Chapter 14

The Cost of Motoring Part II -Rent or Wreck!

A month or so ago I decided that I really needed to rent a car if I wished to wine and dine the young lady. Since this was probably only going to happen about twice a week and I had no further need for such transport then I decided to look for something a bit cheaper than that which is usually on offer.

May came to my assistance. Somebody she worked with also rented out cars and was prepared, as a favour to her, to rent me a car at thirteen thousand baht a month. Now the cheapest offer I had before that was sixteen thousand baht so having been assured that it was a reasonable vehicle I accepted the offer.

The car, a Toyota four door beige coloured saloon of recent vintage was delivered to The Coffee Shop late that evening. Before signing for it I insisted on giving it a quick walk round to check for existing damage. All seemed well except for some minor scratches which were duly noted in the documentation.

The car was fine it was a delight to be able to tour round the island in air-conditioned comfort. It was an automatic which was good because it meant that May could drive it on the occasions when I preferred to drink.

A few days from the end of the rental period I parked the car in Bangtao for a few minutes while I did some shopping.

Walking back to it I noticed that the nearside of the radiator grill area looked distorted. This was probably the first time I had looked at the car from the front. On closer inspection I found that it was indeed distorted. At some stage it must have been involved in a considerable collision. My first reaction was to swear. Then I thought about it.

How had it happened? I certainly had not had any accidents. Could it have happened when it was parked? This, of course, has to be a possibility but the more I thought about it the more unlikely it seemed. At nights it was always parked with its nose to a wall, well clear of the road. At other times on the rare occasions when I had used the car then again I had parked in sensible places with no apparent problems.

At this stage I began to become a little suspicious. When I received the car it had been parked with its nose close up to a wall. This meant that my cursory inspection of it had not included a view of the front of the vehicle.
I began to suspect that the damage had been present when I received the vehicle, and that there was a strong possibility that the owner was aware of it.

On returning the vehicle I decided to play a little game. I parked it with its nose right up against the same wall. When the owner arrived to collect it he asked me if I had had any accidents. I replied, quite truthfully "no". I said goodbye and he drove the car away.

An hour later he phoned me to say that he had found that the front of the car was damaged and that he needed me to pay four thousand baht to pay for it. I suggested that he bring the car back and that we look at it. He did that and we looked at it. I told him that I most certainly had not had an accident but that since, when I had signed for the car I had not noticed the damage then, I would pay him the insurance excess of five thousand baht.

He drove off looking slightly embarrassed. I was also left feeling slightly embarrassed by my attempted deception. I guess we all like to think we are honest.

Well what can I say? Life is full of these imponderables. I will, of course, never know whether the owner actually was ripping me off or whether a genuine mistake occurred. And then it is possible that the damage occurred whilst the car was in my care.
All I can say is that it would not seem to be prudent for me to rent a car again from the same source.
And, of course, I daresay the gentleman who I hired the car from feels the same way.

There is a melancholy in life which is sometimes inescapable.

footnote: Those of you with a sharp eye for figures will have noticed two things:
          1) If I had chosen to accept the next cheapest offer I would have saved
myself a couple of thousand baht.
    and 2) Yes I offered the man five thousand baht when he only asked for four. A sense of guilt is a sobering thing!