I hope my credit card has good fake car rental insurance!

We rented a car today so we can explore all the sleepy fishing villages on the Bodrum Penninsula and drive the 90 km to Ephesus tomorrow. We went to a place in town that was an obviously local rental shop.

They used what looked to be a standard rental agreement - but I now think the blank agreements were stolen from National Car Rental next door. In talking to the guy who arranges these types of things at our hotel and looking on the Internet, 85 Euros seemed to be the going rate per day. Our local place though, they offered us 50 Euros for two days - what a deal, right?!?

Having had a previous run-in with Avis in Spain, I made these guys to the requisite walkaround so we could mark up the damage. Our car is a hoopty. We basically marked the entire car picture up on the contract - I think all surface areas have been in contact with a pole! When he first started it for us, it wouldn't even start. I said to the rental guy who speaks broken English - this car is pretty beat up, never seen a rental car in this bad of shape. He looks at me and says - oh this isn't one of our cars, it's my buddy's and he needs to make some extra money so I'm renting it out for him.

Really?!? Is that even legal? So we are now tooling around Turkey in our mildew/smoke smelling beat up Fiat. I love a good bargain but I may be pressing my luck with this one... I sure hope it survives the trip to Ephesus tomorrow!

-- Posted from my iPhone