This can’t be right surely!?

Kev64

I’m using the usual search engines (Kayak etc) to find car hire in Spain for four days. The first dozen results are all under £10! The first few are actually £2. Yes... two quid - for four days!

Once you scroll past the silly prices, the normal, more believable ones take over, £75 up.

This happened when I was looking earlier in the year too. With multiple search sites as well. I even phoned one of them up to check it wasn’t an error and was assured that it wasn’t and would I like to book it. I refused to believe it was kosher so opted for one of the big name outfits.

How on Earth can any company offer car hire for 50p a day?? Go search yourself and you’ll see I’m not making this up!

Right now, I’m in Menorca and wasn’t originally going to hire a car but I’ve changed my mind now I’m here and so searched the local renters... all around the same £70+ price, as are the big name renters on the search engines but STILL there are loads for £5 and under if you specify airport pick up and drop off (i.e. they are assuming you’ve just arrived).

I’m seriously considering booking one of these ridiculously cheap ones and catching the bus to the airport tomorrow to pick it up.

But.... I can’t shake my suspicion that it’s still just some kind of con, but how would the big name search sites allow that for months on end ?

jackieblack

I haven’t checked but I’d bet one of the cheapest ones is Goldcar :eek: :eek: :eek:
:wall:
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/05/best-and-worst-car-hire-companies-revealed-2/

greyteam1959

jackieblack wrote: »

I haven’t checked but I’d bet one of the cheapest ones is Goldcar :eek: :eek: :eek:
:wall:

Bound to be...........
Car hire might be 50p a day but then you will HAVE to take their insurance etc etc & you will probably end up paying more.
Take great care..........

richardw

If I can get a car for about £20 per day dealing direct with the majors, excluding Europcar, I’ll book it.

PompeyPete

jackieblack wrote: »

I haven’t checked but I’d bet one of the cheapest ones is Goldcar :eek: :eek: :eek:
:wall:
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/05/best-and-worst-car-hire-companies-revealed-2/

greyteam1959 wrote: »

Bound to be...........
Car hire might be 50p a day but then you will HAVE to take their insurance etc etc & you will probably end up paying more.
Take great care..........

The following was posted of the Trip Advisor Malta Forum today...

"There has just been an article on 'You and Yours' the consumer programme on radio 4( Monday 1pm) Goldcar are the most complained about car hire company ever, 40% of their customers complain They take money willy nilly from peoples credit cards even weeks after the hire is finished and the credit card companies are happy to collude in this."

jackieblack

PompeyPete wrote: »

The following was posted of the Trip Advisor Malta Forum today...

"There has just been an article on 'You and Yours' the consumer programme on radio 4( Monday 1pm) Goldcar are the most complained about car hire company ever, 40% of their customers complain They take money willy nilly from peoples credit cards even weeks after the hire is finished and the credit card companies are happy to collude in this."

Yeah, I heard it

eDicky

jackieblack wrote: »

Yeah, I heard it

Me too. There's also countless threads here about people's experiences of course, Goldcar and similar.

Kev, if you were really savvy and knew how to handle such hire firms in order to avoid being gouged by them, you might survive - but it's probably still not worth the hassle when you could be enjoying your holiday instead...

zagfles

As above the cheap ones will likely pull the big excess trick, with a silly price to waive it, otherwise a scratch that was probably already there will cost £400, or they'll have insurance which excludes half the car eg tyres, underside, roof, interior, glass, etc etc with the option of an expensive add on policy to waive it.

If you're there now, find a local car hire company that takes cash and does not require a card, and charges a reasonable rate eg around EUR20 a day (IME most local car hire companies in Spain are happy with cash), so you know your card won't get charged 3 weeks after you get home for a scratch which you probably didn't even do...

buglawton

On my last trip to the Canary Islands I was so put off by the car hire company reviews that we travelled around the whole time by bus apart from airport to our holiday apartment. Turned out the bus service was frequent and cheap, heavily used by tourists, and we were able to do walks and come back by bus from a different location.

benjus

buglawton wrote: »

On my last trip to the Canary Islands I was so put off by the car hire company reviews that we travelled around the whole time by bus apart from airport to our holiday apartment. Turned out the bus service was frequent and cheap, heavily used by tourists, and we were able to do walks and come back by bus from a different location.

People rarely seem to leave positive reviews for car hire companies. Probably because there aren't really many ways that they can really shine (unless something bad happens and they deal with it really well). In most cases the best that is going to happen is that the car hire all goes to plan without any issues, which isn't likely to inspire most people to write a positive review.

This often makes it hard to find decent car hire, although I've pretty much always managed it in the end. For example, in the Canary Islands I chose AutoReisen based on online reviews - not the newest or shiniest cars, but a good price and their full, zero excess, insurance package is just €2/day (I usually get excess cover, but if it's cheap enough with the hire company I prefer that as it's less hassle).

I generally rent more frequently with the major firms, but sometimes rent from local firms instead, which often works out cheaper when you take all costs into account. For example, in Greece some local firms are happy to take cash payment with no credit card details at all - and I would always recommend not giving credit card details to a car hire firm if at all possible.

verigotta

Canaries is one of the few places some excellent firms still exist. Autoreisan being one which is zero excess without paying 2 euro a day as the previous poster did. Yes you can add tyre coverage for the extra but having 1st hand experience of hitting the curb and blowing a tyre they just said no problem and gave me a new car they really are one of the very best firms out there. Unfortunately they are only in the Canaries.