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?

Ok, thank you. Good luck.

Trading Standards won’t be able to help as they don’t deal with basic contractual disputes. I suspect OP has googled ‘scam’ and found them (because they do deal with scams’) but this isn’t one of them.

OP I have no idea how to advise you (I have some legal experience) because you haven’t said whether you were left without a car after you returned it or not or if they offered you any alternative.

If you had no car for days 4-7 of your booking you need to make a formal complaint to Sixt requesting a refund of the remaining amount and your deposit. If they don’t return it within a reasonable period or reject your complaint then you can use the small claims court.

If they said there was nothing wrong with the car and you refused it or you refused a reasonable alternative then then you can still try the above but it may be more difficult, especially any court claim.

Sorry should have said. Once you have exhausted Sixt’s complaints process you can try https://www.bvrla.co.uk/consumer-advice/making-a-complaint-adr/adr-procedures.html rather than the court route

Thank you for your help.

Thank you for your help.

@eeoo One point to add is that if the car genuinely had a major fault, sixt's action makes no sense - they would not have wanted you to continue driving it and the risk of long term damage to the car would be much higher than the cost of providing a replacement (or compensating you if they didn't have an available replacement). I strongly suspect that it wasn't faulty. This is backed by the fact that your evidence for there being excessive fuel consumption seems to be based on the range changing, rather than actual fuel usage.

They may have been rude, and they might have not provided good customer service, but it seems very unlikely that they would have allowed you to continue using the car if there was a serious fault of the type you described.

When you called roadside assistance, what did they say? Did they confirm the car was faulty or tell you anything at all?

Road rescue just drove the car away and asked me to sign it, without saying anything else.

Did they drive it, or was it on a truck?

Drove it away.

Because you did not like the smell, and the trip computer was out.

Did road rescue at least say " ok", as they shrugged their shoulders ?

Referencing earlier posts above, did you notice a trail of petrol behind it as they drove it away ?

I suppose OP, looking back, there is one question a PP asked earlier that you did not answer, and needs expanded.

From your original post. Quote " 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..."

Only a Volvo.

Is the car you drive at home an Audi ?

Volvo is owned by Geely is it not.

Volvo Cars – Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (zgh.com)

Only a Volvo.

Audi is owned by VW. VW is German owned.

I am grasping at straws here to understand.

We know you wanted an Audi.

Why ?