UKC

I seem to remember someone on here recommending Holiday Autos in the dim and distant past (Chris Craggs maybe)?

Are they still worth using in Mallorca? Their quotes are competitive, but do they contract through other dodgy companies?

All helpful responses appreciated...

In reply to steve taylor:

They aren't a hire firm, just an agent, so the service you get at the other end depends on who you're actually hiring from, which you don't find out until you've booked.

In reply to steve taylor: Always found Argus good value in Spain.

In reply to mark catcher:

mmm - Argus come under the CarTrawler brand, same as Holiday Autos, and come up with the same prices...

Still - they come up with quotes which are 70% less than Avis!

In reply to steve taylor:

We used economycarhire for car hire in mallorca over the summer. If you log in you get to see the car hire company used before booking and can exclude the companies with silly fuel policies etc, similar pricing to holiday autos when I looked.

In reply to steve taylor:

Gold Car are possibly the cheapest at Mallorca airport, but the length of the queue at the airport to pick up your hire car may be inversely proportional to the price.

We went in October and waited for 25 minutes to pick up our Avis car. Meanwhile, the queue for Gold Car looped around the arrivals lounge and I met someone who had waited over 4 hours and was still a distance from the front of the queue when they gave up and tried to get a spot booking at Avis instead. The next cheapest only had a marginally shorter queue.

I'm not sure if it's always like that, but on that day I was quite pleased we'd paid £100 extra.

In reply to steve taylor:

Not been to Mallorca for a few years, we have used Auto Europe for quite a time now, always been pleased with the service. They are a brokers, but the paperwork tells you which company you will be using.

As suggested avoid GoldCar at all costs,


Chris

In reply to RupertD:

Thanks Rupert. Avis want 1700 euros, compared with 500 euros for the same car/period at Argus/Holiday Autos = the difference means quite a lot of Sangria!!!

In reply to RupertD:


only in terms of the up front price, by the time the hidden extras are built in they are diabolical - avoid at all costs

Pre-booked Avis, Hertz etc can be surprisingly competitive - no hidden extras

In reply to steve taylor:

1700 euros !

What do you hire? I know someone who has just paid £75 for a car for five weeks out of Alicante airport.

In reply to steve taylor:

Always pay for car hire excess insurance online before you travel. It works out at least a third of the rental companies rates at £2/day. This is how the budget companies claw their money back from you! That, and the old 'full to empty' scam at 15-20% fuel cost- unfortunately you can't buy a tank of petrol online! Dunno about Mallorca but just had a decent 1.6 tdi for £25 for 2 weeks in Spain. They wanted to sell excess insurance at £7/day but we had already paid just £26 online- 50 quid for 2 weeks car hire ain't too shabby!

In reply to Rick Graham:

A golf for 2 weeks in July/Aug. 1700 is after applying my employer's discount code too!!!

In reply to steve taylor:





I have just put a week in June with Auto Europe and prices start at less than £50 for a Panda, about £75 for and Astra. What are you renting, a Bentley?


Chris

In reply to steve taylor:

I tend to use AutoEurope for Mallorca and have always ended up with a car from Goldcar. Never had a problem with them but I did once queue for about an hour in September. Have been there in December and April and hardly needed to wait.

Decent prices and a free extra driver. Didn't take the extra insurance as they include bodywork damage as standard, wasn't doing any offroading anyway!. Would be interested in hearing other opinions though.

H

In reply to Chris Craggs:

I'm after a golf/focus estate. I'm booking in the school summer holidays though.

In reply to steve taylor:

I plugged that in yesterday and got around £350 for Focus Estate for two weeks - BUT it was with GoldCar! I'd choose another option personally, even if it cost a few quid more,


Chris

In reply to Chris Craggs:

Just rang up Avis who were most helpful. As British Airways Executive Club member, I've secured a massive discount, plus airmiles on the rental - same price as the lower end of the market (Go/Record Car), plus the joy (as I've got Avis Preferred) of just walking out to the car and driving away!!!

I'm sure it will all go pear-shaped when I arrive, but at least I'm not worrying for the next 5 months about queuing for hours then having a row about fuelling/insurance!

In reply to steve taylor:

Nice one!


Chris