Rental Car Defaulters

[Citroënbender]

Curiosity. I see a reasonable number of self insured ex-rentals go through the salvage auctions, often newer low-end SUVs like the ZS. Quite a few are heavily trashed inside, yet they’re not listed as stolen-and-recovered.

Are people hiring a car using flaky documents or with no real ability to sustain the cost, and then running it until someone reels them in or it’s undriveable? How much slack do hire car companies typically give a person who’s failed to render payment as agreed?