A Warning to those Who Rent Cars in Vegas

I seem to have become a "whistleblower " of sorts. Here is another story from a member of my board who just had a bad experience in Vegas.

"OK, finally got a chance to write this up. The reason I have a bad taste regarding Vegas is as follows.

I picked up my rental car on Monday Jan. 24 and headed for the Suncoast where I was staying my first two nights. I was driving along Alta Drive when I caught up to two cars which were traveling in the right lane. They were going slower than me when one of them (a white Lexus with gold trim) pulled out in front of me. He was driving slower than me and then started to gradually slow down, then he suddenly slowed down even more so that if I hadn’t braked hard I would have run into him. When I looked up I saw we were in a radar trap. A cop stopped me and said I was following too close. We discussed it and he gave me a ticket for following too close. That annoyed me, but what really teed me off was that he also gave me a ticket for driving a car with expired license plates. The car belongs to Alamo, there was a sticker on the plates that showed they were valid till September 2011. How the fuddle-duddle (to quote a late Canadian Prime Minister) can I be reasonably expected to know the plates are invalid. Apparently Nevada law makes the driver responsible for licensing a vehicle, not the owner.

I feel I was given the ticket because I was a tourist and they figured they could milk me for extra money. This fits right in with Adelson’s comp policy. All Vegas wants to do is screw you out of your money.

This ruined my holiday, I spent close to 6 or 7 hours trying to straighten things out with Alamo, the police department, and the County Attorney’s office. At this point I don’t know how much the fines are or when and if I can have my day in court. Alamo did replace the car and waive the rental fees and verbally agreed to pay the fine if they can’t get the ticket waived. The reason I ‘m so concerned is that the expired plate is a points offense even if I plead guilty where the following too close can be bargained down to a parking offense. Why should I risk having my insurance rates go up because of a bureaucratic screw up.

Bonnie, you have my permission to post this on other Vegas boards." by Trawnajack
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The expired license plates is a valid complaint that Alamo should handle. But, why did the police think the plates were expired? Something is missing here. The tailgating is the driver's fault.

I don't rent in Vegas. I don't want the responsibility on vacation.

Snidely, I'm guessing when they ran the plate, the found that it was expired; despite having a tag indicating the contrary.

Is driving with an expired plate a points violation?

I would think that writing a letter to the court and explaining the situation could result in this getting flushed.

Dan

I believe Alamo is at fault here. You as a renter only have responsibility for accidents and condition of the car before you turn it in. Alamo, by providing a service is responsible for the licensing, maintance, fueling, and general upkeep on the car. Any cop with a freaking brain after seeing the rental agreement, would be a listing Alamo as the one responsible for the tags.

I think I know that guy.
Chronic tailgater.
"If I hadn't slammed on my brakes..."
Uh...hello.
The (probably geezers like me) ahead of him tried to save him from all that trouble...LOL.

I looked up...

If the registration was expired then the sticker must have been September 2010 (not September 2011). But the more important point that I would like to make is that it sounds as though this is another case of it being always the other guy's fault and not taking accountability for one's own actions. What might this driver had done to avoid getting a ticket in the first place? Take this sentence for instance, "I was driving along Alta Drive when I caught up to two cars which were traveling in the right lane." Dude, you "caught up" to the other two cars. That indicates to me that you must have been going fast to have "caught up" with the other two cars. And then, "They were going slower than me when one of them (a white Lexus with gold trim) pulled out in front of me. He was driving slower than me and then started to gradually slow down, then he suddenly slowed down even more so that if I hadn’t braked hard I would have run into him." This too leads me to believe dude must have been travelling fast because he says "they were going slower than me." Twice now he indicated that he must be a fast driver. So my question again would be, "What might he have done different to avoid a ticket?" Actually, getting the tickets for following to close might have been a blessing in disguise for him if you think about what ticket he might have gotten had he not have to brake so hard.

I've been pulled over for incorrect plates on a rental car. They weren't expired; they were plates from a different car that the rental company had put on a newly delivered car (it had 4 miles on it when I picked it up) because they didn't have a temporary plate for it. A sheriff's deputy in a small east Texas town followed me for about 5 minutes before he pulled me over. When I asked him what the problem was, he told me the license plate on the Ford Focus I was driving was registered to a Nissan. I gave him my rental car paperwork. It took him about 15 minutes after stopping me to verify that the Focus wasn't stolen, and that it was a car rented to me. He wrote me a warning ticket so it wouldn't cost me anything (and document the stop to take whatever actions they might against the rental car company), and if I got stopped again I could show that warning ticket to the next officer to avoid more hassles.

That's how the Vegas cop should have handled the license plate violation.

I usually use Enterprise for my car rentals and have never had a problem. A good friend of mine does Luxury Car Rentals so if anyone ever wants to rent a lambo or a ferrari call Andre Constantine 1-702-278-8465.

I think if you went in front of the judge on that tailgaiting charge, you could get it thrown out. You can't help it if the guy in front of you slams on his brakes and you run up his arse. It takes time to create distance again when you get that close.