Recently, we've been asking visitors to our website who are quote willen, the reason why they want to rent a car or van. It is not obligatory to answer this, many people do. By means of the answers we receive, we try to align our offer as much as possible with the needs of our renters.
If this question were put to me, my answer to ‘Why do you want to hire a car?’ would be: “Because I want to carry out a ram-raid.” Just to see if the rental company would still hire the car to me. I do understand why we never get this answer ;-)
This certainly reminded me of bizarre reasons why people might have needed a car or van from Adrem. Usually, we only heard the reason afterwards. That wasn't always pleasant, but ultimately sometimes quite amusing. I'd like to share 7 bizarre reasons for hiring a car or van with you.
1. My plane isn't flying
Last weekend there was another volcanic eruption in Iceland. That reminded me of this again. During the previous volcanic eruption, many flights were cancelled. A traveller asked for a car because his plane wasn't flying.
2. Car needed for an accident
The first time Flikken Maastricht needed a car for an accident, we were called in for it. We were assured that the car would be returned undamaged. This was indeed the case: not a scratch was to be seen when the car was returned.
3. Daughter moves house 6 times in 1 year
Dad was starting to get a bit fed up with moving his daughter to a new student room for the 6th time in one year. According to him, this was the last time: ‘next time she can sort out a cargo bike herself!’
4. Insurance fraud
Suppose a good friend has accidentally dented his car. What's easier, then, to rent a car and drive it into the dented car? That would only cost the excess with the car rental company, but the dent would hopefully be reimbursed by the insurance… A shame: we suspected fraud, so the damage was not paid out. The renter ended up on a blacklist with all insurance companies and rental companies.
5. Hearse needed
The police visited us and confiscated a van. Two weeks prior, a body was suspected of being transported in a van that was subsequently thrown into the Maas. To reassure you, this van is no longer in our rental fleet.
6. I no longer have a home
A respectable lady hired a small car for 2 months. It later transpired that she had been living in the car for those 2 months because she had been evicted from her house.
7. Parts required
Tricky when your own car's engine is broken. Why not just rent the exact same car and swap the engines?
Complaint: switch trick failed. Our rental car no longer worked with the old, defective engine. Fraud discovered because the engine number no longer matched.
Can you think of a bizarre reason why you might want to hire a car or bus? Feel free to enter it into the comment box.
If you can't come up with a bizarre reason, I have another task. Which of the reasons mentioned above never happened but were fabricated?
