Dollar and the petrol debate.

[Frosty]

Seeing as the other topic is now closed, here is my answer, and this by the way is from personal experiance so i know it works.

Firstly when you go to the Dollar desk with your voucher, ask for the option to 'bring back full'. You can do this even if your voucher states you must purchase a tank of fuel, as mine did from this very site.

When you ask the clerk to bring back full, one of two things will happen: -
If they are having a good day they wont pre-charge you for fuel, this is good. If this happens just make sure that when you return the car that you have topped it up, there are gas stations near to both airports. When the car checker takes the readings etc they will issue you with a receipt which will indicate no charge.

If they are having a bad day, they will still charge you for a tank of petrol, no problem - just a little more work needed. Bring the car back full and when the car checker checks the car, tell them you requested 'Bring back full' they will issue you with a receipt, make sure they write on it 'back full' or some other comment. Then return to the desks and ask for a refund of the tank of fuel showing your original rental and the receipt that you just got.

Despite what anyone might say this works, i have done it and more than once both ways.

The benefit is you don't have to figure out how much fuel you have left towards the end of your stay, just keep the tank as full as you want and make sure to top up before the drop off. You also don't get ripped off from the car rental prices and you don't give them any free gas which is left in your tank.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

The official line from Dollar is that you can no longer do this. You have to pay for the fuel on arrival and bring the car back empty. We have asked and double checked this on a number of occasions and we get the same answer every time.

We have no option but to advise our car hire customers of this and if they want to try your method then it's totally at their own risk. I can imagine it may well work, but for a company providing car hire services to advise customers to advise customer to do this is madness.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Frosty
Seeing as the other topic is now closed, here is my answer, and this by the way is from personal experiance so i know it works.

Firstly when you go to the Dollar desk with your voucher, ask for the option to "bring back full". You can do this even if your voucher states you must purchase a tank of fuel, as mine did from this very site.

When you ask the clerk to bring back full, one of two things will happen: -
If they are having a good day they wont pre-charge you for fuel, this is good. If this happens just make sure that when you return the car that you have topped it up, there are gas stations near to both airports. When the car checker takes the readings etc they will issue you with a receipt which will indicate no charge.

If they are having a bad day, they will still charge you for a tank of petrol, no problem - just a little more work needed. Bring the car back full and when the car checker checks the car, tell them you requested "Bring back full" they will issue you with a receipt, make sure they write on it "back full" or some other comment. Then return to the desks and ask for a refund of the tank of fuel showing your original rental and the receipt that you just got.

Despite what anyone might say this works, i have done it and more than once both ways.

The benefit is you don't have to figure out how much fuel you have left towards the end of your stay, just keep the tank as full as you want and make sure to top up before the drop off. You also don't get ripped off from the car rental prices and you don't give them any free gas which is left in your tank.
[/quote]

[Katys Grandad]

Judging by the queues at the last gas stations before car rental returns, a lot of people take the 'bring back full option'.

I don't mind paying a fair price for cars and the petrol but it annoys me when I feel that I am taken for a fool by rental agents (I'm not referring to the link at the top of this page).

[chrizzy100]

I take our car back on fumes..we do the bring back empty...but then thats how I drove most of my cars in the past..it comes from being poor and putting in a gallon at a time way back when.........I never really worry about how much gas is on holiday...we use less in FL then we do in MA a week anyway........

[PlayneCrazy]

I can't do that, I'm too much of a chicken to risk running out of gas on I4 and missing my flight.
The cost would be just horrendous if that happened for anyone who had a transatlantic flight booked for their family and I could not recommend anyone doing it.
I don't think travel insurance would cover it either if they were told the truth about why it happened.

I ususally find I drive 100 miles a day in Fl, not going anywhere in particular so in the gas guzzling Dodge Stratus they gave me this time thats the best part of $16 a day or $100 a week.

Not inconsequential, oh for the days of 99c a gal, not so long ago either but I fear never to return.

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

We take the car back as close to empty as we can - we always say on fumes but like PlayneCrazy we would never risk being too close to the mark as the potential consequences with disrupted travel plans are horrendous.

[LiesaAnna]

we always get lost in florida, we dont mind therefore like to keep the petrol up a bit, the thought of running out would be soooooooooo embarressing! and its so cheap we dont mind taking it back with more then we should (not to much more;))
we did 1900 miles last time and that was cos we got lost!! its good fun driving all around!!

[blott]

I don't see what all the fuss is about quite honestly. We always have an I4 car, of which a Dodge Stratus is one that we've had frequently, do quite a few miles (I like driving, especially in nice American cars with gadgets!).

When it costs £49 to fill up a similar sized tank in the UK and $25 in the US, I for one am not complaining! I just wish we had US petrol/gas prices here! Has anyone worked out how much per mile we must spend on petrol in the UK?

So, if you return the car with even a quarter of a tank of petrol in it, you've spent the grand sum of $6.25 (or £3.60) or the price of about a gallon in the UK. My holiday and life's too precious to spend time worrying about amounts like that.

[DaveL]

One of my regular guests from Canada was returning home on a changeable business ticket and did return his car empty. He drove the whole way to the airport with the fuel warning chiming. While he was waiting for them to sort out his bill the engine died. The person asked what had happen and he had great pleasure in explaining that he had been told to return it empty, which is what he had done.

Dave

[chrizzy100]

I'm begining to think the people here are spending way to much time in the US.......driving on fumes is a saying meaning driving as near to empty as you can get.....you really can't drive a car on fumes ......honest.......[msnwink][msnwink]