Just spitballing here but it makes me think there should just be an option to rent a dinged up, scratched up car for cheaper. The policy would be like “Cosmetic damage ok. As long as there’s no functional damage, you’re good.” I personally don’t give a flying f—— if my rental car looks like a junkyard lot special, as long as it drives me safely to my destination. Plus it saves me stress if some dbag dings my rental in a parking lot.
I guess maybe the counter argument for this (other than rental companies fighting it because I’m sure they shadily draw in some revenue from gauging people on fees for cosmetic damage) is it might be harder to catch functional damage if you stop checking for cosmetic damage. Though, I’m not so sure that’s true.
The car sharing service I use here in Quebec, does have a "Cosmetic damage ok. As long as there’s no functional damage, you’re good". I would probably still spend 10 minutes on the phone to make sure it's alright, but they are clear in their policy that scratch are fine (and based on the damage of the back corners of some of their older cars, it's definitely fine).
Their insurance is quite generous too, at first the deductible were 300$, they did increase it to 600$ but for 50$ a year you can remove it altogether. If you don't lower it, they charge 1$ more per trip, so in my case, I pay 50$ a year and there's no risk of fees.
I guess maybe the counter argument for this (other than rental companies fighting it because I’m sure they shadily draw in some revenue from gauging people on fees for cosmetic damage) is it might be harder to catch functional damage if you stop checking for cosmetic damage. Though, I’m not so sure that’s true.