Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Car Hire advice - outside of UK

Martyn B

Martyn B

CF Legend
So I looking into hiring a car in Spain, but I really dont know who to go with, so I'd like some advice/recommendations, or useful tips on who to go for, and who to avoid.

Seems they all have an endless list of extra charges/conditions, take for example, Budget car hire; Pick the car with full tank, and regardless of how much is in the tank when its dropped off, there is a 75€ fuel charge - even if you fill the tank up. WTF?

Any help would be appreciated!
 
I've never heard of that & have rented from Budget in various countries without ever getting any such charge (I always return with a full tank). So I contacted Budget & inquired about renting a car in Spain. I asked if there was any fuel charge if I returned the car with a full tank & they said no. Don't know why they're telling you otherwise. :?
 
Thanks for doing that, but this is what it says on the website:

If you keep the car for 4 days or more just bring it back to us empty. We charge you 75 Euros (including taxes) for the fuel – and there are no refunds, so make sure you use it all up.
 
Martyn B said:
Thanks for doing that, but this is what it says on the website:

If you keep the car for 4 days or more just bring it back to us empty. We charge you 75 Euros (including taxes) for the fuel – and there are no refunds, so make sure you use it all up.
Click to expand...
Most (not all) hire cars companies will give you a car with a full tank of fuel. That statement is saying "if you have a hire car from us for four days or more, you can bring it back to us with no fuel and we'll charge you €75 to fill it back up."

In a nutshell, DON'T agree to this. Always say that you'll bring the car back with the same amount of fuel as you started with - this is ALWAYS the cheapest option. Take Enterprise (in the UK) for example, if you bring it back with less fuel than the start of the hire period, they will fill it up back to that level at an inflated price (usually 20p a litre more).

If it has 1/2 a tank when you hire it, return it with 1/2 a tank (or more). Unfortunately they never refund you the difference if you bring it back with more! Just never bring it back with less!

Other was of making hire car cheaper.
  • Avoid hiring from airports if you can (not easy). They often charge an airport release fee and have slightly higher prices due to the convenience.
  • I would strongly suggest taking any sort of "super insurance" they offer. This will severely reduce the excess you would have to pay should the car be damaged. This is usually £10-15 extra per day.
  • Return the car to the same place you picked it up from. All hire car companies charge extra if you return it to a different location than the pick-up.
  • Don't overspend. Just because it tempts you with "only £4 to upgrade to the next model up", don't take it. Consider the size of the car you need and stick to it. If there are only two people, something Yaris size is plenty big enough. If there are 5 of you, a Golf is probably the best bet.
  • In some countries, they charge a "tourist tax" or something some kind of "registration tax" to non-nationials. Check the small print.

In the UK I use Enterprise because it's cheap, convenient, has a good loyalty scheme and decent motors. Abroad I've used Avis, Hertz and Europa. Ultimately it depends on price and convenience so you'll have to shop around.

One final piece of generic advice is try to get an automatic. I get the impression that you're not too confident about driving abroad. If you can eliminate the need to manually change gear (remember that the gear stick will be on the wrong side, unnatural in Europe), you'll find it easier. When we went to Italy last year I forgot to order an auto and spent the entire duration opening the drivers door everytime I wanted to change gear. Ok, that's an exaggeration but the whole unnatural driving position (and being on the wrong side of the road) added to my frustration whilst battling through the turdio Italian traffic.
 
^^ right but thats just an option... dont take that deal and take a "bring it back full" deal instead.

I usually try a variety of broker sites until I get a good deal and then try to work out who they are brokering for (if its not explicit) and then try the actual rental site as well.

So try holidayautos / expedia / holidaysupermarket / lastminute etc etc etc

(but never hired in Spain so might be miles off here! :) )
 
Thanks, I just got the impressiong that this - "so make sure you use it all up" - was translation for - "no matter how fuel there is, we're charging you!"

And the thing is, that wasn't even an option, its just under their t&c's on the payment page.

I have heard of some of the fuel packages you can take out, but I just found that 75€ charge from Budget, a bit extreme, and I used it as more of an example of the ridiculous poloicies some of these hire companies have.

■Avoid hiring from airports if you can (not easy). They often charge an airport release fee and have slightly higher prices due to the convenience.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I dont have much choice, but I am intending on paying online before we go, so will I have extra charges when I pick it up?

One final piece of generic advice is try to get an automatic. I get the impression that you're not too confident about driving abroad.
Click to expand...

Again, I dont really have much choice, as the auto's are all the massive cars (Insignia etc). I'm not exactly 'not confident', I just haven't done it before. Just like I hadn't drove abroad in my own car, but as soon as I done it, I found it easy, and realised there was nothing to worry about. I'm sure it will be the same with this.

Oh, and I'm definitely going to be taking out that Super Insurance, robbing bastards.
 
Martyn B said:
■Avoid hiring from airports if you can (not easy). They often charge an airport release fee and have slightly higher prices due to the convenience.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I dont have much choice, but I am intending on paying online before we go, so will I have extra charges when I pick it up?
Click to expand...
Probably not. If you're hiring from an airport, the price they quote should include release fees, taxes etc.

Oh, and don't forget you'll need to put down a deposit when you pick it up. Every hire car company I've encountered does it differently. Some take debit cards, some insist on credit cards. Some take the money when you pick it up and refund it when you return it, whereas another might just "reserve" that amount on your credit card and take it should the car be returned damaged/not at all. So yeah, make sure you've got a credit card with a few hundred quid spare on it when you pick it up. Again, check the T&Cs and deposits vary from company to company, car to car.
 
I bet if you look at the airport there will be places just outside. But you probably won't be able to pre book them.

Spain is bad for car higher they are really pushy when it comes to upgrades just say no.

Also book the extra insurance when you book the car, do not do it in Spain as they charge more for it.

As people have said don't take out the fuel policy just return the car full. I made this mistake in Scotland and we only used 1/4 of a tank.

If you book everything before you go then you know when you get there you don't need anything more.
 
See, this is why I started this topic. I just booked the car hire for Madrid, and then cancelled it half hour later.

I went through Travelsupermarket, and the site I was then directed through was another 'comparison/broker' site, but I didn't know that until I had booked. And this site, Argus car hire, are part of the reason I had to cancel it. Firstly, like I said, I thought I was booking it with them, as they give no names of the actual car hire company you would be using. Secondly, I wanted to pick the car up from the airport, and it was made pretty clear throughout the bookin that it would be picked up at the airport. Until the booking was complete, and I was told that I would be hiring with Pepe car hire, who aren't located at the Airport. :roll:

They are located a couple of miles away in some residential area, great. So I have to phone them on some premium number, then they send a bus to collect me and take me to the office. None of that is necessarily a problem, but when I read the reviews from other users, it sounds like they're not very reliable, takes ages to get through, takes ages for bus to arrive, and then, there's no car park at the depot, the cars are just parked in the residential area, and it can take some time before you can find your car. Some people were saying it took 4 hours from calling them, to driving away. So I had no choice but to cancel it really.
 
Oh, and I just remember another reason why I had to cancel, kinda the main reason really, a few people had said that about 2 months after handing the car back, their credit cards were charged around £40, for no apparent reason at all.

I know you shoulnd't always go by what other people say, but there were too many people complaining, all about the same issues, and they weren't like noob posts, they were well written etc.
 
ECG said:
I've never heard of that & have rented from Budget in various countries without ever getting any such charge (I always return with a full tank). So I contacted Budget & inquired about renting a car in Spain. I asked if there was any fuel charge if I returned the car with a full tank & they said no. Don't know why they're telling you otherwise. :?
Click to expand...

Just spoke to Budget on the phone, and they confirmed what the website says; If you hire a car fro 4 days or more, you will be charged 75€ for fuel, regardless of how much fuel is left in the tank when you return the car. Thats obscene really.
 
That's really ****. I've never heard of it happening before.

I never use price comparison sites - they're a load of bull.

A smaller brand I really liked in Italy were Auto Europe (different to Europe car). I think they operate across other countries too and were cheap and friendly
 
It's interesting to see people recommending all the extra insurance, there seems to be a big difference between different companies and their damage policies.

When I hired a car in the states last time, I went through Car hire 3000, they sold the package on behalf of Alamo. When I picked the car up another customer warned me to highlight any scatches or existing damage. There wasn't a sheet in the car to do this, as it turns out, it's the job of the woman working on the exit barrier to fill in the sheet for you on your way out. We highlighted a couple of bits but there were quite a few scratches that weren't noted. We never had any problems when returning the car, infact the woman who filled the sheet in for us seemed suprised that we bothered at all.

On the other hand when we recently had a courtesy car through Avis after a minor smash in our car, we found a chip on the windscreen but hadn't noticed it until a couple of days in. We gave them a call and they sent someone out to fix it but as it turns out it had already been filled (I've never had a windscreen chip filled before so I didn't realise you could still clearly see the damage) A week after the car went back they contacted us trying to get us to pay an excess for the windscren to be replaced. We disputed it and haven't heard anything for well over a month so were hoping that's the end of it.
 
I definitely agree with not using the comparison sites, even though the prices are so much cheaper, they all have weird little problems, like excess amount being really high, they're not actually located where you want them to be etc.

I've given up and just gone with Avis, judging by reviews they seem quite good. Its worth giving them a call too - I got a price of £112 online, but on the actual booking page, a little 'call back' pop up appears, I got them to call me back as I had a couple of questions and they instantly dropped the price to £95.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top