Does anyone have successful car hire?

Taemon

I'm looking at car hire from Madrid for this summer.

I've don't loads of comparisons etc. and have come up with what looks like the best option in terms of car, price etc. 

My final thought was to quickly Google reviews for the company I was going to book with (Sixt). They are almost universally terrible. Everyone that reviews them seems to have a story about damage scam, unwanted charges etc.

Is the reviews are to be believed, there isn't a person that rents with Sixt (or many other companies) that has a successful booking - they are all costly disasters. 

So my question: do people have positive experiences? Is it just review bias (only people with bad experiences leave reviews) which makes it look so terrible. 

I'd like to think that if I (a) take copious photos on pick up and drop off, (b) get excess waiver insurance from a separate insurer, (c) drive carefully I should be safe, but is this naive?

DullGreyGuy

If someone has a negative experience they are much more likely to post a review than if they have a neutral or positive one. Secondly, you have no idea if the person claiming they were unfairly charged for damage had actually damaged the car or not... dont think for a moment people won't complain about a company legitimately applying a fee!

Personally stick to the known names like Enterprise, Hertz, Avis and Sixt and to date never had any problem with damage or unwanted charges. Did have one hire car that broke down but their breakdown service fixed the problem and they refunded the hire charge. 

I've twice used a local firm, once was fine the other time they charged a modest amount for damage... dont recall causing the damage but there was damage there and it wasnt noted on the handover sheet (but we'd picked up at night and it was in a tight space so maybe it was there and missed it).

Factoring in the amount of hire global companies do -v- a small local firm, you get many more horror stories from unknown firms than the big boys. 

Grumpy_chap

Taemon said:

I'm looking at car hire from Madrid for this summer.

I've don't loads of comparisons etc. and have come up with what looks like the best option in terms of car, price etc. 

My final thought was to quickly Google reviews for the company I was going to book with (Sixt). They are almost universally terrible. Everyone that reviews them seems to have a story about damage scam, unwanted charges etc.

Is the reviews are to be believed, there isn't a person that rents with Sixt (or many other companies) that has a successful booking - they are all costly disasters. 

So my question: do people have positive experiences? Is it just review bias (only people with bad experiences leave reviews) which makes it look so terrible. 

I'd like to think that if I (a) take copious photos on pick up and drop off, (b) get excess waiver insurance from a separate insurer, (c) drive carefully I should be safe, but is this naive?

There are some truly awful car hire companies.
Sixt are one of the larger car hire companies so I would expect that you are seeing review bias.
While I would have no hesitation in booking with Sixt, I have no direct experience of doing so.  I am sure there will be others that can comment who have personally used Sixt.

Taemon

Thanks, that's handy - I was really surprised at the sheer volume of negativity, especially given Sixt is a pretty well known name.

Another thought: if I get additional (cheaper) eves insurance from a different company, an I safe to stick with Sixt most basic (free) protection? 

Is there anything I can get stung for which excess insurance won't cover me for?



The thing that gives me confidence in car hire is that excess insurance exists - this must mean that far more car hires have no damage charges than do, otherwise the excess insurance companies would never make any money!

DullGreyGuy

Taemon said:

Another thought: if I get additional (cheaper) eves insurance from a different company, an I safe to stick with Sixt most basic (free) protection? 

Is there anything I can get stung for which excess insurance won't cover me for?

The thing that gives me confidence in car hire is that excess insurance exists - this must mean that far more car hires have no damage charges than do, otherwise the excess insurance companies would never make any money!

There are many things that you;d believe is the Wild West if you went just by online reviews because there are millions who have an ok experience and never mention it so you get a very skewed view. 

As with any insurance, there is always a risk it doesn't pay out but this is predominately because you buy the wrong thing or make an incorrect declaration when buying it. The main challenge, historically at least, with claims on XS insurance was that you need to get some documentary evidence from the hire company in relation to the repairs and certainly some firms made this challenging to get. 

Newbie_John

As @DullGreyGuy says, stick to known brands - I've hired with Hertz, Sixt etc. many times and never had a big problem.
Everytime I tried some smaller local ones there was some kind of issue - double charge - sorted by chargeback, Green Motion was the worst - found a "invisible" scratch and charged me £150 extra, some others have odd fuel policy like empty to empty - and you have to fill the tank at nearest expensive petrol station and then calculate how to return with "empty" tank so you don't give them free petrol.. the list of their extra fees is high. Particualrly avoid ones that rent cars below £20 a day as they will make money elsehwere (mostly paid as extras willingly or unwillingly by you).

heatherw_01

They are a big company so better than no name ones.
I used them once and they were fine.

I personally avoid them for USA because they often limit how many miles you can do and I drive thousands of miles. so I mainly pick other companies.

zagfles

I've used small car hire companies loads of times and never had a problem with any of them. I always pay cash if I can, the bigger companies IME always insist on a credit card but the smaller ones are usually happy with cash, and quite often do excess waivers for a reasonable price rather than the ridiculous prices the big companies usually want. Last time I just bought their excess waiver even though I had a separate excess insurance because it was so cheap (something like 20 EUR for a week IIRC) and would be less hassle than claiming on the separate excess policy. 

Reason for paying in cash is you can be certain you won't get a nasty surprise on your credit card when you get home, because they don't have it! Obviously they could chase you for damages if there's an excess, but they are far less likely to pull he scam of charging 200 EUR for a small scratch that was already there if there wasn't an easy way to charge you. 

BFBW

Taemon said:

I'm looking at car hire from Madrid for this summer.

I've don't loads of comparisons etc. and have come up with what looks like the best option in terms of car, price etc. 

My final thought was to quickly Google reviews for the company I was going to book with (Sixt). They are almost universally terrible. Everyone that reviews them seems to have a story about damage scam, unwanted charges etc.

Is the reviews are to be believed, there isn't a person that rents with Sixt (or many other companies) that has a successful booking - they are all costly disasters. 

So my question: do people have positive experiences? Is it just review bias (only people with bad experiences leave reviews) which makes it look so terrible. 

I'd like to think that if I (a) take copious photos on pick up and drop off, (b) get excess waiver insurance from a separate insurer, (c) drive carefully I should be safe, but is this naive?

Yes, but don't cheap out on excess insurance. Check for reviews of their claims service or go with a reliable name, rather than the cheapest.
Make sure you have enough credit on your credit card to cover any deposit and kindly reject their overtures to get you to add any extras(the excess policy covers them). Take photos and video of the car just in case.
https://www.bettersafe.com/car-hire-excess-insurance UK & Europe via Quidco or TopCashBack looks good. Get quotes for both Daily and Annual, as Annual can often work out to be better value.