Spanish car rental

[Mr E]

Looking at a week in Majorca/Mallorca.

Car hire looks very cheap indeed.

Who are the wide boys to avoid (GoldCar rings a bell as being a disaster)?

[stevemcs]

Where are you collecting it from ?

[mchoody]

Terry’s Car Hire.

[Mr E]

stevemcs said:

Where are you collecting it from ?

Airport.

[valiant]

We used Avis when over there. Was pretty painless but not as cheap as some operators.

Quick tip, the car hire desks are near to the baggage carousels so send someone ahead to wait in line to do the paperwork for your car while you get the cases or vice versa if you spot no queue at car hire.

Cars are parked in the multi-storey across from the main terminal.

[stevemcs]

Depends if you want on or off site, on site Vanrell, no rip off fuel charges or insurance. Off site, Hiper and Wiber, Wibers are new, Hiper were looking a little battered when we were there last week. Vanrell had some discounted offers or certain cars.

[Mr E]

Not suggesting that we’re cheap; but flights to Menorca were significantly cheaper.

So, Menorca it is. The boy preferred the pool anyway.

[mercedeslimos]

If Centauro have an office there, rented with them 5/6 times on the mainland. Always decent. RecordGo are another decent shout too.

[goingonholiday]

Hiper are also in Menorca and ibiza, very straightforward to deal with!

[eybic]

I can highly recommend Vanrell, no pushy sales ste to get you to take their insurance (get hire car excess insurance before you go) and no issue both times I've hired and they get good reviews on the FB groups. Collect and drop off the car in the airport car park.

As extra security, pay with a prepaid card (revolut is good) then when you hand the car back you can turn the card off so they can't put any charges on after you've left although that does seem to be the MO for other companies rather than Vanrell.

[stevemcs]

You can pay cash with Vanrell if you want, no card needed

[RanchoGrande]

I had a hideous experience with Gold Car last month. Please don't use them, they don't deserve any business at all.

[RSpiston]

Spent a week in Menorca in Aug. Best deal I could find was AutoValls - still expensive imo @ 150E for 3 days, but still cheaper than the big boys. Fuel policy Full to Full. Drove a Suzuki Swift which wasn't bad at all tbh.

How does the above compare to Majorca quotes ?

[EarlofDrift]

Don't forget the classic line a lot of the car hire companies use now.

"Oh, but sir, you'll need this extra insurance policy you've never heard about before"

A lot of them have you over a barrel the minute you walk into the place.

[anonymous-user]

You don't need to avoid anyone if you:

Take out EU car hire insurance in the UK . Either for the period, or the year.

Book full-full (saves any hassle on return)

Stand your ground, be firm but polite, and say no to ALL insurance offers, and stories that your insurance is not valid. It is valid. One even said to me, after accepting that I was clearly happy with my own insurance '"but that's not our insurance sir". That's all she could come up with.

Accept you'll be laying down a large pre-auth on your credit card as a deposit. (Don't use a debit card. They won't take it)

I've done this countless times in Spain with car hire for a few cents a day.

Most companies are fine once the see they are flogging a dead horse. Some are overly pushy. Makes no odds, but if you are easily intimidated then this is not for you. Personally, I see it as a fun game. Understand that they make all their money selling the insurance, so don't rub their noses in your bargaining prowess.

I've used all the usuals, including gold car. They vary from airport to airport. If had great experiences with gold car in Alicante before.

The one single exception I'd mention is gold car at Pisa airport. Truly shocking. They make you wait in specific queues as "punishment" is you don't take out their insurance. People report throwing their keys at them and running to catch departing flights.

P.s. I rented two cars (large group) this March in Alicante for around 1.15 euros a day for 5 days. Full-full. The decimal place IS in the right place. Insurance from the UK cost around £18 per driver. £36 in total. I did the usual and got my keys, I then had to go and "rescue" my mate who, although fully briefed by me in advance, was caving in, convinced that the insurance I advised him to buy wasn't "enough". He also was about to allow them to "upgrade" his car for an extra charge. Two hour drive. Park car for one week. Two hour return drive. No point in an upgrade! He is quite a timid guy, but you get the point.

He actually genuinely said after getting the keys that he'd rather have paid extra not to have "gone through that". That's why they do it!

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 5th October 09:07

Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 5th October 09:08

[Mr E]

Noted with thanks.
Separate order insurance seems the order of the day.

The last time I rented at end of season, the car was somewhat “pre owned”. I started pointing out the various damage, and she just put a cross through the entire car, threw me the keys and said “don’t roll it”.

[stevemcs]

RSpiston said:

Spent a week in Menorca in Aug. Best deal I could find was AutoValls - still expensive imo @ 150E for 3 days, but still cheaper than the big boys. Fuel policy Full to Full. Drove a Suzuki Swift which wasn't bad at all tbh.

How does the above compare to Majorca quotes ?

Vanrell when we were out there last week were doing 3 days for the price of 3 so 50 euros for the hire of a Panda. No additional insurance needed unless you wanted to cover tyres and glass.

[anonymous-user]

Mr E said:

she just put a cross through the entire car, threw me the keys and said “don’t roll it”.

Brilliant :-)

[Mr E]

Anyone used poppycars?

RogerDodger said:

Mr E said:

she just put a cross through the entire car, threw me the keys and said “don’t roll it”.

Brilliant :-)

She was very Corsican. We spent 3 days chasing the rally round the island. I was overtaken by Sebastian Loab running between stages.

[Shnozz]

mercedeslimos said:

If Centauro have an office there, rented with them 5/6 times on the mainland. Always decent. RecordGo are another decent shout too.

I hire about a dozen times a year on the mainland and tend to use either these two or OK car hire. RecordGo and OK are off site though so its a short mini bus trip. On the downside, I have seen long queues with Centauro before which is never a good start to a holiday.

Either way, as has been said, third party excess cover is a must and an annual policy is little more than a one-off if you have any other trips in the next 12 months. I use Questor for mine but seem to recall that was because I got a few quid back with quidco as well as a reasonable price - about £30 IIRC for the year.

One thing to note is that if you go through a broker (doyouspain etc) then you might think you have a better deal than going direct to the hire company, but the T&C's via the broker later saddle you with fees at the desk so the overall cost transpires to be more. The "fuel recharge" policy is the one I have noticed mainly - as in even if the policy is "full to full", the car hire firm will often add a €20 fee as a refuel charge that is mandatory if you go via a broker - they don't charge that if you go direct. It's another of the little cons to catch you out.

The other scams I have heard about (albeit haven't suffered) are to check the jack etc is in the boot under the carpet as have heard of them omitting it and then charging it to the punter as you never think to check. Same with central locking that they disable on the door as a hirer only tends to use the remote so when they return the car and the door lock doesn't function.... These might be shaggy dog stories that you read online, but I always check these and in fact found last week a central door lock f***ed on a hire car - in this instance it was in fact marked down on the damage sheet voluntarily (by Centauro in fact).

I do a walk around, photo any damage regardless of whether its on the sheet already or not, add on the sheet any additional marks. Photo the mileage (most are restricted these days but generous enough unless you are doing a thousand mile road trips!) and a photo showing where the petrol gauge is.

I have heard many horror stories but have experienced none to be fair. And if I do, I'd like to think the excess insurance covers it...

Oh, and remember, you often need to use the same card to pay the "held charge" when you decline the insurance as you used for the booking. So make sure you have a sufficient ceiling on that card. Another of the scams is that you cannot use a different card for this excess hold policy - it needs tobe the same one you paid for the hire with. And the excess also depends on what size car you have - one week I had a €1200 excess as I was in a Fiat 500. 2 weeks later I hired a bigger car and the excess was €1400. That would have been fine until I found the card I had used for the booking had a "stop limit" on transactions over €1250. So the card was declined as the transaction was over that, I wasn't then allowed to hire the car without taking their €350 excess insurance and the cost of the hire car was €102. At 1am, after having waited for a desk at the hire car place since my flight landed at 10:30pm. To say I was peeved was an understatement.