Renting a car in Spain

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

We've rented cars in Europe before, but senility has set in, and I can't remember if Auto Europe or Europcar is generally considered the best for service, etc.

Any thoughts are welcome.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I have used both companies you mentioned. Sometimes one would be cheaper, sometimes the other. In the last few years, however, I have found the best deals at Economy Car Rentals.com Cheap Car Rental Rates. I have always had things go smoothly with them and their local partners (they are a consolidator) until my last rental a couple of weeks ago, which was in Spain and their local provider was Goldcar Rentals. That was a nightmare and I now have a complaint in to Economy, and will post when they resolve it.

Goldcar did three seperate things which were frauds:
1) They charged about 12 euros more than my Economy Car Rentals voucher said I was to pay, which was an all-in price.
2) They compelled me to use their conversion from euros to dollars at a bad rate, which cost me another 18 euros or so.
3) They were supposed to charge me for a full tank of gas at the local rate and I would return the car empty, but they charged the fuel at over 25% above the local rate.
All told, I was flim-flamed out of about $50 US.

When I read over the contract at the rental desk and complained about these things, I was told that it was ''all in the computer'' and they could do nothing about any of it. My only option was to cancel the rental and rent from someone else at walkup rates, in which case I would not get my prepayment to Economy Car Rentals back. I figured I was better to just take it and file a complaint with Economy which I have done.

I posted this experience on a UK t/s board and others responded that they had had similar ripoffs from Goldcar Rentals. I suggest you avoid them.

The company several UK timesharers recommended for Spanish car rentals was Auto Reisen, which from the name must be a German company, saying they had good prices and good service and no ripoffs.

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

Thanks for the run down; I really appreciate the head's up on Gold Car and the suggestion of another company.

[bellesgirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bellesgirl]

We used carjet.com for Portugal and had a very good experience. We had to change plans at the last minute because of the Iceland volcano and they were very responsive and did not change the rates. Even gave us a discount because we lost a day. I know they are big in Spain as well. They also offer very reasonable insurance that covers everything. I would definitely use them again.

[BWolf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BWolf]

We used carjet (in Spain) and had a very good experience. We too were affected by the ash cloud.

[Pstreet1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pstreet1]

Thanks to both of you. With your replies and Carolinians' reply, I have some options.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Carjet is a consolidator like Economy Car Rentals. They will give you a voucher to a local provider, and one of Carjet's local providers in Spain is Goldcar Rentals. You can probably specify through either consolidator that you do not want Goldcar as your local car provider.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

In response to my complaint to Economy, Goldcar adjusted part of the overcharge on the rental rate but not all of it, claimed they used Premium fuel (which the specs of the car I rented do not call for, and in any event is not 25% higher than regular gas), and did not address the fraudulent currency change at all. I have again asked Economy to have another go at them. I will also press this through my credit card.