Anyone recommend me a reliable rental company? Just need a small car for around a week. Seem to be loads out there but also lots of horror stories. Is the £1k credit card deposit pretty much normal now? Ta v much.

We used Sixt from the airport. Not the cheapest. But very good.

Can’t remember about the deposit though. Don’t think there was one. But can’t remember for sure. Was 2 years ago

We’ve used Firefly from downstairs at the airport. Can be a long queue to pick up but with your own excess insurance it was very cheap reliable and a decent car. Yrs they take a reserve on your card. Best to take a backup card with you with some headroom and use that. Always best to take a few cards anyway and keep them separate. We were OK as we were doing loads of miles so the full-empty wasn’t an additional cost.

Helle hollis, just outside the airport, they have a shuttle bus every 5/10 mins.
We’ve used them 3 times now and we’re due to fly into Malaga during October half term.

I’ve used local family-type suppliers in the Balearics** and will continue to do so in the future rather than the bait-and-switch tactics of the holiday rental companies (less so the big boys). Not sure if they’re available in Malaga. Otherwise have a look at economycarhire.co.uk for some comparison prices where the fuel and insurance policies are more clearly stated.

**
– car at the airport in the short stay car park rather than off airport at the back of a massive queue
– easy to deal with – invariably the owner or manager
– good communications
– free and decent child seats
– clear insurance policy i.e. only pay for under body damage (i.e. no offroad), lost keys, mis-fueling.
– old skool bring the car back with the same amount of fuel

I used an online one called Toro or something?
You basically get a SIXT or Enterprise car but book through this Toro who do an all inclusive insurance very cheap.

Think I was about £100 to get a Fiat 500 and mega “as long as you bring back the keys and it hasn’t been on fire we don’t care” insurance for a week

Not toro, can’t remember. Sure it was a Spanish word though

We go a couple of times a year and always use Eoropcar or Sixt or similar,

Made the fatal mistake of booking with Gold car because it was cheaper, we queued for about 2 Hours as everyone seemed to use them, there were only a few at the other desks and they were there a matter of minutes before moving off and getting their cars. It worked out about £20 odd quid dearer but well worth it for me as I hate waiting.

I’ve heard some horror stories about not being able to claim and even staff letting out cars, in some cases only minor accidents have occurred but the end result has been no pay out as the cheap rental turned out to be exactly that.

Another thing to think about depending on where you are staying is crime. It’s rocketed there in the past few years, A lot of folk have started taking the hire car stickers out of the windows and removing the parcel shelves so that you can see there is nothing left in the boot. Obviously if you leave stuff in the boot you want the parcel shelf in there but the general consensus is don’t as the back windows are often put in looking for iPads cameras etc.

We used Sixt at Malaga, were very good. In Mallorca this year we used Centauro and they wer excellent, they have a Malaga branch. They are off airport, but my experience of using them at Palma was that overall it was still quicker than waiting at an in terminal desk- Fast and regular shuttle buses and smaller queues when you get to the office.

The current in favour hire company in Malaga seems to be RecordGo. No queues witg Gold Car but we waited about 60mins for Record. This was booked via Jet2.

If you do use Gold Car and have pre booked don’t make the mistake of queuing in the terminal, instead just go direct to the desk in the car park where they can do the remaining paperwork and give you the keys. We have used them a few times and they were fine.

Returning on empty tank is a pain but common practice now. Some companies are moving back to return full tank but charging an admin fee to check the tank is full! Taking a deposit off a credit card is also standard.

Don’t ever take out the excess insurance. I buy an annual policy for £39 through Insurance4carehire.co.uk which provides better cover and is cheaper than buying direct though the hire company.

We go every couple of months and book through economy car hire here and chose centauro. they are off the airport but right next to a motorway junction. good if your’e not familiar with the area.

Always use Malaga Car. Pick up outside the terminal in a minibus to take you round to their depot. Cheap and never had any issues over 7 trips. They’ll drop you back off at the terminal when you take the car back, often in your hire car if the bus is busy so very little waiting around.

I was worried about being ripped off after loads of horror stories.
We were arriving late in the evening, so really wanted a car from the airport hire car companies instead of a pick-up.

Booked an Atesa car (Enterprise in Spain I think) through CarDelMar.com

£120 for a week at Easter with their ‘All Inclusive Plus’ option which meant full-full fuel policy and a few other bits of insurance (there’s a fuel station next to the car park in the airport).

Couldn’t have been more straightforward – New Corsa. Lovely helpful staff, no upselling, free bottles of water and they didn’t even look at the car on return!

but with your own excess insurance it was very cheap

Don’t ever take out the excess insurance. I buy an annual policy for £39 through

note the above, you need to sort this before you go…for a week its quite cheap, but from the car hire companies, its about 25 euros a day!

Ive hired a few times from Malaga and booked online with Rentalcars. Ideally you should let someone else get your bag and go straight there to avoid a longer wait.

We’re going to Malaga airport in a couple of weeks and have done all the research on trip advisor. Main one recommended seems to be helle Hollis but it’s expensive. We chose Malagacar.com (the .com part is important as there’s another one called Malagacar apparently). good reviews and a lot cheaper, seemed to be the best compromise for us.

malagacar.com

Used them loads of times now

We had some proper fun and games with our hire car in Mlaga (just returned yesterday)

Had the car for two weeks and spent the last couple of days in Malaga for the festival. Parked in a secure underground car park from Saturday morning to leave yesterday morning. On Sunday night I (fortunately) popped down to the car to collect something only to find a flat battery. No big deal but central locking didn’t work. No big deal but then realised key hole had previously been damaged so couldn’t maually open the car (only one actual lock on the car) So tow truck guy turns up, can’t access the car to sort battery and drives away.

So we are, at that point, left with a car with most of our luggage, and my bike, locked, inaccesable in car park at 11pm on Sunday night in Malaga during their festival with a flight leaving in 10 hours.

Tow truck guy comes back and with hire care company authorisation starts trying to smash window. Remember I said it was a secure car park? Well then two security guys come running at the both of us with batons raised as they assume we are trying to steal the car. That was awkward.

After 10 minutes of futile bashing with a massive wrench and screwdriver, tow truck guy decides to give up and leave, not even a scratch on the window. He doesn’t speak Englishso I have to stand in front of his truck to stop him going.

Call to hire car company and they decide to tow it away, but ceiling height is too low for truck to access the car park.

After all of this, by which point it has been going on for nearly 90 mins, the tow truck guy decides to break in on the old fashioned way. Inflated a small air pouch between the door and frame to prise it slightly open, then uses a long bent rod to hook the door handle. If I spoke Spanish I would have asked him why the hell he didn’t do that before spending 10 minutes trying to smash the window like a crazed maniac.

Lovely relaxed way to spend the last evening of holiday!

blimey! any financial implications to all this or were you covered for tow trucks etc?

Likely dispute over damage to lock on car which neither party spotted at handover but this will be convered by excess insurance. They have already indicated that we have to pay for tow truck but booking said 24hr breakdown cover included. I spoke to credit card company earlier to warn of likely shenanigans against our deposit.

https://uk.pepecar.com/cars-rental/spain/malaga/

just about to book my excess insurance now, looking at the insurance4carhire link above ^^^. what sort of price should i be looking at do you think? itll be a fabia size for 12 days. £20? £50? £100?

any other companies recommended?

EDIT: booked with malagacar.com. how much wedge are they likely to load my card with, and do this company actually take the money then refund it, or that thing where they dont actually take it out at the time?