Update to damage with Turo standard insurance
For a tldr, it is worth it to pay the extra on Turo's insurance, and take lots of pictures before and after.
I rented a Rivian to take my family and a friend up to Tahoe a few weeks ago. After reading a lot on r/Rivian, I thought it would be a good idea to pay for the extra Turo insurance instead of trying to save money as a simple fender bender might be $40k in damage.
We drove from the bay area up to Tahoe and back, and there had been a big snow storm the days before our trip. In our trip, I didn't notice any damage, and didn't hit anything, so I can only imagine the damage came from the rough road conditions and stuff getting kicked up. As you can see from the images, there were some light scuffs to the paint.
The day after I dropped off the car, I got an email from Turo saying that the owner was claiming damage. This came as a surprise as I didn't notice anything, and had actually washed the car before dropping off as a thank you to the owner, but I stupidly didn't take any pictures before dropping it off. I am not claiming that the damage wasn't there as it was relatively minor and I dropped the car off at 8pm at night, but I didn't notice it.
So what happened next? Turo asked me to fill out some questions, and they asked about my own car insurance (we have Geico) on the website, and if I had any pictures to put in. I put in all my details, and they asked for a $500 deposit, which was the limit with Turo's standard insurance.
A few days later, I got an email saying I was at fault, and the total damage was $161.50, which also included Turo's fees. Here was the breakdown:
- Damage amount: $61.50
- Appraisal fees: $75.00
- Processing fees: $25.00
They refunded me the remaining $338.50 from my $500 deposit. I don't know if they reached out to Geico (which according to the internet doesn't cover me with Turo).
The total cost of the rental plus insurance added ~40% to the total cost, but gave us a lot of peace of mind.
Posted Mar 6, 2026, 9:54 PM UTC