Do Mercedes aluminum wheels have visible lug nuts or bolts?

by philg

Question for Europeans and Mercedes nerds: Can a new Mercedes have aluminum wheels without visible lug bolts (I’ve been told that Mercedes uses bolts rather than the conventional nuts)?

Sixt rented me a 2024 E 300de at the Lisbon airport with the exterior covered in dirt/grime. This was at the end of a 1.5-hour rental process (line at the office in the terminal then a second line at the office in the parking garage). They cleaned the windows so that it was safe to drive, but didn’t clean up the wheels or body. Maybe because it was so dirty, they didn’t notice a scratch on one of the wheel covers that Sixt Porto complained about on return (the car was clean due to having been driven through rain so any scratches were 10X more prominent). Sixt later emailed saying they were going to charge me for an “aluminum rim” (they never sent me a photo of the purported damage). I happened to take a photo of the car and the detail below shows a wheel with no visible lug bolts/nuts and what I think is shiny black plastic. Does a 2024 Mercedes have some kind of magic system for attaching aluminum wheels where lug bolts/nuts aren’t visible? (The car actually failed after two days of our rental and was replaced with a similar-looking one that definitely had plastic wheel covers. During the final return in Porto, I found some Mercedes cars in the Sixt parking lot that had aluminum wheels and the expected visible lug bolts.)

Detail from Car #1:

The original photo from which the above was taken:

A random Mercedes in the Sixt Porto lot with conventional aluminum wheels and standard visible lug nuts:

Is there some magic alternative Mercedes system for wheel attachment in which the first photo above can be of an aluminum rim and not a plastic wheel cover?

18 thoughts on “Do Mercedes aluminum wheels have visible lug nuts or bolts?”

  1. I think you can rent a tesla and skip the lines.
    They send the car key to your app.

    • Ted: Renting a Tesla would have been a disaster in Portugal. You need to sign up to the EDP charging network in order to charge an electric car and, as a practical matter, this can only be done by a resident of Portugal with their equivalent of a Social Security number and a local bank account with IBAN number. I never saw an electric charger that took credit cards.

      (We had a plug-in hybrid that was delivered completely empty (i.e., Sixt didn’t charge it) and then we were never able to find any way to charge it.)

    • (I don’t understand how an electric car can be used cross-border in Europe. Portugal seems to have its own charging networks and systems that are unavailable to anyone who doesn’t plan far in advance of a trip. The people who set up electric cars say that they’re smarter than anyone who has ever worked in automotive tech before and then they ignore what is one of the big advantages of gas-/diesel-powered cars: anyone with a credit card or cash can buy fuel.)

  2. Car rental scam (more common w expensive cars + small rental companies): “you damaged some expensive part, so we are billing you for a new one + labor + loss of use while being fixed”. Meanwhile, the part is cheaply repaired or never replaced. Require proof the part was replaced, else escalate with credit card company.

    • Also be aware that some European-based (maybe others) car rental companies have so hollowed out their offering that your rental may become worthless or worse if the vehicle breaks down. For instance, Europcar, which also operates even flakier brands that major on false damage claims.

  3. I know nothing about Mercedes (I am faithful to my Hyundai Getz). But (just as example) I know that insurance companies in Europe (especially south-east Europe) often do not pay for damage as they should. If you sue them, you almost always win, but people often do not know this, or do not consider it worth time and pain involved, so insurance companies mostly get away with this. Sixt is not a small rental company, but I do not know how big and how independent their local branch office is. What Anon assumed that happened, sounds likely to me. They will almost certainly be able to produce some proof of repair, but it will cost them time and money, so you can make them some trouble, if you are inclined to do so.

  4. Many people use the terms “wheel” and “rim” interchangeably. I suspect that when Sixt is talking about the aluminum ring, they mean the entire wheel. Many “wheels/rims” are made of an aluminum alloy. Here is one web site discussing the difference between steel and aluminum alloy wheels:

    https://www.lesschwab.com/article/wheels/whats-the-difference-between-aluminum-and-steel-wheels.html

    As Anonymous has noted, many suspect that this is a way to boost the income for the rental car company. Just one anecdote, but I had a similar experience when returning a Sixt rental to the Las Vegas airport. Three months later I received an email saying that the rims were damaged. They showed some pictures with what I consider minor cosmetic scrapes, that I felt confident (but couldn’t prove) were pre-existing. They wanted something on the order of $750. Fortunately, I had used an Amex card which covered this (less $100 deductable). Since that incident I have tried to be much more mindful of taking lots of cell phone pictures of any rental car at the time of pick up.

    • Anon: Thanks for that. And, yes, I interpreted Sixt’s reference to “rim” to mean the entire wheel. Thus we still have still have the question of how there could be damage to a wheel that was covered by plastic!

  5. I would demand the date of the most recent photo of the wheel that didn’t show such a scratch.

    PS: After waiting for one hour plus to get a rental car from Sixt in Denver, the Viking family decided to never ever patronize Sixt again.
    PPS: The car they gave us had diluted coolant, and overheated when it got hot, leaving wife stranded needing an Uber, they did get us a replacement car, but it was quite inconvenient!

  6. This scam drives me crazy. Who cares about the rims on a rental car? They are close to the ground and will become ‘worn’ over time. Unless it was mangled, e.g. ruined by a mega dent from hitting a square curb at 60mph, then I am not inclined to pay.

    Surprised Sixt is playing this game, they are a big company.

    I used to have a Visa that covered rental car excess/damages. Only had an issue once, but was pleased that it was not my problem, the card company (my bank) just sorted it out.

    Which leads me back to my search for third party rental car insurance, so that I can just have a nice trip and not worry about the car. I have looked a few times, but not found the right provider. Also, I don’t want this policy from my normal car insurer, due to the potential for spurious claims from the rental company!

    Hope you solve the hubcap/rim mystery!

  7. Sorry, I cannot contribute with a constructive comment, i.e. one that answers the question.

    I have a counter-question though: Shouldn’t you get some sort of check-out document when you return the car? If they did not detect anything when you returned the car and if they did not mark it on that document, once you both sign it they can make no claim anymore. How can they prove that it was during your rental that the scratch appeared and not later? The only way would be to have a check-in document without the scratch and a check-out with the scratch. Normally when you pick up the car they charge the rental amount from your card and force you to authorize an additional amount (900-1000 euros, but I think after-covid it jumped to about 1500 euros) for the excess. Once you return the car and they notice no problem with it they should cancel the authorization.

    While such a scam would not surprise me from obscure local companies, it surprises me that it comes from Sixt. From my experience, it happens when you get the basic insurance only (CDW I think it’s called). If you get extra (3rd party, outrageously expensive) insurance, covering everything, it is less likely that the rental company makes a claim because then they would have to fight it with the big insurance company.

    I have a friend who uses one-off credit cards when renting cars in certain countries. Real cards, not virtual ones. After she returns the car she phones the bank and declares that she has lost the card and that it should be blocked.

    • They do have a check-out inspection, though it was hampered by the car being so filthy. For minor scratches, though, that have been accumulated over 13,000 km, the check-out inspection isn’t a panacea. The person doing the check-out might have different standards than the person doing the check-in.

      I didn’t buy any insurance from them because my credit card should pay. But I wonder if my credit card company won’t pay because (a) there wasn’t an accident, and (b) Sixt is claiming damage that couldn’t possibly have occurred (to an aluminum rim on a car with plastic wheel covers).

  9. I had the opposite situation renting a Mercedes from Hertz in Zurich. I brought it back with some curb rash I thought was my fault, so I told them about it.
    The agent went to his computer and quickly brought up photos of all four wheels, apparently taken just before I rented the car. He showed me that the curb rash was pre-existing and I didn’t owe anything.

  10. I got out of the scratched wheel “scam” by Europcar in Paris airport by asking for their report/photos, then producing mine showing the exact same scratches on the wheel when I picked it up.

    The thing that bothered me most is that they contacted me on my private email but I booked via Booking.com with my work email and card. They obviously found the info in some private booking from years ago. I considered ignoring it but I’m pretty sure they’d find a way to charge my private credit card even if I didn’t use it on this rental.

  11. I worked for a car rental company in my college time, nearly got fired when I missed a scratch on a dirt covered car upon return.
    It was also Sixt, from his reaction I surmise that the owner was somehow personally accountable. So maybe the branch owners also stand to profit personally when they charge you for random damages.

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