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Lanzarote hire car - Wee Willie Winkie

I have just returned from a holiday in (or should it be on?) Lanzarote.

The hire car was a 1.5 diesel Toyota Proace City, which seems to be a Citroen Berlingo with a different front end and a different steering wheel horn cover.

I have to say I hated it at first, especially in its grayish beige colour. After a couple of days though I started to warm to it. Immensely practical, the children had acres of room in the back. The sliding doors and flat floor made access a breeze. Plenty of room in the front with masses of storage space for stuff. The boot easily swallowed all the luggage, far better than the Ford Eco Sport we were 'upgraded' to in Italy 3 years ago.

On the road it wasn't too bad to drive. It didn't feel too sluggish and kept up with others around. I'm used to an EV but this didn't feel like too much of a backward step.

All in all, if I was in the market for a new car, I'd be adding the Berlingo type thing to the list purely from a practicality point of view.

Lanzarotian (is that a word?) roads? Excellent. A LOT of new road building seems to have gone on recently. Good surfaces and reasonably polite drivers!

Lanzarote hire car - badbusdriver

They are very good cars for folk who place practicality and usability above image.

It is a shame that you can only buy the electric versions in the UK now*, though (AFAIK) the car version of the Toyota has never been on sale here, only the van.

*Haven't looked into it, but you may be able to get round this by getting the crew cab version of the van with diesel or petrol.

Lanzarote hire car - daveyK_UK
You can’t get the pro city ace in a crew version

They don’t offer a crew version of the van in the UK nor a MPV version.

My friend tried earnestly with various Toyota dealers and it’s simply not possible, apparently it was Toyota UK who didn’t want it as an option!

The Pro Ace City is very much the one to go for at the moment if you just want a standard van as you get Toyotas 10 year / 100k warranty plus the 3 seats in the front as standard.

You can get a diesel or electric (and I think a petrol in the Partner and Berlingo) crew version in the Vauxhall Combo Life / Peugeot Partner / Citroen Berlingo and soon to launch Fiat Doblo along with passenger MPV versions.

As stated, strange decision by Toyota UK to not want a crew version of the van nor an MPV version. Maybe they feared it would take sales from other models in the Toyota range?

With the Doblo set to launch in 2023 as an identical copy to the rest, this will be the one to go for in the van versions as it will have a cheaper list price and Fiat professionals 5 year warranty.
Lanzarote hire car - alan1302

We love our Vauxhall Combo Life version - has loads of room, decent performance - we have the 130bhp diesel version and averages 55 (ish) mpg.

Lanzarote hire car - S40 Man

Did you get a good deal on this? I heard that car hire prices went up across Europe recently. We are off to Tenerife next week so it would be good to get a feel for the prices. Presumably Tenerife and Lanzarote are similar.

Lanzarote hire car - movilogo

I went to Lanzarote last December. People were not travelling then. My flight (both inward and outward) had around 20 passengers in total.

My hired car was Seat Ibiza auto. Roads were excellent. Traffic was minimal and parking was free everywhere.

It was a bliss to drive there.

2 months later, visited Mallorca in Feb - still off season so very few tourists. Hire car was Opel Corsa auto, which I found worse compared to Ibiza.

However, mountain roads in Mallorca were lot more challenging to drive, especially Sa Calobra road. Palma was very congested town for driving and parking.

Both islands were beautiful and I'd not hesitate to visit again.

When driving on other side of the road, I always get autos as I am not confident changing gears with my right hand.

Edited by movilogo on 25/07/2022 at 11:42

Lanzarote hire car - bathtub tom

Sa Calobra

The snake. Used to be a brilliant drive, until the cyclists took it over!

Lanzarote hire car - Wee Willie Winkie

Did you get a good deal on this? I heard that car hire prices went up across Europe recently. We are off to Tenerife next week so it would be good to get a feel for the prices. Presumably Tenerife and Lanzarote are similar.

Twas a Jet2 Villa holiday that came with car hire as part of the deal.

Lanzarote hire car - Steveieb

Hi Dieselboy

Take a tip from the Villa owners and also Holiday Which that gave Auto Reisen the best car hire company in the world. Sadly only operating in the Canaries.

Fill the car on return. No stupid checking for the smallest scratches. Stress free car hire .

Very little waiting at the airport and friendly staff.

If only all car hire was like Auro Reisen.

Lanzarote hire car - Steveieb

Sorry S40 man .

If it’s not too late go for Auto Reisen . You won’t get any nasty shocks at the airport when the other companies add on or pressurise you to taking additional insurance or threaten to charge for repairs to minor scratches etc when you return the car.

Ive seen desperate travellers arguing at the kiosks of some of the major car hire firms at Tenerife when they find out the price that was quoted turns out to be just the starting point, and then come the threats . All being watched by the long queue building up behind you who start getting hostile.

Thats all you need when you arrive tired after a four hour flight.

Otherwise Auto Reisen have pick up points at other parts of the Island.

Lanzarote hire car - FP

Autoreisen are indeed excellent. We've used them on several Canary Islands over the years without a single problem.

Cicar are also highly regarded.

When hiring a car in the Canaries, there are a couple of guiding principles: don't use a broker or intermediary - including an airline, unless it's crystal-clear which car hire company you'll be dealing with - but always book direct; two, avoid Goldcar (aka Europcar, Interrent, Rhodium), who have a diabolical reputation and have been the subject of very unfavourable exposure by TV consumer programmes and the press. Typically their headlines rates are low and customers are "persuaded" to part with a lot more money before they drive away; trivial and non-existent damage is often charged for and difficult to dispute once you're back home.

Lanzarote hire car - S40 Man

Hi Stevie,

Thanks for the heads up. Yes will check out autoreisen and I think we used Cicar when we went before and they were ok too. Looking forward to it now. Hopefully the rates haven't jumped to much.

Lanzarote hire car - badbusdriver

Hi Dieselboy

Take a tip from the Villa owners and also Holiday Which that gave Auto Reisen the best car hire company in the world. Sadly only operating in the Canaries.

Fill the car on return. No stupid checking for the smallest scratches. Stress free car hire .

Very little waiting at the airport and friendly staff.

If only all car hire was like Auro Reisen.

When we went to Mallorca a few years ago I looked into the whole car hire thing. Frankly I was a bit put off by reports of folk having deposits withheld or being charged for the tiniest little thing. I found a company run by a British chap, unfortunately I don't recall the name, but it was something like 'Alans car hire' (yes, really!) based in Palma. They had very good reviews, so I went with them. Price was a bit higher than the usual companies, but the insurance covered everything. Car was left at a specific area in the multi storey at Palma airport with the key on one of the rear tyres(!), and it was left there the same way after our 10 days.

Lanzarote hire car - Wee Willie Winkie

We didn't know who the car hire was with until the confirmation came after final payment of the balance of the holiday. Turned out to be Thrifty which in fact turned out to be Hertz. Excellent experience at pick up, with no hard sell of extra insurances - I'd already bought excess insurance in the UK. Full to full policy so I filled up on the way back to the airport. On returning the car, a rep had a look around and signed off as all okay. I do need to check the credit card to make sure the deposit has been refunded though....

Lanzarote hire car - Steveieb

Jet 2 excellent as usual. What a fantastic company when you hear stories about other travel companies !

Lanzarote hire car - daveyK_UK
Do you mean Terrys car hire in Mallorca ?