Winter tyres and car hire risk

[joreco]

Arriving into Cologne airport over the weekend, I met up with some friends who had arrived slightly earlier, at the car hire area. They were waiting for their cars to be fitted with winter tyres and had been told it would be about an hour, this was with Hertz. I had booked a car with Avis and whilst my paperwork was being done, I asked the desk guy, as a side remark really, that the car DID have winter tyres fitted didn't it, as temp outside was minus 10 etc. Desk clark replied NO! and they didn't have any cars available that did. I remember reading a few days before that the law clearly stated that in low temps/snow/frost etc, that winters needed to indeed be fitted or risk a fine and from previous years, if an accident happened and you didn't have some fitted, chances of a payout were slim to non exisitant.
Desk guy said indeed, if a crash occured then I would not be covered, as I had now been informed and if the police did see the car whilst driving, I would be fined and Avis would not be responsible, yet they were happy for me to drive the car away from the airport.
A talk with the manager did not change anything, the cars available did not have winter tyres fitted and it would have been Monday before one would be. He said it was my fault, as I should, on booking, requested a car specifically asking for winters, which I tried to explain that as far as I understood it, the law was quite specific and it was a legal requirement with the weather as it was outside...?

As I was short of time and the fact I was not accepting any of the nonsense being spoken, together with the other guys, who were still waiting for their car, I jumped into a taxi.

So, if anybody is planning to hire a car soon, check on booking/collecting that the car has winter tyres, as its obvious from the above, if you don't check, there is no guarantee that they will be fitted.

Edited by joreco on Tuesday 7th December 08:50

[paul.deitch]

I think that the reality of the new law has caught them all out a bit. I would expect that next winter it will be automatic, because they will not be able to get away with passing the responsability on to the driver for long. The bad publicity will kill them, if not one of their customers...

[C15]

I thought all cars had to be fitted with Winter Tyres from 4.12.2010... Even cars from abroad!

I wonder how the companies can do this, especially as the law states, all cars must be fitted with tyres according to the road conditions.. in your case there was snow and ice in Köln, so the cars MUST be fitted or not?

I looked on the Avis website, and it does say, 24hours in advance, wintertyres must be confirmed.

Good point though

Steve

[Steven Quas]

That's a very useful warning, thanks.

Steven Quas , Hamburg

[cramorra]

In contrast to other European countries in Germany it is ALWAYS the driver not the registered keeper/owner who is responsible for roadworthiness and or offences - good if your vehicle is caught speeding without an identifiable phothe of the driver - no points, no fine
Bad in this situation (or if the car is otherwise not roadworthy)
Bloody Rental Car Companies have done this for years and will continue to do so, screwing the customer by asking up to £ 15 a day for Winter tyres (which you pay for a small car with a weeks hire) gets worse when you find out that then often all season tyres are fitted, which are legla but not fit for serious winter driving (and a no cost option for our friendly car hire company)
All in All very annoying imo, and nobody does anything about this - not even the ADAC (aho owns are car hire company...)