Car hire fuel policy should be stopped!

D_Dickenson

Thank you for this thread - I think it has helped me avoid getting ripped off.

I searched for a care hire for 2 days in Jersey in April. The prices on travelsupermarket looked very reasonable starting at £39. What looked strange was on prices of £44 for a economy car and £46 for a medium family both from auto-europe.

We thought lets splash out and spend the extra £2 on the big car - however on reading the terms that would involve being charged for a larger half tank of fuel that then needs to be returned empty.

What is deceptive is if instead of using travelsupermarket you book directly through the auto-europe website then the price for the larger car is more but they drop any mention of the fuel in the terms and conditions (for the economy the price is the same and the half tank condition is still there).

beuchaespana

I live in Javea, near Alicante, and two weeks ago I planned to travel to Galicia just for a weekend and bring back with me my relatives and personal belongings. No doubt I was going to need a wide comfy powerful vehicle, a kind of 5+2 seaters or stationwagon.

My first thought was to fly to Santiago de Compostela, get the rental car at the airport for the weekend, and then drive it to Javea where I would return it.

But to my surprise, one way rentals for only three days or less seem to be really expensive: Picking up the rental car in Santiago and returning it either to Javea or any close location -such as Denia or even Alicante- would mean to pay more than 230€ for only three days rental!

Being a bit disppointed, I went through many message boards looking for some advice regarding this matter and I ended reading the FAQ in Tipoa Car Hire website.

Once I did this, I reconsidered the fact of hiring the car in Javea or nearby and returning it in the same location. But the rental car rates were way too high still and the stationwagon model I was searching for was not available.


Then I decided to search Google for further advice and I saw a number of recommendations, suggesting that renting from an airport might be cheaper and give me a better choice of vehicles. Although I was not going to fly from Valencia airport, I gave it a try by searching again at Tipoa Car Hire.

So I finally rented a Stationwagon as it was my wish, with zero excess and insurance coverage for a total price of 50€ (15€ of which was my voluntary zero excess cover with Mondial assistance). The confirmation voucher was sent by email a few minutes later.

The information on the booking voucher revealed that the car hire supplier was Centauro, well known Spanish rent a car company that operates the FULL OUT/ EMPTY IN fuel policy. So my initial reaction was thinking that finally the 50€ rate wasn't that good, if I at the end I had to pay the initial tank of fuel at a premium per litre price...


I printed my voucher and once I presented at the Centauro Rent a Car facilities in Manises Polygon (their office is not at the terminal building but they provide their customers with a prompt bus service) the staff behind the desk fully explained to me their fuel policy regarding three or less days car rentals : for rentals of three or less days duration, they apply the FULL/FULL fuel policy.

Although I still had to pay a deposit for the initial tank of fuel when collecting the car, I was told that I had the chance of returning it with the tank full and that initial amount of money I paid as a deposit for the fuel would be reimbursed.

That was good news!


A rental car that didn't seem to be the better deal (because the fuel policy I thought they would apply) turned in the perfect rental car for 12€/ day; with zero excess; with tyres, keys and windows insurance.

I must say I wasn't that lucky the time before when I rented a car in Alicante airport with Tipoa also. The provider at that time was SIXT and even when the fuel policy they operates was FULL/FULL, I was not convinced at all of the rental car model they offered me, as it was not exactly what I was expecting to get or wanted.

So I guess the moral of this story is that FULL/EMPTY fuel policy might not be that bad sometimes; and that it is also worthy to consider renting cars from airport locations, as their open longer hours and offer better deals.

I loved my red brand new Citröen C4 Picasso with panoramic windscreen!

Ven a España, no est! nada mal.

macliam

Try finding someone in Faro who doesn't use this "Full out - return empty" scam (and it is a scam, as is anything that increases he headline rental without telling you how much the overall cost will be). This appears to have been imported from Spain, but it's now really widespread in the Algrave.

Fuel prices in Portugal mean that you can easily be charged over 100 euros for your inital tank of Petrol - and for anything over 3 days they do not refund anything left in your tank. Given that they don't publish their fuel charges up front and there is no set premium over the pump prices, the smart boys have worked out that this is a good way to make a killing!!

Then, if you need to drive over 100Km from your accommodation to the Airport, you hardly want to run out of fuel - so you're bound to have some in the tank when you return the car. Ker-ching, instant profit, enhanced by the initial high cost when they re-sell the fuel I've already paid for.

I've written to several of the rental agents like Auto-Europe to tell them that I will not haire a car except on a full-full (or at worst a same-same policy). They have offered to quote for companies who DON'T use this scam - but then the rental is 4 or 5 times as much!! Excuse me, but £32 a day for an economy car in Portugal, out of season, is hardly a good deal.

Like Ryanair, they manage to take the pleasure out of holidays. Unlike Ryanair, they don't even tell you how much it's going to cost until it's too late to change your mind. But if we all boycott the scamsters, maybe they'll change theirs.......

NFH

The Consumers' Association (Which) published a discussion article on this last weekend:

The hidden fuel charges that pump up car hire prices

Bogtrotter

Its a wonder no enterprising individual is taking advantage of this full-empty policy by offering to buy and extract unused fuel from hire cars.

Hell I'd maybe even consider paying someone to remove the fuel just for the satisfaction of running the car completely empty in the hire company's car park.

Unfortunately this practice will not change until people stop renting cars from these companies.

Resonate_1

Simple, sell the fuel to a local, thats what we did when we got caught by this. I also drove around in second gear for the whole time and when i did change gear didnt bother with a clutch... Whats that for lol?

Obv now I know better and will not hire a car abroad unless its full-full.

charlie127

I hired a vw golf in spain last week 21/04/12 for 7 days, paid 108 euros for fuel (full to empty policy only). I left the car back half full after driving around quite a lot, so fuel tank still had at least 50 euros in it.Goldcar supplied the car, total rip off:mad:

koru

I would have thought there is a good chance that this sort of policy is invalid as a result of EU directive 93/13/EEC, which was implemented in the UK as the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. The annex to the directive lists examples of terms that are unfair, and this includes “terms providing for the price of goods to be determined at the time of delivery". Unless Spain has not implemented this directive 19 years after it was brought in, there should be similar legislation in Spain. We need some sort of body to take action against these terms. Spanish equivalent of MSE or Consumers Association or the European Commission?

koru

Another thread mentioned carjet.com, which allows you to search for car hire and filter by fuel policy (and by other useful factors such as whether you pick up the car at the airport or you have to shuttle to an offsite depot). It has superb information about each hire company. I am very impressed. Good prices, too.

mercurystar999

Comparison sites should say how much the fuel will be at current prices so we know what we will roughly pay.

It's very hard to find a competitive quote as it could vary so much