Car Hire on the Costas

thistledo

Just got back from Costa del Sol, all car hire firms at Malaga airport now charge for a full tank fuel, on top of car hire charges!! AND you return the car with empty tank. If you don't use all the fuel there is NO REFUND, so Hire firm makes extra profit!!! If you hire only for one week you've got to spend the week driving round to use fuel up. Have you tried taking a car back with an empty tank. Also got charged 55 Euro for the full tank by the hire firm, I did use all the fuel, and filled tank again cost at local garage 29 Euro, something wrong again . Any suggestions how to overcome, except don't hire car. NEW RIP OFF ??
THISTLEDO:beer:

LesD

Welcome to MSE.

If you do a search on "Car hire in Spain" you will find many threads on this topic.

There are hirers who will do full-to-full (not sure about Malaga) but they will usually charge €10-20 premium over the full-to-empty brigade.

Also, most hirers will do a full-to-full for short hires (up to 3 or 4 days).

Car hire rates in Spain are among the cheapest around, so this is where the hirers make their profit. It is certainly possible to return the car near to empty. But you probably need to be a regular hirer to know the quirks of individual car fuel gauges! i.e. does a warning light mean you have 40 miles of fuel left or are just about to run dry!