Thursday, March 31, 2016

What to do if my Avis rental car broke down in florida and Im from england?


I flew into Orlando from London, and Ive been touring the state of Florida in an Avis rental car. Im a single woman, 22 years old and I am a bit of a "adventure traveler".

I decided to go on an everglades excursion in the 2014 ford fiesta that I had rented from Avis in Orlando. I started on SR 29 near Copeland, FL. Its a little dinky hamlet near Everglades City. I then ventured out into some areas with no cell service and some really rough rodes, praying that the car would work.

After wandering around in a maze of roads, trying to keep going in a roughly westward direction, I bottomed out multiple times, and hit potholes with a loud scrape each time,

I then got out onto an extremely rough road that kept getting rougher and rougher, and I bottomed out with a loud thud onto an area of hard boulders.
The car then went ding ding ding, and a little red light that looked like a genie lamp came on on the dashboard. Soon a little yellow engine light came on.

I kept on trying to make it to naples florida, heading generally westward the best I could, and then as the engine was running really rough, there was a loud BANG, and the car just gave out.

Smoke poured from the bonnet for several minutes and now the key doesn't do anything when I turn it.

I really am lost, and don't even know how to give a tow truck my position, my coordinates are 26.095618N by 81.618405W. How far is that from naples, and can you name a street. Is there an easy way I might fix the car?
Added (1). The rental company should be able to tow me to Naples if I could get street name. I am hopelessly lost, I have a garmin GPS watch that I use so I can report my location to cops, and thankfully my ipad gets service so I can ask online for help, it seems maps of this area are really lacking. THE RENTAL CAR SHOULD TOW ME, EXPECIALLY THEY CHARGED ME LIKE a huge daily driver fee in addition to the rental, is this for extra insurance in case of something loke this?
Added (2). Will I get stuck with a big tow bill, I really don't want any added expense. I was planning on spending time on the gulf side of FL and I need all my money for things like deep sea fishing, and show tickets, and stuff. What is there to do to fix the car and will I be stuck with a tow bill, if there are repairs will I have to pay for them, or if I do, I hope the repairs are cheap?

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