UK Car Repair: Citroen lug bolts, national car rental, lug bolts

Question
John, I recently rented a new Citroen from National Car Rental in Barcelona.  I was then victimized by the "flat tire good samaritan scam." As I attempted to change the tire, only three of the lug bolts were removable; the fourth had a non-standard head.  By bthe time I figured it out, the thieves had removed everything of value from the car without my knowledge. Is this a regular feature of Citroens or should I suspect that National employees were in collusion with the thieves?

Answer
I am glad you posted this question as it will allow me to make statements on quite a few different subjects that I find to be noteworthy.

Ok, rule number one...

Never leave your vehicle when you see someone on the side of the road.

Pull in front of them with two car lengths or more between you and their car. Roll down the window and ask them if they need help, do not leave the car! If they approach your car lock all the doors and roll the window up enough so as you can talk to them... but they cannot reach in. Leave the car in gear at all times. If they ask you for assistance, offer to call the motor club or the police for them.

Rule Numeral Two...

Do not accept help when stranded as well. Always contact the auto club or the rental agency when you run into a problem like this. If a passer by offers help, always get back into the car and never allow them into the car. Never allow them to work on the car. You can request that they call the rental agency for you if you have any problems and if they insist that it is foolish to wait, insist that it was specified in your rental agreement that you are not allowed to work on the car.  

Section three of four...

As for your mystery lug nut, these are common on most cars to prevent the theft of expensive alloy wheels. I have also run into this problem on cars as a preventative measure to keep people from renting cars to use in competition evens.
I like to rent Outback’s and WRXs for use in rallies instead of driving my own car. I use my own tire and wheels and magnetic stickers. After the rental agencies round the USA got wind of this, they started installing anti theft lug nuts on all their cars. This never stopped us from removing them, but we have the technology to do so and many road going travelers do not.

Part four of the prior three quarters....

I also suggest never buying used rental cars as I can tell you that on certain events we would rent two cars. One for the competition and one for parts. Some of these cars got pretty banged up and we have always repaired them to better than issued condition before returning them using factory parts. But not everyone is as thorough as we are. As a certain American comedian once said "Buying a car from a rental agency is like finding a wife at a whore house, anything that has been driven that long and that hard you probably wouldn't want to put your key into!"  

General Advice Section...

I assume that you could contact the authorities who would be able to establish if this was a regular occurrence with automobile rental clients or just one of those things that happen to people every once and a while. Take heed next time! Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me!


Happy Motoring,

Regards,

John