Just a small warning to those who are thinking about renting a car in Florida with SIXT rent a car, and probably others as well but this is what we experienced when renting a car recently in Miami.

We have used SIXT a lot in the past, both in Florida and other states in the US pre pandemic. It is no secret that the price of rental cars skyrocketed during covid, we find that the price is around 3X what it used to be, and it does not seem to go back down to the original pre pandemic prices by the looks of it.

We rented a Chevrolet Camaro for 5 days from Miami International Airport. Almost 600 dollars to rent the car. At the rental counter at the airport, we were asked by a lacklustre clerk if we wanted a Sunpass Express (a toll dongle that attaches to the wind screen) toll pass for our car, it would cost us 14 dollars per day. We have previously never gone for this, since 14 dollars per day is a whole lot of toll booth passings for one day, and normally we have been deducted for the fees on the tolls after we delivered the car back, with a nominal fee for the invoicing. So, we said no to the pass, that would have cost us 70 dollars to rider for free in all toll roads in Miami during our stay. Quite a lot. Nothing more was said by the clerk, and we got our car.

After 5 days of driving around Florida, on many toll roads, some you can pay cash, others just pop up on the road and there is no way of paying cash for passing. We could of course (like SIXT pointed out eventually) ride toll free roads but that is not to be recommended to anyone, unless you have good local knowledge. Almost all major roads and Interstates etc come with a toll in Florida.

When we came home, we got a rather large invoice from SIXT, and after reading the invoice we understood why it was so big. For the 5 days, we incurred a total of 25 usd in tolls, and the additional fee taken by SIXT PER toll passing was 5 dollars! So, we had 25 dollars toll charge and a 95(!!!) dollar fee charge in addition from SIXT. Totally outrageous!

I wrote a rather angry mail to SIXT asking for an explanation, and I have no problems with the toll fee, and paying a smaller fee for the invoice after the rental is finished but I asked about the 5 dollars they seem fit to charge per toll passing. Of course, they argue that there is plenty of info in the documents and on their website about this, but never really answering my question of why the fee is of such an extraordinary amount just for an invoice.

We have always liked SIXT and have only good things to say about them in the past. Now we are sad to say that they have gone into that “car rental trickery” bag that so many other car rental agencies belong in, not being fair and not being a campany, we will rent a car from again. Now you have been warned, always read the small print, and always be prepared to be hustled by car rental companies.

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