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I recently rented a vehicle on Turo in CA for three days and racked up maybe three toll charges - even though I followed the law and did my best to avoid HOV la

I recently rented a vehicle on Turo in CA for three days and racked up maybe three toll charges - even though I followed the law and did my best to avoid HOV lanes when I didn't have enough occupants. I was greeted the following month with a *$320* ticket. The fees themselves totalled to no more than $12 which I would've been totally okay paying, but the overage fee for non-payment (which how was I supposed to know the owner wasn't watching the records for his vehicle - per Turo rules?) were over *$100 per charge*. To call this predatory is an understatement. Also, a word of warning to anyone using Turo, they usually indicate that "the driver is liable for all toll charges while driving the vehicle" which can screw you if you don't confirm in writing with the owner if they're watching toll records. Always settle via the Turo app, many owners will try to settle with you directly and try to force you to pay the full fee. Fortunately, I was able to get slightly less ripped off and pay 40% of the charge by settling through the Turo app. I love CA and a lot of my friends live there, but goodness are they chalking up reasons for me to never live there again.

BoorishBears 5y ago
I don't use Turo anymore, no point at all. Back in the day Turo was mostly people with somewhat interesting cars who wanted to share them, and rental agencies had nothing interesting, and the pricing was reasonable. - Now a $60 a day car can come out to more than a $100 a day car because of extended insurance for specific models, Turo fees, weird discount structures, massive deposits (One $70 a day car had an $700 deposit). And there's no way to actually account for that in searching, the estimated price never includes any of this. So you're left to randomly click around and "guess" which cars don't all belong to the same guy tacking on a massive deposit, or asking for some money on the side. It all just feels incredibly sleazy, and wreaks of Turo's model essentially failing since private owners care more about their cars than an agency, and they likely had to deal with a ton more claims. There are also a ton of deeply unsafe cars on there now, especially older non-enthusiast cars. Rental agencies might not be the best about safety, but they also won't keep a 100k mile structurally rusted out econobox laying around... - I just went through that last week and decided to go with Sixt. I got a rental "A5 or similar" (convertible 4 series was the option I took at the counter), and for 12 dollars a day I get unlimited tolls in CA.
- djrogers 5y ago
  100k miles is ‘deeply unsafe’? You can’t evaluate structural rust in a photo, so if you’re deciding safety based on mileage you have a very unreal sense of safe vs unsafe.
  - wcfields 5y ago
    I've never had an unsafe car persay, but when working with a small budget you'll end up with a high-mileage 2010 Toyota Corolla. (Turo says "Cars that have more than 130,000 mi/200,000 km may remain listed as long as they’re in excellent condition") [1] What I've noticed on Turo is now there's a large mix of 'big' players: Unregulated car rental biz that have 10+ beaters of Echos/Sparks/Minis/Focus, or, a buy-here/pay-here used car dealership that's renting out everything on the lot. [1] https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991940-Vehicles-we-accept https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991940-Vehicle...
  - BoorishBears 5y ago
    That's not what I wrote, but you're certainly free to misread my sentence and go off on a strawman. https://youtu.be/hQlrGGJodgQ https://youtu.be/hQlrGGJodgQ 100k miles doesn't make it unsafe, the rust does. 100k miles is mentioned because a 50k mile car is less likely to have potential critical rust, and rental companies are selling cars at 50k miles on average. Of course now this is the part where you say 50k mile cars can have rust too! They sure can, but where is rust worse, at 50k miles or after an additional 50k miles? - It's not just rust either, as miles tick up there's plenty of maintenance that's supposed to be done that private renters making a buck won't. Your rental agency isn't going to pick up a high milage 3 series that's one good highway trip away from shredding its serpentine belt because no one ever fixed a single oil leak it had... - They're also not going to do what my Turo renter did in Miami: Give you a car with a brake light and clear metal on metal sounds and tell you "oh, that's ok, the sensor is just broken"
  - Dylan16807 5y ago
    It says "100k mile structurally rusted out" is deeply unsafe. Did we read the same comment?
Johnny555 5y ago
but goodness are they chalking up reasons for me to never live in there again California doesn't set Turo's toll policies, and many states have implemented automated tolling, so your list of states to live in in going to get smaller and smaller. I think the biggest problem with automated tolling is that every state has their own independent system -- the federal government should enforce one standard, so I can use my toll reader on any toll road in the country. Oh hey, I was looking to see if there was a multi-state toll tag and it sounds like the US government did pass a law requiring interoperability, but this linked website doesn't appear to sell this "nationalpass", so I don't know what happened to the law: https://www.nationalpass.net/ https://www.nationalpass.net/ Toll Interoperability by 2016 H.R.4348 - MAP-21 In 2012, Congress passed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) to ease the burden of tolled interstate travel by providing motorists the convenience of a single toll tag and account.
- bigbillheck 5y ago
  > every state has their own independent system -- the federal government should enforce one standard, so I can use my toll reader on any toll road in the country. My EZ-Pass works in 19 states.
  - brewdad 5y ago
    And I have a transponder for the Seattle area that I use about 3-5 times a year. I don't live in Washington but I do visit regularly. It doesn't work anywhere else but when I need it, I need it. A nationwide standard really is needed.
- bbarn 5y ago
  I don't think interstate highways should be tolled, period. They were paid for decades ago, and maintenance should be covered by the existing gas tax. I am not opposed to convenience highways in metro areas being tolled, as long as there is a non-toll option that is reasonably similar in non-rush hour times. As it stands the major Chicago to New York and New York to DC routes are tolls almost the entire way. The nation paid for those routes, and now pays to use them as well.
Melatonic 5y ago
Is that just Turo screwing you over? In SoCal as long as you have a fastrack account associated with the vehicle/license plate even if you have no transponder your account still gets charged the normal fee + a small additional courtesy fee. I believe the additional fee might be 6$ which does not seem ridiculous (to me at least). To me this more just sounds like the owner of that vehicle is an idiot and never registered the plate with fastrack.

BoorishBears 5y ago

I don't use Turo anymore, no point at all. Back in the day Turo was mostly people with somewhat interesting cars who wanted to share them, and rental agencies had nothing interesting, and the pricing was reasonable. - Now a $60 a day car can come out to more than a $100 a day car because of extended insurance for specific models, Turo fees, weird discount structures, massive deposits (One $70 a day car had an $700 deposit). And there's no way to actually account for that in searching, the estimated price never includes any of this. So you're left to randomly click around and "guess" which cars don't all belong to the same guy tacking on a massive deposit, or asking for some money on the side. It all just feels incredibly sleazy, and wreaks of Turo's model essentially failing since private owners care more about their cars than an agency, and they likely had to deal with a ton more claims. There are also a ton of deeply unsafe cars on there now, especially older non-enthusiast cars. Rental agencies might not be the best about safety, but they also won't keep a 100k mile structurally rusted out econobox laying around... - I just went through that last week and decided to go with Sixt. I got a rental "A5 or similar" (convertible 4 series was the option I took at the counter), and for 12 dollars a day I get unlimited tolls in CA.

djrogers 5y ago
100k miles is ‘deeply unsafe’? You can’t evaluate structural rust in a photo, so if you’re deciding safety based on mileage you have a very unreal sense of safe vs unsafe.
- wcfields 5y ago
  I've never had an unsafe car persay, but when working with a small budget you'll end up with a high-mileage 2010 Toyota Corolla. (Turo says "Cars that have more than 130,000 mi/200,000 km may remain listed as long as they’re in excellent condition") [1] What I've noticed on Turo is now there's a large mix of 'big' players: Unregulated car rental biz that have 10+ beaters of Echos/Sparks/Minis/Focus, or, a buy-here/pay-here used car dealership that's renting out everything on the lot. [1] https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991940-Vehicles-we-accept https://support.turo.com/hc/en-us/articles/203991940-Vehicle...
- BoorishBears 5y ago
  That's not what I wrote, but you're certainly free to misread my sentence and go off on a strawman. https://youtu.be/hQlrGGJodgQ https://youtu.be/hQlrGGJodgQ 100k miles doesn't make it unsafe, the rust does. 100k miles is mentioned because a 50k mile car is less likely to have potential critical rust, and rental companies are selling cars at 50k miles on average. Of course now this is the part where you say 50k mile cars can have rust too! They sure can, but where is rust worse, at 50k miles or after an additional 50k miles? - It's not just rust either, as miles tick up there's plenty of maintenance that's supposed to be done that private renters making a buck won't. Your rental agency isn't going to pick up a high milage 3 series that's one good highway trip away from shredding its serpentine belt because no one ever fixed a single oil leak it had... - They're also not going to do what my Turo renter did in Miami: Give you a car with a brake light and clear metal on metal sounds and tell you "oh, that's ok, the sensor is just broken"
- Dylan16807 5y ago
  It says "100k mile structurally rusted out" is deeply unsafe. Did we read the same comment?

Johnny555 5y ago

but goodness are they chalking up reasons for me to never live in there again California doesn't set Turo's toll policies, and many states have implemented automated tolling, so your list of states to live in in going to get smaller and smaller. I think the biggest problem with automated tolling is that every state has their own independent system -- the federal government should enforce one standard, so I can use my toll reader on any toll road in the country. Oh hey, I was looking to see if there was a multi-state toll tag and it sounds like the US government did pass a law requiring interoperability, but this linked website doesn't appear to sell this "nationalpass", so I don't know what happened to the law: https://www.nationalpass.net/ https://www.nationalpass.net/ Toll Interoperability by 2016 H.R.4348 - MAP-21 In 2012, Congress passed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) to ease the burden of tolled interstate travel by providing motorists the convenience of a single toll tag and account.

bigbillheck 5y ago
> every state has their own independent system -- the federal government should enforce one standard, so I can use my toll reader on any toll road in the country. My EZ-Pass works in 19 states.
- brewdad 5y ago
  And I have a transponder for the Seattle area that I use about 3-5 times a year. I don't live in Washington but I do visit regularly. It doesn't work anywhere else but when I need it, I need it. A nationwide standard really is needed.
bbarn 5y ago
I don't think interstate highways should be tolled, period. They were paid for decades ago, and maintenance should be covered by the existing gas tax. I am not opposed to convenience highways in metro areas being tolled, as long as there is a non-toll option that is reasonably similar in non-rush hour times. As it stands the major Chicago to New York and New York to DC routes are tolls almost the entire way. The nation paid for those routes, and now pays to use them as well.

Melatonic 5y ago

Is that just Turo screwing you over? In SoCal as long as you have a fastrack account associated with the vehicle/license plate even if you have no transponder your account still gets charged the normal fee + a small additional courtesy fee. I believe the additional fee might be 6$ which does not seem ridiculous (to me at least). To me this more just sounds like the owner of that vehicle is an idiot and never registered the plate with fastrack.