Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad

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Mon 29 May 2017 20:56
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - Steveieb
Just back from Ibiza and another episode with car hire which makes me want to forget the idea unless going to The Canaries where Autoreisen are based. Absolutely nothing but praise for them and no wonder they get a 90% rating on Which.

This time full marks for Zest Car Brokers again no 1 in Which but when we arrived the hire company said the car had no damage. Wrong it had and this was noted including an attempted break in on the drivers door.

But what a pathetic engine the three cylinder 60 brake is trying to power a heavy car like the Polo or Fabia. Hill starts are a nightmare and should be avoided if possible.

Definitely a car to be avoided unless you live in the flatlands of Lincolnshire or East Anglia
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Mon 29 May 2017 21:14
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - SLO76
Hammering the guts out of a tiny 3 or 4cyl engine is all part of the fun of the holiday hire car to me. I've never had a problem with any to date with a particular fondness for the Fiat Panda which is a practical wee Tonka toy with gutless but rev happy engine or nippy buzz box if you can get a twin air. Both are great fun for throwing around holiday roads most of which you really don't want to go that fast on anyway. Did find the Pug 208 1.4 HDi I had the last time pretty dull though.
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Mon 29 May 2017 21:43
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - catsdad
Sounds like luxury to me. Last time I hired in Ibiza, admiittedly 30 years ago, it was a real adventure. It was a Citroen 2CV.
I picked it up and it started OK and off we went. When I later tried to turn the engine off the ignition key had no effect. I had to disconnect a wire under the dash to get it to cut out. A useful security feature as the doors didn't lock. Later in the day the gear lever stopped working because the connecting rod to the dash-mounted gear lever had come adrift. I managed to cobble it back together to get us home.
I didnt complain as the company was called Rentawreck or something along these lines so caveat emptor and all that and it was amusing in its way. And we were never stranded.
You guys were spoilt!

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Mon 29 May 2017 21:54
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - gordonbennet

Best holiday hire car i've ever had was a curvy shape and quite high mileage Hyundai Accent.

Malta at the time had roads even worse than those found in modern industrial area Britain, but that Accent sitting on small wheels and ligh profile balloon with its quite amazing long travel soft suspension just rode them out, it actually made the holiday.

3 cyl lumps can be fine, that little 3 pot in Aygo/C1/107 was fine for dodging about, more torque than you might expect and absoluetly refuses to stall, unlike so much of the modern engine world.

However i drove lots of ex BSM Corsas with the 3 pot engine, oh boy what a heap of joy they were to drive, only way to get them on the transporter top deck was to take a run up and race up as fast as you could, only vehicles that surpassed those for utter misery were the 1.4 Escort lean burn (shakes head at the memory) and the absolute worse of all time the Fiat 500 fitted with automated manual box, words fail me at the sheer despair having to drive such a thing regularly must be...couldn't climb the transporter deck even with a run up, owning one in hilly country must be 'interesting'.

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Mon 29 May 2017 23:53
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - RobJP

Malta at that time had roads even worse than modern industrial area Britain

Having driven in Malta last year, I can confirm that the roads are still incredibly terrible. Gozo is even worse, if that is possible.

The only time I can recall driving on worse roads than Comino was in Kenya.

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Tue 30 May 2017 00:40
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - SLO76
"only vehicles that surpassed those for utter misery were the 1.4 Escort lean burn (shakes head at the memory)"

One of the worst motors I've driven, the Mk V Escort especially the flaccid 1.4 CVH. I was always amazed by the number of punters who wouldn't buy anything else, just had to have a Ford badge despite how terrible these things were compared to the R8 Rover, R19, Tipo or even the dull Mk III Astra. Egg crate quality, massively under engineered and hugely overpriced it was a b***** terrible thing until the heavily facelifted 16v Mk VI replaced it and by that stage the Pug 306 was well established as the class leader and what a brilliant wee car it was.
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Mon 29 May 2017 23:32
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - badbusdriver
Just back from Ibiza and another episode with car hire which makes me want to forget the idea unless going to The Canaries where Autoreisen are based. Absolutely nothing but praise for them and no wonder they get a 90% rating on Which. This time full marks for Zest Car Brokers again no 1 in Which but when we arrived the hire company said the car had no damage. Wrong it had and this was noted including an attempted break in on the drivers door. But what a pathetic engine the three cylinder 60 brake is trying to power a heavy car like the Polo or Fabia. Hill starts are a nightmare and should be avoided if possible. Definitely a car to be avoided unless you live in the flatlands of Lincolnshire or East Anglia

Not really sure why you are complaining about your hire car's lack of performance. It sounds like you have chosen the cheapest car in its category, so what do you expect?. If you wanted a more powerful car you should have opened your wallet a bit wider!.

Regarding holiday hire cars in general, the advice I have is to look very carefully at the insurance!. Whilst organising a holiday in Majorca last year I was looking into the price of hiring a car for the full 10 days. There were some spectacularly cheap deals on offer, but digging further, and reading some horror stories, put me right off going for one of these. The reason being, the standard. 'inclusive insurance' is essentially 3rd party only. So the least little scratch on the car, even the wheels (and Majorca has some huge kerbs!) would result in extra charges. After doing some more digging I settled on a car hire company run by a Brit, don't remember the name off the top of my head, but it was the persons name, something like 'Tom's car hire'. The insurance was full comp, so no nasty surprises!. I was looking for something with 5 seats and a large boot, which is exactly what I got (seat altea xl). Not sure what engine, but it felt like a 1.6 petrol. I was very happy with the car hire company, the car was left in a prearranged part of the airport car park (key left on back wheel!) well within walking distance of the terminal, and I left it in the same area with key locked in boot, easy peasy!

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Tue 30 May 2017 09:14
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - badbusdriver

Just looked into what car hire company I used in Majorca, 'Terry' s car hire'. Highly recommended!

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Tue 30 May 2017 10:16
Skoda Fabia - Hiring Cars abroad - Steveieb
It currently costs about 20euros a day to buy the full insurance that covers all eventualities otherwise you have to leave a deposit of 1000euros, but brokers like Zest cover this if you buy their insurance in advance at 2.50 pounds a day then claim when you return to the uk.

They also rate each car hire firm depot by depot from customer feedback, which is useful as I have found a wide difference in service from the same hirers in different locations.
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