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After a few ropey rentals with Avis (Shetland ALC and ACE ) I’m back in Malaga .My ‘upgrade’ (I’ve booked and paid for an automatic Mid size SUV and I’m Presidents Club) is a lower level saloon car ….They want way more money for what I’ve booked ???
Eventually after much discussion I’m offered a Dacia Duster( really ???)) … errr the answer is still no. I’ve eventually agreed on a Ford Kuga but went back to report the significant damage to three panels which didn’t show on the invoice …).Think I’m heading back to Hertz in Spain after this who I’ve got a documented ( and pretty good )relationship with. Sadly AVIS have been way cheaper of late ( and I’m also Hertz Presidents Circle).We always use MalagaCar now, the cars are always in good condition and the rates include all the extras Avis has started badgering us for! You don’t pay until you collect the car and you can cancel at any time.
@Dragonlady – don’t diss a Duster! They’re great – it would be my hire car of choice in Argentina but they and pickups (the most ideal car there) have got too expensive. I nearly bought a Duster but my wife persuaded me not to replace our third car which was even less glamorous – a Berlingo I was very sad to see go.
Think I’m heading back to Hertz
You are looking at this wrong – it’s the franchisees at each location you need to look at. For every hire company, there are good ones and bad ones – meaning you can’t automatically rule in or rule out companies, it’s all location specific.
Apart from Hertz US which is always avoid of course.
Think I’m heading back to Hertz
You are looking at this wrong – it’s the franchisees at each location you need to look at. For every hire company, there are good ones and bad ones – meaning you can’t automatically rule in or rule out companies, it’s all location specific.
Apart from Hertz US which is always avoid of course.
Agree that it is location specific – but this also extends to Hertz US.
Nothing but good to day about several Hertz US locations. Top condition vehicles, never any issues with any damage (even when damaging tyres, windshield, etc.) and no unexpected charges. LAS is good, for example. Check the ratings and go with the good ones.
I rente in MAD with Avis for 2 weeks. It is supposed to be a “premium” brand but the cars they were offering me were subpar (old or lacking features or just very low range vs. the options others have).
It took ~90min before they found something that was in line with what I paid and even with my Presidents Club membership there was no special treatment or upgrade.
The Avis membership is good for
@JDB – I consider myself suitably chastised . FWIW the Kuga is a total piece of underpowered cr**. Possibly I should have taken the Duster …🙂@Northernlass I haven’t used Malagacars for years but will look at them for my next trip back here in a few months .
@Dragonlady – we’ve hired a number of Dusters recently from Avis. In Scotland (possibly Inverness) but definitely Bordeaux (where I think they must have received a large number this year). On first occasion we weren’t sure, but it had lots of bells and whistles and was easy to drive. They seem to be so much better than some of the other cars Avis has. OH has hired two 4×4 in recent years to drive around Morocco and through the Atlas Mountains. The 4×4 Duster he had on each occasion drove very well and unsurprisingly they are very common in Morocco. He has a RangeRover at the moment, but in the past has had Defenders and Grand Cherokee Jeeps. He’s been trying to persuade me to sell my Hyundai and buy one!
@Dragonlady, we had a slight hitch in May as we were arriving the day before we collected the car, and you can’t complete a booking without a valid flight number. I emailed MalagaCar and they said just put your flight number in, it won’t matter. Then when OH got to the desk to collect the car they said “Your flight was yesterday, and you didn’t collect your car.”
Fortunately I had anticipated this typical example of Spanish bureaucracy and printed out the email with all this documented and they eventually backed down and gave him a car! Other than that, we were very happy, lol.
@LD27 I guess it’s a bit of badge snobbery on my part .I still think of Dacias as being Eastern European bits of junk ( I clearly need to review these ideas ! ).@JDB a Berlingo is so totally uncool it’s cool :).
@Northernlass I’ll definately get a quote but Avis have been so much cheaper on all my rentals down on the CDS for the past few years .
The Kuga has proved itself to be as useless today as it was yesterday. It’s struggled to get up any sort of incline ( and there plenty of those down here once you’re away from the main coast road 🙂 )@Dragonlady – my OH is a car aficionado. There are many marque he wouldn’t touch. After our wedding we left in a TR4A which he had lovingly restored! So for him to tell me to buy a Dacia as opposed to a Volvo (which I/we have had in the past) there must be something that Dacia is doing right. It’s his hobby. We’ve got a GN in the garage which most people have never heard of and other classic cars. Got back from South America to find yet another classic car had arrived! We’ve even got an old Range Rover in France that our French neighbour calls “Maggie” as its 1980s era. I have no interest in cars, apart from safety, but he’d rather go to Herefordshire to watch a car rally or drive through the Atlas Mountains than travel with me to the Galapagos! At some point we had a Bongo!
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