Last week we hired a Volkswagen 'Up' from Alamo at Edinburgh station. It's a very nice, albeit 'buzzy', three cylinder Bluemotion car. Our first problem was that we couldn't get the car to turn over on the key, and there was no user manual to interrogate. Eventually we found out from the hire desk that the stop / start function requires you to depress the clutch to get ignition. Another point of concern was that not only was there no spare tyre, but no means of wheel removal or temporary repair. The Alamo desk gave us the following comment – “Volkswagen remove everything from the cars on supply to us, because otherwise they get stolen".

I appreciate that that spare wheels have gone the way of the Dodo, but isn't there still a requirement to provide some sort of temporary repair to get you home or to a garage? As far as I'm aware the car didn't have 'run flat' tyres, so we could have been stuck, dangerously, at the roadside for an extended period.