Worst rental car experience ever. They tried to charge us $1,500 for a small scratch to the car ... two weeks after our rental return, we were sent a demand notice for the money along with a small, blurry photo of a scratch no more than 3/4 inch long.
We ignored it because we looked over the car when we dropped it off with the agent and there were no new scratches on the car that weren't there before. There were plenty of small scratches and dings on the car when we picked it up. Do your research on travel forums. Lots of posters from the US are charged preposterous amounts for small paint 'damage' weeks after returning home.
The demand notices kept coming and they said that they would put a lean on our credit history if we didn't pay them. We kept trying to call Sixt ... the US office said we had to call the European office. Emails were exchanged and they would only write back to us in German. It seemed we were getting nowhere in being able to contact someone.
Finally, we had a relative who is a lawyer step in and draft a response for us. The next day, Sixt wrote us to say they were waiving the charge.
We did not buy their insurance because it was and extra $40/day and our credit card company has rental insurance. It was pretty clear based on a lot of the comments I am reading online that if you are from the US renting at Sixt in Europe and waive their insurance, there's a good chance they'll claim you owe hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a small ding or a small scratch.
Beyond that, the car they gave us had the coolant light come on after 3 days. We called their customer service and they were able to give us little help or advice. Luckily, I speak a little French and we were able to find someone in the town we were staying in who could assist us in finding the correct coolant to add. There were 4 different colors of coolant and the manual was unclear which to use. It was stated damage could occur if the wrong one was used.
The people at the rental counter were not very helpful at all and gave us a giant gas-guzzling SUV from a brand we had never heard of even though we rented a sedan, which was supposed to include brands like Mercedes or BMW. We told them that we would be driving many miles but they said it was either that or a very basic downgraded car.
Overall, we would never recommend renting from Sixt ... nothing but problems and in my opinion, they tried to scam us into paying $1,500 for a very minor scratch which we believe was not caused by us. Do your homework and read their complaint site posts before using them. read more