If someone wanted to drive your new car, what would be your conditions?

As I collected a car rental this last week I actually thought to myself, if I had a brand new car and someone wanted to borrow it, would I let them?

At first I thought yes sure if someone needed to borrow my new $20,000 investment, I would be okay with that.

Then I thought about it a bit more …

Would I seriously just hand over the keys to my new car, to a complete stranger, with no conditions? Having some insight into the car rental industry, I know that for the most part, people who hire cars genuinely want to get from Point A to Point B and would prefer to use a car rather than public transport or taxis.

There are a small percentage of people that rent cars to do things that they wouldn’t even try in their own investment.

Speeding is illegal no matter what car you’re in. Just because you have a rental car does not give you permission to speed.

Drink driving is illegal and driving a hire car does not change that fact.

Transporting illegal substances does not all of a sudden become okay because you are behind the wheel of car you do not own.

With all of this in mind and other terrible situations car rentals have been used for, I have definitely reconsidered lending out my own car with no conditions. We even have a list of the weirdest things left behind in hire cars, and you can only imagine what the driver got up too.

So next time you wonder why suppliers of rental cars need you to read and sign lengthy terms and conditions, consider how many times something has gone wrong with their investments and what you would do to cover your car if you were lending it out to strangers.

Tia Hippolite is Content Manager at VroomVroomVroom and a car rental expert. No, you can’t borrow her Ferrari.