any car hire firms to avoid??

beamer88

:eek:Hi I will be hiring a car from Milan and leaving off at Lake Garda about a week later.

Being a bit of a n00b at this I was wondering if anyone had any wisdom to impart such as firms to avoid hiring from?

There are so many brokers out there and so many car hire firms it is really hard to know what you'll be getting!

Moto2

Goldcar

Not even with someone else's' credit card

spud_work

I'd always pay a little more to book direct with one of the big firms (Alamo, National, Hertz, Avis and the like) rather than going through a broker.

I realise that this advice goes against the entire theme of this website, but my personal view is that I'd rather know who I was dealing with as it is so much easier to sort out any issues.

richardw

Firefly seems to be one to avoid in Italy.

nobulljusttruth

Beware Euro 900 deposits.
I believe that this massive extra burden will spoil quite a few holidays.
My wife booked a car at Murcia airport and asked the booking agent what deposit was required
Being on a very tight budget, it was going on her credit card and the £200 she was told would be OK. She received the booking confirmation and yes the £200 was shown,
Then in small print and nor very clear, the extra £24 excess insurance was added to the hire cost, ten a smaller note stating Euro900 would be taken too. Despite the waiver insurance being paid.

Having to cancel the hire, she lost £16 cancellation fee and will now arrive at Murcia at 10pm with no car, and a 25 km cab fair to contend with.

THIS ABUSE OF SMALL PRINT should stop.
How many turn up to find their spending money destroyed in one foul swoop/

beamer88

Thanks guys - the issue I have found is that you don't know who you're booking with with most of the brokers!

Because we're going one-way it's working out so expensive!! It's tempting to go with the cheaper options but I've heard so many horror stories!

Atlas seem cheap but reading up on them they.don't seem reliable at all!

beamer88

Went through Avis in the end, called them up they even knocked a few quid off the online price without us asking! Theirs seems the most reasonable of all e big names! Happy customers!

Also girl said the deposit they take is the value of the rental + the cost of the fuel

GrannyC185

AVIS!!!!! beware - I booked through Expedia, paid £400 up front, sorted..............oh apart from the invoice and credit card withdrawal for £540 for 'extra insurance' that we didn't ask for and weren't told about......

stoneman

Moto2 wrote: »

Goldcar

Not even with someone else's' credit card

What they said. I have never used them but purely because I have heard so many bad tales. They must be the cheapest because every time we land at TFS the queue for their counter runs 20 deep. You can imagine how long it would take if you were number 19.

eDicky

We could make a list of all the worst culprits, such as Goldcar/Spain, Firefly/Italy, etc, (which I almost started doing a while ago), but as you can see right now on the sub-board for car hire, 'AVIS rental rip off' and 'Europcar scam' - it can happen with the supposed best of them.


I don't think the main problems lie with the choice of broker (although their quality of service varies of course), because you always have to deal with the actual car hire firm 'on the ground'. Also, the behaviour of particular firms varies between different rental locations, so it doesn't help when complaint reports fail to mention where it happened.


Overall I think it's best to be aware of all the pitfalls, especially at the critical moment of picking up your car. Be careful of everything you are signing, damage inspection and report, etc. You may have less chance of problems with a reputable firm, but you cannot take anything for granted. For example I have always managed to avoid the vagaries of Goldcar Spain and obtain a nice cheap rental, but got burned by Budget in Vancouver airport!