Overnight Truck Rental: Fill & Download for Free

Most major cities will have a U-Haul depot. Contact them and they, normally will allow you to park it securely on the premises for a small fee.536 W 23rd StManhattan, NY 10011(212) 620-4177U-Haul: Moving Truck Rental in Manhattan, NY at U-Haul of Chelsea

One time I held a weekend job once a month in a different part of the state about 3 hours from my home. My personal car at the time was having some issues so I borrowed a family member’s diesel pick up truck (model and make intentionally left out). I drove to the small town where my weekend job was located and parked the truck in the hotel parking lot. Unfortunately, an unexpected freeze (to about 10 degrees F) came in overnight and the car was parked in an uncovered lot.This is the part where I tell you that no winterizing prep had been done on the vehicle and many of you can probably already guess where this is going. So Sunday morning I went out to start the truck and it stalled after about 60 seconds. Second and third attempts, the truck tried to roll over but didn’t start. At this point I realized my mistake: the diesel was gelled, but there was little chance of the weather warming up enough to (hopefully) solve my issue. Fortunately, I still had half a day of work and free road side assistance. I called them and they transported the truck to the nearest dealership. At this point I’m imagining most of my engine looks like this:Source: Google ImagesI figured a few hours in a warm garage would solve the issue, but then I got “The Call”. The dealership mechanic called to tell me the fuel is indeed gelled and that a couple of my fuel injectors are also toast because of it and will need replacement. The total cost will be about $100-200 bucks. Now, I won’t try to masquerade that I know a TON about cars but at this point 1) I’m pretty sure that my diesel is gelled because of the weather and 2) it makes sense to me that the fuel injectors clogging could be a downstream effect of this, especially after my multiple attempts to start the truck.At this point I approved the repairs and was expecting to pick up the truck later that day and be on my way back home by the early evening. Then the kicker came: “Mr. Walker. Your y-pipe is also damaged. It will need to be replaced and the total cost including parts and labor is about $2,800 bucks”. Now I’m suspicious because just 36 hours prior I drove the truck 200 miles without an issue and I highly doubt three attempts to cold start a truck would suddenly damage the y-pipe. “Thanks for letting me know, I don’t believe that needs to be replaced at this moment and I have people that can do it for cheaper. Please only fix what we previously discussed”.The mechanic then responded “I don’t think you understand. The car would not be safe to drive in this condition. Because of that, I am not comfortable NOT replacing the y-pipe. It’s either all or nothing on the repairs.”It felt like he’s trying to corner me and I was still busy at work so I told him not to touch anything and I’d call him back. I called the family member who loaned me the truck just to make sure there were no other pre-existing issues with the vehicle, y-pipe or otherwise. They informed me there were no issues but they know a few people who work for the same company at dealerships in other states and will make some calls to see if they can confirm, as we suspect, that this specific dealership is trying to pull one over on me. About an hour later I got a call back from my family member, “My friend Mike works at a dealership in Virginia and was able to check in the system. He said the only issue logged is gelled fuel and that he believes the fuel injectors probably don’t even need to be replaced”.I will spare you some of the details about what happened next but, long story short, I extended my trip by a day and went to the dealership the next day when it’s warmed up considerably. I added some additive to the tank and was able to start the truck with almost no issue. The old gal ran a little rough for a few minutes but once I got a full tank and out on the open interstate there were zero problems for the 200 miles back home (and no issues to this day).The dealership did try to charge me a diagnostic fee and for an extra day on the car rental. I told them I’d pay for the one day I actually needed the car before their mechanic lied to me and I would not be paying a diagnostic since 2/3 of the problems were made up. They didn’t fight back at all.Edit: Wow! Lots of traffic on this overnight. First, thanks to Robert Taylor for the grammatical edits. For those commenting about reporting the place, I did contact the BBB but I don’t recall they ever did anything. I also left that specific dealership a bad review on a few sites. I found out after the fact that they are notorious locally for shady practices and no one that lives within 30 minutes of the place will go there willingly. I learned that I should’ve done my research ahead of time even though I was on a tight schedule and in a pinch but I thought a dealership would be a safer bet with more accountability than a random local shop and more likely to have any necessary parts on hand. I have no problems with the brand to this day, just had issues with that specific establishment. I have a lot of friends/family that work in the automotive industry and always find it unfortunate that a few bad eggs like this can create such distrust.

Rental agencies are franchised, results may vary.While they can not control the bad habits of a driver, It is to the best interest of a rental company to maintain its vehicles. Having a car out of service because it wanted to save $40 for the oil change or not investigating “check engine” lights, or replacing burned out bulbs is a false economy. If the car breaks down or is involved in an accident because they failed to repair something they will have worse issues. If a car becomes too costly to maintain they will wholesale it off and replace it.Now, you do need to check them out anyway. I saw a former rental on a lot with a busted side view mirror. The agency claimed not to have noticed it before, so maybe they didn’t or maybe some vandal got to the car overnight or maybe they overlooked a lot more. If they offer any kind of warranty they probably looked the car over. They don’t want you to come back with a complaint. But you still could lose out. One car manufacturer had in its manual that losing a quart of oil every 700 miles was normal, so if you get one of those you’re out of luck to complain.Now that may not hold for “Happy Harry’s Quickie Car Rental” who has fleet of Chrysler K-cars, but the majors will take care of their cars. (Although a K-car still running may be a good deal as a “beater”.)That does not necessarily apply to some truck rental agencies I have rented from. They could be beat up pretty badly.