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Update: Total Bill for Trapped Rental Car? $871

Bill could have exceeded $1,400, according to original agreement.

by Staff
January 22, 2007
1 min to read


The final bill for the rented Chrysler PT Cruiser stranded for 43 days in Olympic National Park has been calculated: $12 a day for Thrifty's loss of use of the car, $200 for towing and $47 for a damaged side mirror, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

Claude Hite, a resident of Tampa, Fla., who rented the car for a camping trip, was trapped in the car when an early November flood washed out part of the only road into the park’s Hoh Rain Forest.

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Thrifty Car Rental at Sea-Tac Airport retrieved its car Dec. 19 after the park had a temporary bridge installed over the missing section of Hoh Road. Once it got its PT Cruiser back, Thrifty put it back in service.

Hite also was charged $108 for the four days he drove the car before the flood, for a total bill of $871, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

Had Thrifty held Hite to his original 17-day rental agreement, then added its weekly or daily rate until it got its car back, the bill could have exceeded $1,400, including towing and damage charges.

Thrifty "basically billed our cost of the car" but less than what it could have charged, said Greg MacKenzie, the local franchise's risk manager. "Due to extraordinary circumstances, we're going to be fair."

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