Car Hire Malaga?
Discussion
dave_s13 said:
PF62 said:
Don't, just don't.
Oh s
t....why??The response from Economy Car Hire was basically "tough". I got the strong impression they didn't deal with car hire companies at the reliable end of the market.
PF62 said:
dave_s13 said:
PF62 said:
Don't, just don't.
Oh st....why??The response from Economy Car Hire was basically "tough". I got the strong impression they didn't deal with car hire companies at the reliable end of the market.
As my car is through an apparantly well established company I'm hoping, and praying,it works out ok.
I hired from Avis and colected the car yesterday. No queues (unlike Record Go, whose queue stretched the length of the baggage hall) - from
previous experience at PMI, I wouldn't touch Record or Centauro with a barge pole.
The price for F2F fuel was as cheap as any of the other rental co's and there was no hard sell for additional insurance. We got a perfectectly pleasant Seat small thing for €110 for a week
previous experience at PMI, I wouldn't touch Record or Centauro with a barge pole.
The price for F2F fuel was as cheap as any of the other rental co's and there was no hard sell for additional insurance. We got a perfectectly pleasant Seat small thing for €110 for a week
Edited by schmalex on Sunday 6th August 22:20
PF62 said:
dave_s13 said:
PF62 said:
Don't, just don't.
Oh st....why??When I rented a car through them at Faro, the car hire companies office was a dumped car in the car park (four flat tyres, the lot). The car they gave me was almost as bad.
The response from Economy Car Hire was basically "tough". I got the strong impression they didn't deal with car hire companies at the reliable end of the market.
LuS1fer said:
To update this thread, I am hiring a car for 6 people from Malaga in the first week of the summer holidays, for 8 days.
Rip-off doesn't really adequately describe the tariffs for a Zafira but I started with the best online reviews of various companies (all have good and bad) and got the following results:
Brunos - I have used them before but hopelessly too much on this occasion.
Allinonecarhire - (Zafira or similar) - these quote a trouble free "nothing to worry about, all in one tariff" but they also wanted 627 Euros for 8 days hire. It was under £500 just before the end of May but went up after 1st June. They are open 24 hours though and my return was 4:30am. I would have booked them had I caught the lower price as that included the early hours return. they seemed appealing as they meet you with a card with your name at the airport so you don't get lost.
Cargest (Doblo 7 seater) - Quoted about 445 Euros. They accepted the request then, the following day, rejected it, saying they had no cars and no alternatives.
Marbenjo - a new one on me but mostly good reviews/lack of complaints. Through their own site, I could only get a Zafira and that was quite expensive, more than Allinone, when you added on the necessary extras.
Zest (formerly Economy Car Hire) - I know they are an agency but this proved interesting because, on their site, they offered a 7 seater Doblo through Marbenjo (who didn't offer me this as an option). In addition to a free additional driver and an "excess insurance" policy for £24, the total was £416 which, while still being in the "holy f***" category, was reasonable next to the others even though it involves a local 40 Euro outside hours charge.
All these involve a minibus to the nearby industrial estate and collection of the car there but reviews suggest collecting on airport can mean a wait of up to 1.5 hours in the summer holiday season. I'll update if I remember.
OK, Marbenjo through Zest Car Rental get very high marks. The hire included their excess insurance policy.Rip-off doesn't really adequately describe the tariffs for a Zafira but I started with the best online reviews of various companies (all have good and bad) and got the following results:
Brunos - I have used them before but hopelessly too much on this occasion.
Allinonecarhire - (Zafira or similar) - these quote a trouble free "nothing to worry about, all in one tariff" but they also wanted 627 Euros for 8 days hire. It was under £500 just before the end of May but went up after 1st June. They are open 24 hours though and my return was 4:30am. I would have booked them had I caught the lower price as that included the early hours return. they seemed appealing as they meet you with a card with your name at the airport so you don't get lost.
Cargest (Doblo 7 seater) - Quoted about 445 Euros. They accepted the request then, the following day, rejected it, saying they had no cars and no alternatives.
Marbenjo - a new one on me but mostly good reviews/lack of complaints. Through their own site, I could only get a Zafira and that was quite expensive, more than Allinone, when you added on the necessary extras.
Zest (formerly Economy Car Hire) - I know they are an agency but this proved interesting because, on their site, they offered a 7 seater Doblo through Marbenjo (who didn't offer me this as an option). In addition to a free additional driver and an "excess insurance" policy for £24, the total was £416 which, while still being in the "holy f***" category, was reasonable next to the others even though it involves a local 40 Euro outside hours charge.
All these involve a minibus to the nearby industrial estate and collection of the car there but reviews suggest collecting on airport can mean a wait of up to 1.5 hours in the summer holiday season. I'll update if I remember.
It was the first week of the summer holidays (Monday 24/7/17) so Malaga airport was busy. On exit, a man with a Marbenjo sign was there and I spoke to him and he directed me to the minibus transit zone, a few hundred yards away.
Initially, I thought "Hmm" because there were "lots" of minibuses for Malaga Car Hire and they even had a dedicated man who was queuing their customers, in line, to get onto these minibuses (saves arguments). Other companies also seemed to have more minibuses so I was having doubts. However, after 5-10 minutes, the Marbenjo bus turned up and we were the only ones actually waiting for it and six of us and two cases got on board. The Malaga Car Hire queue was still fairly busy.
We were swiftly taken to the little industrial estate where all these companies are based and we were the only people there, so had immediate attention! Much quicker than previous experience at the airport.
Zest have clearly done a comprehensive job as the only thing he put on my credit card was the £30 out of hours return cost (unusual as insurance excess policies usually entail paying the excess and claiming it back).
I was a little concerned about the hard to find location, as the return schedule was tight on time (Villa 2 hours away, early flight) but was pleased to discover that the out of hours return actually involves leaving the car in the multi-storey airport car park so that was almost entirely painless. Not sure how the day returns work.
I say almost totally painless because they supply the car full of fuel and you have to return the car full and many petrol stations are closed at 4am so I had to drive round the Malaga maze, to find one that was 24 hours (PLEASE take a sat-nav, Malaga is totally horrendous and you WILL get lost).
Back to the hire, we had a decent enough Zafira which he walked me round and marked the minor scrapes and bumps, on the form, which I then signed. It had 25000 miles on the clock (37k km) and short of having to find out how to change the language from Polish to English (terrible non-intuitive system), the car performed well and had a reversing camera (still a wallowy boat though, Doblo I had before surprisingly better).
So high marks and painless. The downside is a camera flashed me, in the middle of nowhere, on the way back so will have to see how they handle that.
Lusifer:
Wait to you hire a car in Italy. I did so recently. I got a Citroen Catcus (I booked a BMW), filthy outside and inside clearly not been cleaned, the damage report on collection indicated 9 areas of dents and scratches, and for one week it cost me £602 including all insurances. I imagine you'd be well p***ed if you were hiring a Zafira where I was! By the way, this was Avis.
R.
Wait to you hire a car in Italy. I did so recently. I got a Citroen Catcus (I booked a BMW), filthy outside and inside clearly not been cleaned, the damage report on collection indicated 9 areas of dents and scratches, and for one week it cost me £602 including all insurances. I imagine you'd be well p***ed if you were hiring a Zafira where I was! By the way, this was Avis.
R.
Last September booked a car through Malagacars.com, all good until we got home, contacted by my credit card company, £2000 spent on building materials in Malaga area. This credit card was not used by me for 12 months prior to the booking so must have come from an employee of the rental firm. When I contacted them I got total abuse and I must have used it elsewhere attitude, the Card company paid me back eventually and said they would pass to their fraud dept. Will never book through them again, this year booked with Avis so hopefully with all the bad press re rental company's they should be okay.
Northbloke said:
Vixpy1 said:
Benalmadena cars ...speak to Carlos. They will meet you at the airport
Just been to Malaga and used these after reading here.All good. Pick up and drop off at the airport with zero delay or hassle. Decent price, decent car. Would recommend to others.
Thanks for the tip.
I've been using Helle Hollis for over 10 years - their office is a few hundred yards from the terminal.
Paying for their fast lane service means you can be out the door in a couple of minutes after arriving.
As well as all the mainstream car type sizes they have some interesting cars at reasonable prices - I've had 206CC, 306CC and Fiat 500C from them in the past.
They currently have Golf convertibles as well as the Fiat 500 convertibles, and two types of hybrid as well.
Paying for their fast lane service means you can be out the door in a couple of minutes after arriving.
As well as all the mainstream car type sizes they have some interesting cars at reasonable prices - I've had 206CC, 306CC and Fiat 500C from them in the past.
They currently have Golf convertibles as well as the Fiat 500 convertibles, and two types of hybrid as well.
Use Avis in June. CBA faffing with any that aren't the big companies.
£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return. The car had managed something like 800+km in the 10 days off the single tank it came with, so didn't bother filling up - the light came on at the airport. The pre-pay option worked out cheaper than filling it ourselves anyway.
£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return. The car had managed something like 800+km in the 10 days off the single tank it came with, so didn't bother filling up - the light came on at the airport. The pre-pay option worked out cheaper than filling it ourselves anyway.
Swervin_Mervin said:
Use Avis in June. CBA faffing with any that aren't the big companies.
£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return. The car had managed something like 800+km in the 10 days off the single tank it came with, so didn't bother filling up - the light came on at the airport. The pre-pay option worked out cheaper than filling it ourselves anyway.
We used Avis last week. £200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return. The car had managed something like 800+km in the 10 days off the single tank it came with, so didn't bother filling up - the light came on at the airport. The pre-pay option worked out cheaper than filling it ourselves anyway.
No queue on collection or return, a new Sest Ibiza in very good condition, Full to Full rental at £130 for 7 days
dave_s13 said:
PF62 said:
dave_s13 said:
PF62 said:
Don't, just don't.
Oh st....why??When I rented a car through them at Faro, the car hire companies office was a dumped car in the car park (four flat tyres, the lot). The car they gave me was almost as bad.
The response from Economy Car Hire was basically "tough". I got the strong impression they didn't deal with car hire companies at the reliable end of the market.
So I'd use zest again and I'd use click rent at Alicante again also.
Swervin_Mervin said:
Use Avis in June. CBA faffing with any that aren't the big companies.
£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return.
You did well getting them to included pre-paid fuel on return!£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return.
schmalex said:
We used Avis last week.
No queue on collection or return, a new Sest Ibiza in very good condition, Full to Full rental at £130 for 7 days
Did you take an excess waiver or do you have a separate policy? Or are you just brave. No queue on collection or return, a new Sest Ibiza in very good condition, Full to Full rental at £130 for 7 days
Seems cheap though - when I booked for a week in the holidays a couple of years ago even the "cheap" companies were a couple of hundred per week for the same car and some companies were much dearer.
Sheepshanks said:
Swervin_Mervin said:
Use Avis in June. CBA faffing with any that aren't the big companies.
£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return.
You did well getting them to included pre-paid fuel on return!£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return.
schmalex said:
We used Avis last week.
No queue on collection or return, a new Sest Ibiza in very good condition, Full to Full rental at £130 for 7 days
Did you take an excess waiver or do you have a separate policy? Or are you just brave. No queue on collection or return, a new Sest Ibiza in very good condition, Full to Full rental at £130 for 7 days
Seems cheap though - when I booked for a week in the holidays a couple of years ago even the "cheap" companies were a couple of hundred per week for the same car and some companies were much dearer.
I got excess cover separately for £15
Swervin_Mervin said:
Sheepshanks said:
Swervin_Mervin said:
Use Avis in June. CBA faffing with any that aren't the big companies.
£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return.
You did well getting them to included pre-paid fuel on return!£200 for a virtually new Golf for 10 days, incl. of extra driver and pre-paid fuel - paid for the latter on return.
schmalex said:
We used Avis last week.
No queue on collection or return, a new Sest Ibiza in very good condition, Full to Full rental at £130 for 7 days
Did you take an excess waiver or do you have a separate policy? Or are you just brave. No queue on collection or return, a new Sest Ibiza in very good condition, Full to Full rental at £130 for 7 days
Seems cheap though - when I booked for a week in the holidays a couple of years ago even the "cheap" companies were a couple of hundred per week for the same car and some companies were much dearer.
I got excess cover separately for £15
We've just returned from Malaga having pre-booked a 7 seater through Centauro. They were, by quite some margin, the cheapest.
No complaints with Centauro and pleasantly surprised at how good the current Ford Galaxy is. Ours was black, so we scribbled "Addison Lee" in the dust on the rear window which meant I could drive as badly as I liked too.
No complaints with Centauro and pleasantly surprised at how good the current Ford Galaxy is. Ours was black, so we scribbled "Addison Lee" in the dust on the rear window which meant I could drive as badly as I liked too.
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