Faro Pt hire cars

I used autoeurope to hire a car for a week in Faro last month. Ended up with Goldcar as that was the cheapest. The year before was an unkown company with the booth out in the middle of the car park. Both were totally fine although Goldcar was a quicker and easier pick-up / drop off. Next time I will just do a search and go with the cheapest again.

I take out 3rd party excess insurance instead of what the hiring company offer. Much cheaper.

Basically just follow this guide...

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-car-hire/

Last time we just went with Sixt. Bit pricy but we wanted an estate with roof bars as were flying in with kayaks. (They were on site so we didn't have to carry kayaks around, or leave someone minding them whilst whilst others went to get cars.)

Avoid KlassWagen. Hard sell on their damage waiver when we got there (even though we had third party damage waiver insurance), massive go-slow when I stuck to my guns, then went over car with a magnifying glass both at pick up and return. This was booked through Jet2.

We've just had a year's Eversure policy run out which cost something like £40 for the year, and used x3.

thanks all

Sixt in Faro were awful for me. Tried it on saying I’d returned it low on fuel and scratched absolutely without evidence. I fought both claims with video evidence (that I now always take) and fuel receipts but they hounded me for literally over a year.

I spoke to Sixt UK on Twitter who politely explained that they’re all franchises over there and essentially independent businesses. Ironically I had chosen Sixt because I thought they might be less shady than Goldcar and the independent ones. Never again for Sixt.

My research showed the Faro ones all had terrible reviews so I just went with the cheapest, a company called LC rent via the Zest car rental site. £180 for the week including the transponder. A late evening pick up from the shed in the car park wasn’t a nice start to the holiday but reasonably efficient.

Was a very beaten up Corsa automatic that sounded a bit ropy but ran ok. Our flight was crazy early and the out of hours drop off consisted of leaving it in the car park with the keys in the glovebox. Took videos of everything but never heard anything from them again.

I would maybe pay a bit extra next time to pick up from the airport desks, and hopefully a newer car, but not loads more.

Definitely get excess insurance, saves loads of money and they do pay out even against total crooks like the Alicante OK Mobility lot.

I saw one excess company recently who didn’t pay out against a particular rental company (Green Motion??), so despite these policies generally being easy to consume check the small print.

Avoid Gold Car. Even if you have insurance they will:

a) Add their insurance and not tell you, giving you a tablet to sign with no ts an cs.

b) If you question this, or they appear to accept your insurance there will be a problem with your credit card when they come to take the deposit.

c) Even if by some miracle you manage to get them to accept your insurance be prepared for them to find “damage” when you return the car.

Goldcar are crooks. @stewmur is spot on, completely fraudulent practice. Glad when they took premium insurance from my credit card that I actually grounded the car (a Golf) taking off road, doing more damage than they extracted from me. Didn’t tell them of course.

I used Sixt exclusively for a few years after a very positive experience in Faro airport. We arrived on an early flight and they weren't too busy. Whilst I was going through the admin stuff at the counter, a member of staff loaded our suitcases into the boot, got our accomodation address from my wife, and programmed it into the sat-nav for us!

Goldcar at Faro are crooks. They charged me eur100 "cleaning fee" because there was a little sand in the rear footwell.

I've had no problems with Avis at Faro.

Bump - Klass Wagen has made it into the Times Travel Doctor this weekend for ripping someone off on dubious grounds.

And another bump - have used Guerin this time (who are Enterprise in disguise) and it’s been absolutely fine.

No more tolls on the A22 incidentally.

I used Guerin / enterprise in Lisbon this time last year - they were fine. 

I did actually have to claim on my excess insurance - someone crashed into the car while it was parked - but they paid out no problem.

+1 for Guerin, I’ve rented 100’s of cars around the world and they have been one of the easiest to deal with.

Isn't it funny how different people can have such different experiences.

2 years ago I hired from a company based out of the wee shack in the car park. We arrived late at night at the pick up process took a while as there were loads of customers trying to pick up cars. Good car was allocated and drop off was no problem at the end of the week.

Last year I chose Goldcar. They were based beside the bigger companies with a proper collection office. Pick up was much slicker (maybe due to time of day) and again I have no complaints at all. They tried to sell me the extra insurance but as I already had it 3rd party I didn't get it. Drop off was fine with a quick check around the car.

We are going again in September so I am just about to book another car. I will go with one of the cheapest and if there is not much in it I would choose Goldcar due to pick up location.

Aye, Guerin was a short walk from the terminal. Klasswagen involved a minibus which added to the air of dread (though we used GreenMotion in Cyprus which was also a minibus special and was fine)

Ah, times have changed. I first holidayed on the Algarve in 1987, many of the roads weren't even tarmacced, everyone drove like it was a rally stage, and the cars reflected it. Someone reversed into it in a car park and stoved a door in and drove off. We phoned the company (from a hotel payphone, no mobiles) and they apologised to us for shit local drivers, but as long as the car still drove (it did, you just couldn't get in one side on the rear) they said not to worry, and at the end of the season they'd get all the cars together, work out which were properly ****ed and then sort of cut n'shut the undamaged bits back together to get a few decent versions back together and then scrap the rest.

Sorry, no help to the OP.

I'm over there one or two times a month at the moment with work and we seem to have settled on Guerin over Goldcar, Sixt and Klasswagen.

The office manager books it all through booking.com and I always add max insurance and toll card locally but then I'm not paying. Normally fly into Lisbon but have done one pick up from Faro, dropping off at Lisbon and all fine.

No negative experience except for Klasswagen who had horrendously slow service at dropoff and are away from the airport.

I have experienced significant difference of levels of vehicle scrutiny at drop off ranging from someone practically crawling about on all fours with a phone torch to a more normal just checking the fuel level and all good.

Posted by: theotherjonv

↑

shit local drivers

They haven’t changed that much.