Faulty rental car dispute - Telegraph Emma Hilborne, Essex, writes In August, we hired a Renault Scenic through Europcar's Verona office to explore Lake Garda. As we drove away we noticed a nasty smell coming from the car, but it stopped and we continued to our destination. My husband didn't like driving the car at all. He said it was hard to find the bite point on the clutch and there was little power in the lower gears. But he just put it down to driving a car he wasn't used to. On the second day we went for a drive around the lake and heard a loud bang from under the car. Shortly afterwards the clutch became unusable. When we reported the problem, Europcar told us to leave the car at the hotel and take a taxi to the airport on our final day. We refused to accept this. We told Europcar that we had been given a vehicle that was not fit for purpose. Finally, it was agreed we could take a taxi to a closer Europcar office and pick up another car. Europcar said it would cover the €72 taxi fare and the €30 we had to pay for the car to be towed back to our hotel. These sums have not been repaid to us. Instead, Europcar has sent us a bill for €515 (£450) for the clutch repair. It says that, as we verified that the car was roadworthy when we checked it out, any new damage is our responsibility. Gill Charlton, consumer expert, replies Your Renault Scenic had been driven 8,462km; a clutch usually lasts 60,000km. As I reported a few months ago, it takes only one negligent driver to wreck a clutch. It certainly sounds as if the clutch was failing when you picked up the car. Any "bad smell," especially a burning rubber one, should never be ignored. You should have returned the car to Europcar immediately. However, with a five-year-old child in the back I can understand why you pressed on to your accommodation. I asked Europcar UK to review the charges back in November, arguing that the clutch was clearly faulty when you picked up the car. The response from Europcar Italy was that the damage was due to driver technique and must be paid for. For an independent assessment, we took your case to the European Car Rental Conciliation Service (ecrcs.eu), a free arbitration service set up to resolve complaints on behalf of car rental customers. Its rulings are binding on all the major companies. After seeing all the evidence, the ECRCS says that the blue tinge in photographs of the clutch suggests "immediate damage caused by driver technique rather than gradual wear and tear." While it appreciates that the bulk of the damage may have been caused by a previous renter, the fact that you drove 375km in two days before the clutch failed fatally weakens your case. The ECRCS has ruled that because the damage occurred during your rental period you remain liable for the charges associated with its failure. Even if you had a zero-excess on your CDW insurance, you would still have been liable for the repairs because it is, as Europcar puts it, a "driver-induced" fault and therefore beyond the scope of car rental insurance. About Gill Charlton Gill is an expert on Cornwall and consumer issues, especially legal disputes.