Oahu family says their vacation nightmare is a lesson for anyone renting a vehicle

KAHULUI (HawaiiNewsNow) - A vacation on Maui turned into a rental car nightmare for one Oahu family this past weekend.

The Agors from Pearl City want their experience to be a lesson for anyone renting a vehicle.

Joe Agor said his mom spent more than $1,100 to rent a car for two days.

He said the day after they arrived, someone hit their parked rental car then fled.

“I called the police, their non-emergency line, they dispatched a cop. He took all my information. But that’s when he saw the plate, he said,’ Oh you got expired plates.’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’ Then he said, ‘Sorry brah, I gotta write you a ticket,’” said Agor.

The ticket was for expired registration and no insurance. The registration had expired in May 2020.

“Isn’t it the rental car’s responsibility to make sure this thing has proper insurance and proper registration? I don’t normally check the tags when I’m renting a car, I just assume that they take care of these stuff, that we’re safe,” Agor said.

Ace Rent A Car initially filed a claim for the accident. However, a manager later called the Agor family to apologize and promised to cancel the claim and take care of the ticket.

The manager said it was an oversight due to extremely short staffing.

He also said the cars on the lot with expired registration stickers are supposed to be taken out of service until they can hire more workers to register them at the DMV.

When Hawaii News Now visited Ace Rent A Car, there were several cars on the lot with expired registrations. So did other rental car agencies.

Agor encourages everyone to check for insurance and registration when renting a vehicle.

“I just wanted to make sure that people know about this and if anything, if you rent a car, check the registration. Check with them. ‘Is this car registered? Does it have insurance?’” he said.

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