Car Hire Options in Spain

srisport

benjus wrote: »

My usual approach is to book with a site that allows free cancellation, then look for cheaper prices from time to time until the booking.

If the airline you're flying with has car hire deals it's work having a look - this was the cheapest option last time I hired a car.

yeah I'm thinking of doing this as i am now only 4 weeks away from the start of our holiday, on average how long does it take to receive your refund after you have cancelled a booking?

who did you fly with last time?

regards.

NiftyDigits

srisport wrote: »

yeah I'm thinking of doing this as i am now only 4 weeks away from the start of our holiday, on average how long does it take to receive your refund after you have cancelled a booking?

who did you fly with last time?

regards.

You should have just booked direct with Hertz using a discount code as I suggested in the first place. You can also cancel for free and get Quidco and cars less than a year old ...
With the Pound sinking, it's not going to get any cheaper.

srisport

NiftyDigits wrote: »

You should have just booked direct with Hertz using a discount code as I suggested in the first place. You can also cancel for free and get Quidco and cars less than a year old ...
With the Pound sinking, it's not going to get any cheaper.

Ive just booked my hire car, £145 for 7 days. Booked through Rentalcar.com with a company called Firefly? Anybody heard of these? the reviews on their website seem positive and I've not come across any bad feedback yet.....

I've also used my TopCashback account for a nice 4.04% cash back rate so hopefully this will come through to make it slightly cheaper.

good news swell is i have unto 48 hours before pickup to cancel with a full refund so i will keep my eyes peeled on last minute bargains.... if of course they will happen now we are out the EU :rotfl:

Any last tips of things and/or paperwork i should take with me? Ive read that we have to do something with DVLA now a days but i know martin lewis mentioned that very few people get checked out by the Rental companies? thoughts welcome

Regards.

NiftyDigits

I'm beginning to think that many on this forum use a rock for a brain.
At the time I posted(24th), Hertz(direct) offered the Corsa for less than £140 for the week....with 8% cashback.
Now, you are renting from Hertz's low cost brand Firefly via a broker for more. Hertz used to own Advantage which in Malaga used to rent cars out of a shack in the parking area. I felt sorry for the people queuing there and some of the cars offered were appalling.. They got rid of Advantage when they bought Dollar/Thrifty and FireFly was born. The cars that I saw from them were definitely newer.
Anyway, it's done. Next time, you might stop your messing around and act appropriately.

srisport

NiftyDigits wrote:

I'm beginning to think that many on this forum use a rock for a brain.
At the time I posted(24th), Hertz(direct) offered the Corsa for less than £140 for the week....with 8% cashback.
Now, you are renting from Hertz's low cost brand Firefly via a broker for more......
Anyway, it's done. Next time, you might stop your messing around and act appropriately.

I appreciate your comments and i did do a search direct with Hertz a day or 2 after your post but wasn't able to find the price you quoted.
I do not subscribe to Quidco, I am currently with TopCashback which last time i checked (year or so ago) offer competitive cashback deals as quidco do to free members - maybe this has changed?.

What i don't appreciate is being branded as having a rock for a brain! I may not be as savvy as you when it comes to saving money, but you do not know me nor will you ever with an attitude such as yours! The idea of this forum is to educate those who otherwise do not acquire the knowledge others have and by passing that along in a positive manner will help keep this forum a healthy environment.

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Booking direct with Hertz is coming around £140 for an Opel Corsa.
£20 per day is reasonable. If you think that you will get away with paying a tenner, you may come unstuck.
You might find with RecordGo and the like, that they too may require you to buy a tank of petrol.
No such issue if you book direct with Hertz. look for discount codes.

https://www.bettersafe.com/Products/Car-Hire-Excess-Insurance-Protection
£16 or so for the week.

you explain that paying £20 per day is reasonable, well after my cashback deductions my cover comes to £19.99 for a Corsa with a fuel policy of Full-Full and with a company who is part of the Hertz brand, better still i have the option to cancel 48 hours before the rental hire so bigger savings could be available!
I could have saved even more by renting a Fiat 500 but being 6ft tall, and having driven a fiat 500 previously i feel very cramped in these types of cars. I own a vauxhall corsa and find these vehicles adequate for their size.

Also Topcashback advertise a cashback rate of 3% for Hertz, whereas Firefly offer 4%

You mention better safe who offer a weeks cover for £16

After a bit of research i have come across https://www.moneymaxim.co.uk who compare a wide variety of companies for excess cover, better safe being one of them.
This lead me to a cheap quote from carhire excess.com who quoted me £12.53 and cover the following:
£5000 Excess
£500 Baggage
£500 Misfuelling
£500 Lost Key

item is BOLD is not covered with better safe

Considering this is my first ever Hire car rental, i don't think i have done so bad.

Thank you for your time non the less

NiftyDigits

srisport wrote: »

I appreciate your comments and i did do a search direct with Hertz a day or 2 after your post but wasn't able to find the price you quoted.
I do not subscribe to Quidco, I am currently with TopCashback which last time i checked (year or so ago) offer competitive cashback deals as quidco do to free members - maybe this has changed?.

What i don't appreciate is being branded as having a rock for a brain! I may not be as savvy as you when it comes to saving money, but you do not know me nor will you ever with an attitude such as yours! The idea of this forum is to educate those who otherwise do not acquire the knowledge others have and by passing that along in a positive manner will help keep this forum a healthy environment.



you explain that paying £20 per day is reasonable, well after my cashback deductions my cover comes to £19.99 for a Corsa with a fuel policy of Full-Full and with a company who is part of the Hertz brand, better still i have the option to cancel 48 hours before the rental hire so bigger savings could be available!
I could have saved even more by renting a Fiat 500 but being 6ft tall, and having driven a fiat 500 previously i feel very cramped in these types of cars. I own a vauxhall corsa and find these vehicles adequate for their size.

Also Topcashback advertise a cashback rate of 3% for Hertz, whereas Firefly offer 4%

You mention better safe who offer a weeks cover for £16

After a bit of research i have come across https://www.moneymaxim.co.uk who compare a wide variety of companies for excess cover, better safe being one of them.
This lead me to a cheap quote from carhire excess.com who quoted me £12.53 and cover the following:
£5000 Excess
£500 Baggage
£500 Misfuelling
£500 Lost Key

item is BOLD is not covered with better safe

Considering this is my first ever Hire car rental, i don't think i have done so bad.

Thank you for your time non the less

You did ok

If you couldn't find the price with Hertz at the time, you should have let me know. Price was £138 for the Corsa and less for the smaller car, before cashback.
Quidco offer 8% for Hertz and 5% for Rentalcars.
My point was that I would rather deal with Hertz direct than a broker and a low cost subsidiary
Nevertheless, you did ok and I hope everything goes smoothly for you..

Moto2

srisport wrote: »

Ive just booked my hire car, £145 for 7 days. Booked through Rentalcar.com with a company called Firefly? Anybody heard of these? the reviews on their website seem positive and I've not come across any bad feedback yet.....

They used to be called Advantage but had a 're-branding'

NiftyDigits

Moto2 wrote: »

They used to be called Advantage but had a 're-branding'

Not quite. They had to divest themselves of the brand when they bought Dollar/Thrifty.

Hertz cars were usually that year's model and Advantage used what seemed to be their older cars. I've no idea if they do the same with FireFly.

https://www.advantage.com/ is now completely unrelated and claim to have "one of the newest fleets". So clearly putting space between them and Hertz's Advantage.

PhylPho

Moto2 wrote: »

Have you looked at (reviews etc.) of Costa Blanca Transfers yet? or am I merely talking to myself?

Apologies to Moto2 for quoting her / his post, but it's a useful way to usher in my own review now of Costa Blanca Transfers. Hopefully it will be of assistance to others.

We normally fly into Almeria airport on our visits to Mediterranean Spain. We use Hertz at that airport. This time, circumstances meant we had to make Sunday flights into / out of Murcia San Javier, where Hertz has neither airport nor weekend operational presence.

We always research car hire options, using TripAdvisor location forums to query destination specifics. As a result of favourable T/A reviews, we made an online booking here:

http://www.costa-blanca-transfers.com/car-hire.htm

Booking & quotation:

(1) Costa Blanca Transfers is a long established and seemingly highly regarded company set up and managed by a team of British ex-pats. Though specialising in transfers, it has in recent years branched out into car hire.

(2) CBT quoted us 20 Euros a day for the 14-day hire of a Group A (Matiz-type) car, a total of 280 Euros.

(3) No extra charge was made for a second named driver. No fuel policy applied other than the eminently reasonable, and eminently sane, 'please return the vehicle with the same amount of fuel that was in it when you rented it'. No additional insurance premium was specified or sought.

(4) On the basis of the above and our extensive experience over many years of Spanish car hire, we considered the 2-driver all-inclusive and no-messing-about-fuel-policy Euro 20 per day hire charge to be excellent value.

(5) Payment could be made in cash on collection or by credit card. That cash option is unusual; it is also very welcome.

(6) Communications between ourselves and the company were excellent: no language problems, obviously, but more to the point, prompt and courteous handling of the booking.

Car Collection

We were immediately welcomed in the arrivals hall at Murcia San Javier by an amiable individual named Eddie, one of the ex-pat members of the Costa Blanca Transfers team. He escorted us past the queues already forming at the on-airport car hire desks, out of the building, across the road, into the covered car park and our waiting vehicle. (It should be noted that Murcia San Javier is a deliciously small airport, hence the distance from Arrivals to our car was all of . . . 500 yards.)

The Car

The vehicle was a petrol-engined Chevrolet (very probably, one of GM's re badged Daewoos) 4 door saloon of Group B size and specification. No additional charge was made for this upgrade.

The vehicle was probably around 3 years old and externally showed typical signs of usage in Spain: various minor scratches and a few minor dints. The interior was immaculate.

Significantly, the vehicle did not advertise itself as a rental car, a consideration which may not be of much importance to many hirers but was in our case greatly appreciated, as there are occasions in Spain where we are in locations where advertising that you're a visiting tourist really ain't A Good Idea. Personally, and regardless of country of hire or size / reputation of supplier, I detest car rental companies which plaster their corporate name all over a vehicle's rear window.

Processing / Additional Insurance

Processing consisted of Eddie filling out the hire form with details of the driving licenses of myself and my wife, and then handing us the car keys and car park exit ticket. And that was all it consisted of: no mention of any additional insurance requirement, still less any attempt to up-sell.

Payment

We paid 280 Euros in cash. We're experienced veteran travelers and thus free of the paranoia of those who seem to believe that if they carry any money around with them, they'll be mugged within minutes of landing on foreign soil.

I asked Eddie if he needed a credit card imprint. His reply: 'Nope. You've paid in cash so no need to mess around with credit cards. You're trusting us as a business. We're trusting you as a customer. Simple as that.'

Ah. . .

Fuel

We have in past times collected cars with something-in-the-tank which turned out to be half a litre and resulting panic stations to find the nearest filling station. On this occasion, we had a lengthy onward journey to undertake. It was gratifying, then, to find that the car had slightly more than three quarters of a tank of petrol. The caveat? Just bring it back with the same amount in the tank, OK?

Vehicle picture taking / blemish recording

This has become so integral an element of hiring a car nowadays that I already had my camera out, albeit I wasn't too sure how I was going to chronicle the various little scratches and dints, nor how we'd get 'em all marked up on the Vehicle Condition Form.

But then: there was no such paperwork. Eddie looked at the camera. Grinned. Said: 'No need for that. This is a hire car, this is a Spanish car. We know how it looks. All we ask is if you'll just take care of it as if it was your own for the next couple of weeks, OK? Any problems, incidents, whatever: just ring us.'

Elapsed time

We have a habit of timing rental car collections, be it on- or off-airport. (The record, incidentally, is on-airport at Lanzarote, where the utterly appalling AutoReisen once took 3 hours 17 minutes -- as long as our inbound flight -- to process the queue and provide us with the car.)

The time here was nine minutes. That's nine minutes from emerging from security into Arrivals to be met by Eddie and driving out the Murcia San Javier airport car park.

Car usage

During our period of hire, the car was used extensively. I have in the past been presented with seemingly pristine vehicles which then turn out to be accidents waiting to happen, so I'm much more interested in how a car drives / performs than if it's cosmetically perfect.

This car, though with around 50k kilometres / 30k miles on the clock, was as impeccably serviced and maintained as its interior was spotless: brakes, lights, steering, tyres, suspension, exhaust -- everything 100%. Whichever engineer had looked after it, he / she had done a first rate job. The ride was smooth, the engine responsive -- oh, and the aircon, though simple, was as good as it gets.

Vehicle Return

We returned the car to the airport car park and left it there with the keys and parking ticket locked in the boot. Nothing else was required of us. No paperwork to hand in. No desk to attend. No queue to join. No bodywork checking. No bother.

Verdict: Murcia San Javier airport car hire, June - July, 2016

Neither my wife nor myself have the slightest connection with Costa Blanca Transfers. Nor with any of the regular posters on MSE car hire related threads such as this (including Moto2). We travel worldwide and have done so for more decades than seems believable to even mention here. This review, therefore, is entirely unbiased and draws solely upon experience.

In this instance, the verdict has to be 10 / 10 -- or even, 11 / 10. This was a car hire experience so good that it made us nostalgic for long-gone days when car hire used to be like this yet no longer is -- or rather, is now again thanks to a company which, perhaps astonishingly, appears to operate on a basis of mutual trust and fair play.

Well done then, Costa Blanca Transfers: a rare find indeed. Long may it prosper.

NOTES: We do have an annual policy of top-up insurance for things -- like lost car keys -- which no supplier could ever reasonably be expected to cover. What's significant about CBT is that we were never at any time asked if we had such a policy, if we could show proof of such a policy, if we wanted such a policy etc etc.

That said, I would strongly recommend anyone hiring a car anywhere to have such a policy. However: do NOT purchase such insurance from a supplier or broker, but instead use the links provided in the main section of MSE.

Finally, and as has been noted, our experience relates to Murcia San Javier Airport (would that all airports were as cute and convenient as MSJ.) Costa Blanca Transfers also operates out of the comparatively vast Alicante airport, so although I've no reason to think the hire experience there will be any different to ours, the actual duration of that experience is unlikely to be a mere 9 minutes . . .

srisport

Rental Cars have recently emailed me recommending that I should check in to my car hire booking online to save time at the car hire desk?


Anybody any experience with this and should I do it or just check in at the desk when I have arrived in Spain.


Would checking in early cause problems if I faced any travel delays on my way to Spain?


Regards.