the trouble.

Finally, the most recent incident was in Spain where our rental car that we took out of Cordoba, Spain had worn treads. Julie already had a bad feeling about this, but it wasn’t until we finally had a free day in San Sebastian, Spain that we finally did something about it. With the rainy weather and the upcoming mountain drive in the Pyrenees, we knew we were playing Russian Roulette with our safety by driving such steep and winding narrow roads in bad weather on worn out treads. So we had to pay our own way by bus to get to the office from the Playa de la Concha, stomach the car rental office queues, then explain to the worker that we needed the tires to be changed even though it hadn’t caused problems (yet). Once we dropped off the car in the morning and let them take care of the issue, we then took the bus back to the main part of San Sebastian for some uneasy city touring before we came back in the afternoon after the siesta. So we took the bus over there again, waited in the queue again, and finally recovered our rental car with the new tires. In this instance, we pretty much lost a few hours and the ability to relax while on our lone free day in San Sebastian, but at least we were able to have confidence as we were about to spend the next few days in the Pyrenees.

So given how frequently such incidents have hapened to us, how can you defend against this?

Well, one technique is to try to be proactive and pay very close attention to the condition of both the car and the tires during the pre-rental inspection (when you’re handed the keys but you haven’t driven out of the lot yet). If you see the tires are worn, then flag the issue as soon as possible. You might have to raise a big stink about it because the rental car agency might think there’s no issue until something happens. Regardless, it’s your safety and time that’s at stake.

Nevertheless, just raising this issue will inevitably mean a delay up front (especially since car rental offices these days tend to have long queues). Then, there could be additional delays in trying to get an alternate car with better tires or having to wait for them to change the tires (assuming that can be done right then and there). If you’re short on time, then you might have to note the issue up front by telling them that you’ll try to find time during the trip to get to a garage that the rental agency deals with, and then change the tires at that time. Again, that costs precious vacation time, but the safety of the rental can’t be underestimated.

Without being proactive about the tires, the next thing you can do is to flag the issue as it happens (i.e. a blown out tire or a slowly leaking tire that finally can’t be reliably driven on). There is considerable risk in going this route (as you can see, we’ve gone through it at least 3-4 times already), which is why I highly recommend being proactive about this before rolling the dice with your safety. But if the unthinkable happens, then try to immediately notify the rental car agency (or consolidator if you’ve done your booking through them).

Don’t delay because in the long run, it could ultimately cost you even more money than you anticipated (as it did us in Wales) let alone your health. Obviously if you’re in or near a big city, take advantage of it because there are more facilities there than say in more remote area where services and facilities (and their hours) would be limited.

And if you do find yourself painted into a corner and having to drive with worn tires, just be cognizant of the risk involved. That means you know you have to drive even more defensively than before, slow down, brake gently, and try to avoid rough roads (where the tires could wear down even faster). Then, be opportunistic in rectifying the situation as soon as possible.

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