Last updated September 25, 2026
Terms
These terms cover use of RateYourRentalCar: looking up a rental car by plate or VIN, reading reviews, and leaving a review. If you submit a review, you agree to them.
The service
RateYourRentalCar (www.rateyourrentalcar.com) lets anyone look up a rental car and read what other renters reported. You do not need an account. The site is not a rental company, not an insurer, and not a vehicle inspection.
Rental-company names on the site identify who handed over the keys in a review. RateYourRentalCar is not affiliated with those companies.
Looking up a car
Search by a license plate and a US state, or by a VIN. A match shows the public car page. No match means we do not have a review for that vehicle yet. Lookup is rate limited so the directory cannot be scraped in bulk.
Posting a review
Post only about a car you actually rented or drove as the renter. By posting, you confirm that:
- The plate, state, or VIN identifies that car as accurately as you can.
- The rating, issues, and notes are your own account of that rental.
- You are not posting someone else’s name, phone number, address, license number, or rental contract number.
- Photos, when uploads are enabled, are of that car and you have the right to post them.
You give RateYourRentalCar permission to store the review, show it on the car page, and include the page in search results. You keep whatever copyright you have in your own words and photos. You can ask us to take a review down using the contact below.
What you may not post
- A report about a car you did not drive, including a guess from a listing or a lot photo.
- A safety claim you know is false.
- Threats, harassment, or information about a person rather than the car.
- Anything that tries to break the site, flood it with plates, or bypass the rate limit.
We may refuse a review, hide it, or remove it. We may also refuse lookups that overwhelm the site. We do not owe a notice before doing that when the review breaks these terms.
Reviews are public opinions
A review is one renter’s report, not a finding by RateYourRentalCar. Plates are shown in full so the next renter can match the car. VINs on public pages are limited to the last 6 characters. The first review for a car sets the make, model, and other vehicle details that are stored. A later review adds another report and does not replace those details.
Average ratings treat each published review equally. There is no identity check and no “verified renter” status.
Recalls
If a car has a VIN, we may show NHTSA recall campaigns for the decoded year, make, and model. That is a configuration list, not confirmation that this VIN is unrepaired. For the status of a specific VIN, use NHTSA SaferCar. Do not treat a recall block, or the absence of one, as a safety inspection.
No warranty
The site is provided as it is. Reports can be incomplete, outdated, or wrong. A missing review does not mean a car is fine. A low rating does not mean a car is unsafe to drive. You decide whether to take the keys.
To the extent the law allows, RateYourRentalCar is not liable for a rental decision you make from a page on this site, for a review someone else wrote, or for a recall result that came from NHTSA. Some places do not allow a limit like this. In those places, the limit applies only as far as the law allows.
Corrections
Email hello@rateyourrentalcar.com with the car page URL. Read the privacy page for what we store and what we will remove. A rental company that dislikes a fair report is not, by itself, a reason to erase it.
Changes
We can update these terms. The date at the top of this page is the version that applies. Continuing to look up cars or post reviews after that date means you accept the updated terms.