Ideas desperately needed

[morgaina]

I have decided to avoid the Christmas Rush and get started on my worrying now:

Oldest son & DIL are flying into Seattle just before Christmas. Then they will pick up dancing_guru, rent a car, and drive to Moscow. This will be just a few days before Christmas.
When dancing_guru contacted the rental car companies they told her they do not allow chains to be put on their cars and do not have snow tires available for their rentals either. The company said All-weathers should be fine, FOR OVER THE PASSES, ARE THEY INSANE? ARE THEY STUPID?

Does anyone have any ideas how to solve this dilemma?

Comments

[mrq-laurellen.livejournal.com]

My first thought was the same as FreewayDiva - reserve a good SUV and buy chains anyway... or rather, buy those cables that are available. They are good (they get my car over the pass just fine) and paired with an SUV, they will work even better.

I think that telling the manager is just going to get the same response. None of those car rental places are going to be enchanted with anybody even driving one of their cars in such conditions, let alone with cables on.

In this case, I personally would swallow my normally law abiding nature and just not say anything about where I was going with the car and what I was doing with it. And I'd get that extra insurance that they provide which takes care of damage... and I'd drive slow if I had to use the cables.