Car hire abroad

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Fri 30 Sep 2016 21:52
Car hire abroad - Dabooka

Hi chaps, after help form the collective.

Holiday booked for October half term in Polenca, Majorca for four adults and a five yr old. We're considering renting a car for the week but not sure if it's worth it; would we be better getting a transfer to/from Palma airport and taxi-ing it about or renting a (big) car for the week? How big is Polenca?

If we do hire, does anyone have any advice on maybe who to use, and what to do about excess insurance etc? I know from reading on here that most of you guys who do this sort of thing get your excess insurance in advance over here. What considerations do we need to take if we do book?

Basically I've never hired a car before and don't want to get fleeced.

Cheers,

Dabooka

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Fri 30 Sep 2016 22:29
Car hire abroad - Bromptonaut

We went to Puerto Pollenca almost exactly 3 yrs ago. Went through one of the 'value hire' websites and got some sort of Hyundai for not much money at all. Think it was either Goldcar or CEntauro. No persence in terminal; courtesy bus to a site on perimeter.

Well worthwhile to explore the island's rugged north coast from Pollenca all the way round to Deya.

As a couple on first holiday with kids at Uni we'd have found Pollenca a bit limiting wihout the car. With an adults/kids mix YMMV.

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Fri 30 Sep 2016 22:46
Car hire abroad - Dabooka
Thanks Bromptonaut, decision made and Centauro is currently being interrogated as we speak!

So did you take out excess insurance in advance and who did ypu use? I assume Full-full deal is better for fuel?

Cheers,

Dabooka
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Sat 1 Oct 2016 10:41
Car hire abroad - Bromptonaut
So did you take out excess insurance in advance and who did ypu use? I assume Full-full deal is better for fuel? Cheers, Dabooka

We certainly took full/full for fuel.

Honestly cannot remember what we did for excess. There was another UK customer there at time struggling to find card/cards between him and his wife with enough available credit for 'own damage' deposit.

His kids meanwhile were getting very fratchety.

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Fri 30 Sep 2016 23:08
Car hire abroad - lucklesspedestrian

Hi Dabooka

Know the area quite well but one thing I'm wondering, are you staying in Pollensa or Puerto Pollensa?

They're two quite different places. Pollensa is inland a few km's and is a nice little town with a few good resturants and some history but Puerto Pollensa is (as the name suggests) on the coast, a more traditional 'resort' (albeit a nice one) with beaches and the famous pine walk, more bars and night life

If you're in Pollensa then you'll probably want a car, Puerto Pollensa you'll be fine staying put, although there is lots to explore in the north of the island where you are, the drive to Soller, snorkelling in Cala San Vicente, the scary drive up to Cap de Formentor (even old town Alcudia, just down the bay is quite nice) etc etc.

Be warned though you can get a fair bit of rain/cloud in Mallorca in October!

cheers

Steve

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Sat 1 Oct 2016 00:15
Car hire abroad - nick62
I hire cars fairly regularly abroad (usually Italy and Ireland) and ALWAYS use Autoeurope.co.uk (on-line broker).

I have never had any issues and they have an 0800 customer line which is open from about 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. always with UK or USA based native English speaking staff.

If you cancel or modify within 48 hours of pick-up there is no charge.

I recently modified a booking less than 24 hours before pick-up and because the modified booking was less expensive, I got a refund!

Just paid £29 for a mini (three days) in Ireland, with no additional fees and ended-up with an Astra?

Also very good for one-way hire which can cost a fortune when done direct.

I have absolutely no affiliation with them, I just appreciate a great service.
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Sat 1 Oct 2016 11:00
Car hire abroad - Steveieb
Suggest you take a look at Which who have investigated all the scams.

They recommend Zest an on line UK Broker who offer a range of options for car hire at Palma.

They also only use car hire companies who have a fair fuel policy and offer their own top up insurance at £2.50 a day which covers everything.

Used them last month in Ibiza and their booking system gives feedback on the performance at each pick up point, which I have found can vary enormously.

Best of all their Norfolk based call centre is manned 24 hours a day which helps a lot if you have a problem.
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Sat 1 Oct 2016 13:53
Car hire abroad - FP

I always check on the tavel forums at Tripadvisor to get recommendations for travel hire.

Last time I was in Mallorca (2011) I was advised to avoid Record and Goldcar. I went for Europcar; one of the reasons was that we were arriving late and I wanted a desk and cars actually at the airport - not off-site somewhere. I was quite happy with the car and service.

I see the current recommendations are: Vanrell, Euromax or Terry. Vanrell is endorsed by a number of people. The advice is to avoid brokers.

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Sat 1 Oct 2016 13:39
Car hire abroad - Dabooka

Thanks for all the advice chaps, all salient points. I'll be sure to check out the sites suggested and read up on Which too.

I've already accepted it'll end up being about 25% more than expected due to 'small fees and additional charges'!

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Sat 1 Oct 2016 17:52
Car hire abroad - concrete

Hello Dabooka, my niece has a villa in Pollenca and we have made the journey quite a few times. Hire at the airport for a week/fortnight. Got caught out the first time in going for the cheapest. So did everyone else and after queuing it took us nearly 2 hours to clear the airport. Now use Sixt. No hassle, although they do try to upsell you and offer all sorts of insurance cover. We have Car4hire cover for damage and excess. Cars good. Hardly any queues. All damages noted on paperwork. Same at check in return. Never had a problem. So pay a bit extra and you get a bit extra. After queuing I would gladly have given double the hire saving just to on my way!

Enjoy your holiday.

Cheers Concrete

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Sat 1 Oct 2016 21:46
Car hire abroad - Steveieb
If only Autoreisen were represented in countries other than the Canary Islands.

Book direct, pay on arrival, no deposit held on credit cards, minimal check on return of vehicle, and with a score of 86% in Which no other company comes anywhere near.

One slight problem , they have a high percentage of French cars which simply cannot stand up to the kind of abuse that rental cars have to endure.
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Tue 4 Oct 2016 15:35
Car hire abroad - John F

1. Try to choose one which lets you return it with a full tank. Some will try and fleece you with a seemingly low hire price, then charge you a full tank, sometimes more litres than it will actually hold, no matter how much/little you have used!

2. On collection, examine it carefully for scratches, take dated photos. Insist all defects are recognised on the description sheet they give you. Make sure it has a full tank, if small diesel engine you will only have to refill it on return unless you do a huge mileage.

3. Note nearest supermarket/cheap petrol within 5m of the airport on your route back for final top-up.

4. On return, if at all uncomfortable with the hire outfit, take name of person who agrees you have returned it undamaged, take more dated photos if you wish.

We have just returned from France where we had a new Ford Fiesta Duratorq 1.5 diesel - I am astonished it apparently only has 74bhp; felt much more, and we got 54mpg on admittedly only one brim-to-brim calculation for around 200m, assuming it was actually brimmed when we picked it up. If it wasn't, that's even more mpg! and it included an hour crawling along the Bordeaux ring road....worse than the M25!

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 10:24
Car hire abroad - Dabooka

Hello.

Just thought I'd post back to say thanks for the advice. Ended up going through Zest hire, formerly Economy Car Hire, which in turn became Hertz. A combination of location, full / full and car szie left these as our only real choice.

Only disappointment was with Hertz themselves, or rather the local franchise. Terrible unmanaged delays, really pushed the additional cover and a special offer 'upgrade', of which we wanted or needed either. Refusing these resulted in much tutting and appeared to create a 30 minute hold up in the collection of our Tucson.

Scrunitised car on collection and had an agent return to mark up some unrecorded scratches and scrapes (minor). Hand over awas totally different, smooth and organised with a check and sign off taking maybe 10-15 minutes.

So thumbs up for Zest, Hertz not so much. At least I don't appear to have been mugged / conned. Yet....

Thanks to those posts regarding the island itself, we actual stayed in Pollenca so the car was indeed needed.

Dabooka

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 13:52
Car hire abroad - bazza

We recently spent 2 weeks in Port Pollenca. We used a company called Centauro through Holiday Autos and I would use them again, they were quite happy with my separate collision waiver insurance and no hard sell. THey picked us up from the airport without delay, the car was fine and presented with a full tank. We used 3/4 of a tank and were refunded the 1/4. Recommended.

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Fri 4 Nov 2016 14:10
Car hire abroad - Steveieb

Glad the car hire went well through Zest UK Brokers.

I had a similar experience with Hertz last year booked through Zest. So this year I checked the Zest rating of the car hire companies at Ibiza and found Centauro did well. This is a useful feature as comjpanies can vary from Airport to Airport.

But the gap has widened according to Which and Autoraisen has by far the best ratings by a long way. But this car hire as opposed to car hire broker sadly only operates in the Canaries.

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