Help: Who can help me? I'm a foreigner and I don't know the laws in Britain.

[eeoo]

I rented a car from Sixt UK via Booking.com on 29 October 2025 at Victoria Station.
The vehicle had a strong burning smell and unusually high fuel consumption shortly after pickup.
I contacted Sixt several times but received no timely assistance, losing three full days of my trip.
When I later went to the Battersea branch (as arranged by Sixt), staff spoke in a rude and dismissive tone, which made me feel racially discriminated against as a Chinese customer.
Sixt denied any issue, claiming it was “a new car smell,” and refused replacement or compensation.
All this is like a scam. I booked an Audi, but when I arrived at the store, I was told that it was only Volvo or I had to pay more to change cars. I checked Google's comments, and most of them accused this store of being a shameless liar. How can I defend my rights?I think maybe I don't buy insurance at the store, so give me a broken car on purpose?

Does the car show you the fuel consumption? Or are you guessing?
You have said they refused to return the car, so have you kept it, or did you leave it with them and now have no hire car?

He will show the remaining mileage and I will return the car the next day.

When I fill my car with fuel it takes several miles for the consumption figure to settle. In fact the estimated distance goes rapidly backwards for a while. Is it possible that the figure when you first got into the car was simply inaccurate? It could be the gauge is wrong, rather than the amount of fuel being used.

If it's as you say, it's a coincidence that the fuel consumption has increased and there is a serious burning smell.

" Because I'm not familiar with vehicles,"

I suspect this is the issue here. And this is the confusion, not your translator.

You also said the car had bad oil. That's a translation thing, in China petrol is called oil. I get that. But unless you are a me mechanic or a car buff, how would you know the oil was "bad".

First thing of course. The smell. Other posters have confirmed it was a new car. You say a burning smell, while admitting you are " not familiar with vehicles". I think it is safe for say the Sixt staff are familiar with lots of different vehicles, esp the recovery\ wagon driver.

I am not familiar with the car you hired, and I am not going to look up the owners manual here, Are you familiar with internal and interval air circulation in cars ? I am not saying that to be patronising. You might not know. Someone breaks wind in the car, or eats a smelly food, just switch the air selector to air from outside, instead of recirculating internal air. Or if you pass a pig farm in the coutryside, it's wind the windows up, and switch the fan to internal.

You say further down that you drove 10 miles, and the range predictor changed 180 miles? You even took the time to photograph it as evidence.

That come across to me as very odd, because I would ignore it. Use the old fashioned fuel gauge. Especially as you are just setting out, you are inner city, and the trip computer is trying to work out the conditions , and your style of driving. The computer is trying to estimate fuel use. You step hard on the gas pedal a few times, and the predicted range is going to drop right off. Especially if the last driver was eco aware.

I think this is the core. You have 2 main complaints, and I have maybe just explained them.

I also strongly suspect the Sixt staff, who are familiar with cars, would have explained this to you. And I can feel their possible fustration to be honest.

So, do you know about the switch on a car to change from internal to external air ?

If there was a smell in the car, it would be the first thing to do, switch the air intake .

I will still watch the internal circulation. I am familiar with the principle of vehicles. .

The range indicator in a car that's only a few days old is never going to be that accurate though. It's trying to predict how far you have left to drive based on very little information at that point.

Presumably since you originally hired it for 10 days it's gone back now anyway? Did you really only drive it 10 miles in total?

Also, since it's a hybrid, there's going to be a difference based on whether it was using battery or petrol.

No, the first leg of this car is about 10-13 miles on the first day.

Did you switch the fan from internal to external, or vice versa?

Smell is very subjective. And new car smell is a thing. People even write songs about it (Bruce Springstein, Used cars).

New car smell is volatiles burning off/ evaporating polymer mouldings, "Ahh, new car smell, nice"

Based on what you have posted, it seems to me the car was fine.

Do you accept what I and another poster has said about the trip computer, and the predicted range?

That it takes time for the computer to work out the various parameters, and 10 miles of inner city driving is not enough.

How often did you need to fill up on gas? That would be better proof of problematic gas consumption. If you were using 180 miles of gas after only traveling 10 miles, you'd have to refill the tank every 20 or so miles of driving. Were you? Showing the receipts (with locations and times) could help your case.

What case ?

It appears the OP is going by the trip computer, not the fuel gauge. These computers take time to gather info on driving style etc.

If I was working at Sixt, and a car was logged out with full fuel tank, customer returns car for " high fuel consumption", it's the fuel gauge I would check

!80 miles is approx half a tank. To lose that in 10 miles would indicate a leak. And that would be pretty obvious. The puddle of petrol under the car for a start.

Well, the OP seems to think that he/she has a case. I agree with you that, if anything, a faulty fuel gauge would be my guess. But he/she seems determined that there was poor fuel consumption so an obvious question (which, surely, they already asked themselves) is how often they needed to refill the car with gas.

And as a PP has pointed out, the car is a hybrid. That comes into play too.

As an anecdote, back in the day I was once given a hire car to use in the US. It was an GMC SUV truck thing. 4.2 liter. Put your foot down in that, and you could see the gas needle drop. One Sunday,I was sat at the wheel, open road ahead, lets see I said to myself. 15 minutes later, there I was parked at the side, scanning a map for a gas station. I had to nurse that thing for 20 miles. By the time I got there, I was sure it was on fumes.

I went easy on the gas pedal after that :-)

It's not the smell of a new car, it's a strong burning smell.

I didn't refuel, because when I picked up the car, it showed that it was full of oil.

There was no liquid under the car when I checked. I'm confused.

Right, but if the fuel consumption was as bad you thought it was (using up 180 miles "worth" of gas after driving less than 10 miles), you would have needed to refuel within about 20 miles of driving, having started with a full tank. The fact that you didn't need to refuel suggests that the fuel consumption could not have been nearly that and, as others have said, the issue was the gauge/your interpretation of the gauge.

Yup, there is no liquid under the car because it seems the car is fine.

You picked up a car that had a full tank, you drove 10 miles, noticed the trip computer had dropped estimated range by 180 miles, smelt a "burning smell", and from those 2 things, you concluded the car was faulty. Easy to work out what you thought the fault was.

The Sixt staff said not faulty,

And you want folk arrested, or criminally charged.

You also say above that you are not familiar with cars, you won't answer when asked if you switched the fan circulation from internal to external, in a new car, that the Sixt staff said had a " new car smell". You then say you are familiar with cars, instead of answering if you switched the intake or not. Switching to external air would have reduced the new car smell, as would opening the windows of course.

To lose 180 miles in 10 miles of city driving, approx half a tank, Quick look up, that would be about 24 liters of petrol lost. That sort of leak would likely leave a puddle of fuel. That's a lot of liquid, Thats 4 times the volume a of Rugby teams after game round of lager.

Are you seeing my logic here ? We are trying to work out if the car was faulty, and if it was, what could the fault be. A car leaking that much petrol out would not smell of burnt plastic. Petrol has a very distinct smell.

What did the fuel needle say after you stopped using the car ?

And hey, my browser is now covered with Sixt adds :-) I expect Volvo adds now, after looking up your fuel tank size. But hey ho :-)

DP sorry

So you rented it for a week but you took the car back after 3 days and they refused to swap the car because they said there was nothing wrong with it. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? Did you leave with the same car or no car?

“I will return to China in mid-January, so I don't know if I can sue him.”

OP, almost certainly not, given the time constraints - and having read all of your posts, I don’t think you have much of a case, either. I’d move on if I were you - avoid this car company in future, and enjoy the rest of your time in the UK, rather than becoming embroiled in a costly court case that you have very little prospect of winning.

You need to go through their complaints process first.

The car's calculated range indication is not a good way of measuring fuel consumption. It can go up and down for all kinds of reasons. The XC90 holds around 15 gallons of petrol when full, so a drop in range of 180 miles represents a little over 10mpg. That could be simply the car realising that you weren't going on long motorway drives where you would be looking at nearly 40mpg but were driving around London, where 25-30mpg was more likely, and consumption could be even worse if you had lots of short journeys.

Thank you very much for your help. I have submitted a complaint to the Bureau of Trade Standards.

Hope you keep us updated on what they say.

Good luck.