UKC

Any views on "usual suspects" positive or negative? We'll need a family car so bucket shops only dealing in Fiat Pandas no use...Centauro looks quite good if anyone's used it (and also likely *not* the choice of most holiday makers so better chance of avoiding the 50 people queuing at Hertz or whatever?)

Thanks

In reply to Nic:

My experience car hire in Spain is this: ifyou want cheap, go with 'Ryanair' equivalents like Centauro, Goldcar, or some random agency you find on the 'net. You will wait 15 mins to be picked from the airport on some transfer bus, then driven 15 minutes to the car rental depot, which is offsite from the airport.

As for queues, it's potluck regardless of which company you use - I have friends who have visited us here twice, and hired a car from Goldcar; the first time they didn't queue at all, the next time they queued an hour!

If you want to 'drive away' from the airport, but pay 20% or so more for the pleasure, then go with one of the bigger companies (Hertz, Avis, Europcar etc). These companies also 'swallow' a lot more damage than the budget companies - I've not been charged for a shattered wingmirror in the past (with Hertz), but friends have been fleeced for small scratches with Goldcar.

My personal take is that, for a weekend trip, go for a bigger company. The potential loss of time with the budget companies is not worth it. But, for a longer trip (say a week or more), where 20% suddenly turns into 100s of euros, then it may be worth risking the cheaper companies.

In reply to Nic:
FWIW I have used Europcar twice from Valencia airport and once had no queue and the other time about 10 minutes. It was in September and April though so maybe an off-season thing?

Some of these companies are so cheap how can they make money unless they charge you for damage on their massive excess policies? That is my worry. It cost £27 a day with europcar last time which is pretty cheap imo. Edit: just noticed you might need a large car so I guess the prices could be steeper. Mine was a 4 door seat ibiza both times I think.

In reply to Nic:
Definitely *don't* use Dickmann, I had a terrible experience with them a couple of years ago when hiring from Valencia airport. Had to go through the charge back procedure with my credit card company in the end to get my €950 deposit returned.

Edit: should say they were VERY cheap for the actual hire rates. I paid about €35 for 17/18 days, but the grief and hassle wasn't worth the'saving'.

In reply to beefy_legacy:


It depends mostly on luck. Cheap coach flight are always full and rentals put less personal in off-season.

If time is more important than money many rentals offer priority service. You still may end up in priority queue however, but most of time priority desk is free or 'normal' desks service people from priority queue making everybody else wait even longer.

In reply to Nic:

thanks all - looks like Europcar not too silly a price (I'll be needing child seats etc. so cost of extras also important), and far rather a better service than "dicking " around (pun intended...) whilst trying to crowd control two fractious 4 year olds!

In reply to Nic:

Cautionary tale about Europcar: when we collected a car at Alicante airport in February this year, there was a tiny mark on the paintwork - little more than a smudge, really. We asked the Europcar employee about it, who assured us that it was too insignificant to be worth drawing on the diagram or otherwise mentioning. On returning the car the (different) employee didn't agree, and we ended up with a major campaign on our hands getting our deposit back. Lesson: when picking up the car examine it extremely carefully and ensure that every little blemish, however small, is described and marked on the diagram - and don't trust anything they say!

In reply to Nic:
We used Goldcar outside the train station a few weeks ago. No queue and v straightforward. Wouldn't use Goldcar at an airport as they get busy.

In reply to bpmclimb:

I usually take a video of the whole car as a precaution anyway...never had to use it in anger but gives me some comfort!

In reply to Nic:

I think it can vary enormously company to company, but also location to location depending on the staff. So over the last few years we've had:

Europcar Toulouse - not great at all. Wrong car ie much smaller than I'd booked, dirty seats, stupid charge of 1c to my credit card.
Goldcar Malaga - was all tensed up waiting for the hard sell, and in fact they were lovely.
Centauro Alicante - worst experience ever. Massive & rude hard sell, followed by ridiculous high charge for a hairline scratch.
Sixt Marseilles - best experience ever. Smiling helpful staff, free upgrade, pleasant staff on return.

I can't advise strongly enough about getting independent free-standing car hire insurance. And personally I always hire from somewhere that is based in airport, especially after an experience with friends in Valencia where the car came from some random warehouse in the middle of no-where - fine for picking up, not fine at all for relocating it to drop off!!