Car Rental Malaga (1 Viewer)

Dave and Ginny

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Jan 31, 2013
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Once again I'm going to delve into the minefield of car rental, which quite frankly I absolutely loath!

I've twice been caught out, albeit for relatively small amounts, in the UK last year with Eurocar and in Spain also last year with Budget with an additional charge on my credit card weeks after the hire for goodness knows what and despite querying it didn't really get a satisfactory answer!

Any recommendations who to go with? Good or bad experiences? Searching on Rentalcars.com seems to bring up some good deals...especially with the likes of Firefly and Goldcar at about £20 for the 6 days I need it! Budget, Hertz, Avis etc are more around the £140 mark.
 

injebreck99

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Dec 5, 2011
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Avoid Goldcar like the plague, so many stories about them ripping people off, I’m surprised they are still in business, I think Firefly are the same as well,
I’m doing some research into rental car companies for our 2 month trip to ESTEPONA next year, I’ll post any results when completed if required.
 
Jun 10, 2010
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2nd for avoiding Goldcar they ripped us off in Faro with their fuel and card scams - barstewards!!

We used malagacar 2 years ago who were pretty good easy transfer to and from the airport, car pretty much what I ordered and no surprises afterwards.

You can rent a Ferrari from them at not too bad a price, thought about it for a bit and then came to my senses - Spanish roads - Ferrari????

https://www.malagacar.com/uk/lux/luxury-car-rental-malaga-uk.html#ferrari

Jon

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Mar 23, 2012
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We used enjoy car hire from Barcelona last year and had a windscreen claim after for 600 euro. It was a genuine broken screen we thought we had got away with it. I was worried as we had taken excess insurance with enjoy not the actual rental desk on collection but they paid up in full (took about 3 weeks) so will certainly use them again and it was a good price.
 
Aug 27, 2009
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Hertfordshire
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Once again I'm going to delve into the minefield of car rental, which quite frankly I absolutely loath!

I've twice been caught out, albeit for relatively small amounts, in the UK last year with Eurocar and in Spain also last year with Budget with an additional charge on my credit card weeks after the hire for goodness knows what and despite querying it didn't really get a satisfactory answer!

Any recommendations who to go with? Good or bad experiences? Searching on Rentalcars.com seems to bring up some good deals...especially with the likes of Firefly and Goldcar at about £20 for the 6 days I need it! Budget, Hertz, Avis etc are more around the £140 mark.
We had a car from Malaga airport last year. We booked it through Sixt car rentals, they are part of the Enterprise group and are one of the few who offer zero excess.
 

wanderer

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Apr 14, 2008
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The problem with Spanish car rentals is that most people do not read the terms and conditions of the rental prior to hiring .Just some tips for getting a better experience
Take out a car hire excess policy with for example Moneysupermarket at about £37.99 per year.
Check the car over thoroughly on collection and take photographs of all panels and windscreen and do the same on return
Make sure the car is checked on return
Do not hire for over 29 days as the extra day can cost sometimes 300 euros more.
Use a third party such as Doyouspain for a voucher gives best deals.
Be careful if offered upgrades extra charges for diesel / automatics/sat navs
You will be charged top rate for fuel and usually a charge for filling the vehicle prior to renting its in the T & C,s.
Look for full to full tanks deals or full to empty . Its unlikely you will be re-imbursed for any fuel left because of the admin charge for filling.
Just recently i noticed that Dicksons Car Hire based at Alicante Airport were offering 29 days on a Ford Fiesta for 16 Euros total, there is no way that this is cost effective and they will be charging/conning you for some of the above . On further checking i found they do not have a desk at the terminal but operate out of an old Transit van in the car park and if not attended on car return you post the keys into a slot in the back.

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joka250

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Jul 29, 2017
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Would echo the suggestion of taking out a car hire excess policy, we use INSURANCE FOR CAR HIRE about £35 per year. Also check condition of car carefully, take photos if in doubt. Booking through a U K agency is sometimes beneficial. Check the hires fuel policy carefully. We do hear lots of horror stories but there are thousands of hires every week that don't have issues. We used Goldcar Benidorm in January and I was very pleased with the whole experience. Never used them before but would try again.
 
Feb 16, 2013
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We have used this firm twice in faro and my friends have also used them twice, they honestly are so good you keep looking for the catch, they are in Spain as well, they don't try selling you something you don't need, in our case they actually advised us not to take out the extra for the motorways while I was standing there with my money in my hand(n) the assistant saying we wouldn't need it to just tootle around the coast and she was right, and on the fuel thing you just go out to the car and the gauge is just looked at and they say it's a quarter full or whatever just bring it back the same and that's it.
Don't do a lot of recommending but this is one firm who really work for you and deserves some credit.
Oh and btw(y) they are just about the cheapest there is,
https://www.zestcarrental.com/?gcli...e&utm_medium=CPC&utm_content=Search+Engine+Ad
 
Jan 13, 2014
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Highly recommended.

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Sep 10, 2013
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Don’t go near Goldstar we were ripped off at Barcelona by them.
As above try and read the T&C’s before booking. Look out for excessive security deposits,fuel scams and high airport applied insurance waiver costs.
Consider renting from local downtown outfit once in resort rather than through UK brokers selling airport rentals.
 

mikebeaches

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Feb 22, 2010
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Goldcar and firefly are very risky IMHO!! :(

We always use the UK-based broker chaser mentioned - Zest Car Rental

https://www.zestcarrental.com/

Year after year they come out top of the pops in the consumers' association Which? surveys. They have a 'no excess' policy included. They are not by any means quite the cheapest, but if you are looking for fuss-free car hire with a strong UK backup, they are the one to use for most places around the globe. The broker is a decent size, but not too big to handle any individual queries you might have, before or after the rental.

The one exception for me is in the Canary Islands, where I always book direct with Cicar

http://www.cicar.com/EN

For 'belt and braces' we also have an independent annual insurance excess policy which costs about £39pa.

http://www.insurance4carhire.com/

We generally use 5 - 8 weeks of car hire all over the place each year.

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Last edited:
Nov 6, 2008
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We use malagacar.com, they are just outside the airport and collect you in their minibus. Straight forward, no hidden charges, no 'you must have our insurance' crap. Last time we rented a new Skoda Octavia auto for 700e for 10 weeks in january/february/march, very helpful people.

Craig
 
Feb 19, 2017
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I have always got the best hire rates from companies based at airports. This year we needed a car for a week or two in Portugal whilst touring in the Moho, booked online and off to Faro we went rather than using an agent.
 
Oct 2, 2008
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The other thing to watch for , is bogus traffic fines when you get back . I had one after hiring in Malaga , for running red light in a town that I hadn't even visited , as I went down to Gib , and the fine town was in the other direction towards Almeria , needless to say it was Binned :)

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Dec 28, 2015
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We use malagacar.com, they are just outside the airport and collect you in their minibus. Straight forward, no hidden charges, no 'you must have our insurance' crap. Last time we rented a new Skoda Octavia auto for 700e for 10 weeks in january/february/march, very helpful people.

Craig
Another vote for malagacar . Used them lots of times
 

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