According to SPIEGEL information about Sixt, Daimler hired a Tesla from private individuals and battered the car during tests. Now the car rental company reacted – and tried to reinterpret the process.
Tesla vehicles
Thursday, 07.12.2017
16:19 clock
A car company procured by a vehicle rental in a pair of entrepreneurs a model of the competition, doing so tests, it screwed it even apart and back together – and can deliver it back in desolate condition. The SPIEGEL recently reported on these consequences of a dubious “comparison journey”, Now the case goes into the next round.
The group is after SPIEGEL information to Daimler; at the car rental office Sixt; and in the battered car to a copy of the electric SUV Tesla Model X. It belongs to the entrepreneur couple Monika Kindlein and Manfred van Rinsum.
During the rental period of around seven weeks – Manfred van Rinsum was able to do so thanks to the tracking function of his Tesla prove – the car was transported as far as Spain, on a car run near Barcelona. In addition, he located his car on a test track of the Mercedes plant in Sindelfingen and at a Stuttgart company, which offers its customers, including Daimler, tests “including test setups”.
Subletting impossible
During the rental period suffered the Tesla. How hard, as documented by an expert opinion of the testing organization Dekra: Accordingly, a damage of 15,674 euros and a loss in value of 2000 euros in the car.
A car in this condition can not be re-rented. Manfred van Rinsum therefore had to get a replacement vehicle from another car rental company to a customer who had booked the Tesla immediately after the catastrophic rental. A short time later, the drive unit of his Model X broke.
Van Rinsum invoiced Sixt for a total of € 99,392.79; it included the repair costs, the loss of use, his workload, a penalty of 1000 euros per day for use on the test site in Spain, the repair of the drive unit and a distance payment for a confidentiality statement.
The reaction of Sixt: The car rental compensated for the damage identified by Dekra, including depreciation and expert costs of 18,500 euros. The remaining positions charged by van Rinsum were described by the company in a press release as “completely arbitrary”.
The Sixt communication states, among other things, that it was clear to all involved that the rented Tesla would be used by an “industrial customer” for “comparison and test purposes”.
Extreme tests were contractually prohibited
Van Rinsum, however, had been assured before the rental process that the car should not be driven on test tracks and not in extreme conditions. The answer of the Sixt representative at that time: “That sounds good.” Likewise, this is in the lease between van Rinsum and Sixt. After Sixt finally rented at van Rinsum, the customer of the car rental company but did not abide by the arrangements.
In addition, Sixt also confirmed after the publication of the press release at the request of SPIEGEL that use on test tracks under extreme conditions of vehicles rented by Sixt was excluded. So it is regulated in the terms and conditions of Sixt.
Screenshots from van Rinsum’s mobile phone show the Tesla in Spain on the Rüttelstrecke, the Traktionsstrecke, the bad road and on the slope hill. The car, it can be concluded, was very well tested under extreme conditions.
“You park wrong”
Van Rinsum had also sent his bill to Daimler for € 99,392.79. From the legal department of the group he received the answer that he could “rely on” that his claims would be examined.
Daimler did not want to confirm the process at the request of SPIEGEL. Of the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” a corporate spokesman confirmed that Daimler had leased a vehicle from Sixt. Whether it was a Tesla, he did not want to comment.
The SPIEGEL had previously informed Daimler, a rental to “comparison trips” is common in the industry. That’s true, In the case of van Rinsum, however, the car came back with a 15,000-euro damage, including covering parts were taped with tape and the paint damaged. In the glove box was also a note with the note “you park wrong”. It was a message from the Mercedes Benz Technology Center in Sindelfingen.
For Mercedes and Sixt, the matter is equally embarrassing: The car company has catch it againhow he procured in a supposedly secret way an electric car of the competition. And car rental reveals how it abandons private individuals when their contractors do not abide by agreements.