Malaga Airport Car Hire (1 Viewer)

I know this is a question that will have been asked before but...

... any recommendations for car hire at Malaga Airport? I usually just pick a name from "Autos Abroad" and hope the queue wont be too long ( my record was 2 hours at Barcelona). This time I am tempted by "Malagacar.com" which may be the same as "Malaga.car.uk".

We arrive late at night and I hate getting in a bus to go to a car hire office.

Any help would be appreciated.

Andy

I always book through 'DoyouSpain' - www.doyouspain.com - and have found they always sort out a lower priced option with the benefit of English speaking back-up if things go wrong,

John

I use these. Never any trouble, and all the cars are almost new with only a few thousand km on the clock (my last one had 2,000km on, the one before it was 4,000km).

http://www.all-inclusive-car-hire.com/spain/index.php

There is a slight wrinkle, though. They are an agent, so until you've made your booking based on the quote, you don't really know which hire company you are using. The booking hall at Malaga has a line of car-hire desks, such as Crown, Centaurus, etc. This isn't really a problem in itself, but their fuel policy varies.

Some of the companies used use a full-full fuel tank policy. You get the car full, you bring it back full.

Nowt wrong with that - I like it.

Some of them, however use a full-empty policy. That is, they provide you with a full tank of fuel and you return the car empty. This is where the wrinkles lie. If you are only going a short way, you may not use a full tank (never happened to me), so you are paying for fuel you may not use.

When you return the car empty, it isn't. With a great deal of will-power you might run it down to a couple of litres left, again, fuel you've paid for, even if it's only a couple of litres.

The biggest wrinkle, however is what they charge you for the full tank of fuel they kindly provide. It has a mark-up of about 20% or so over pump price, so you are actually paying more for your hire than you thought to the sum of 10 or 15 euros or so.

Just one of the joys of touring. Some you win, some you lose.

John Cantelo said:

I always book through 'DoyouSpain' - www.doyouspain.com - and have found they always sort out a lower priced option with the benefit of English speaking back-up if things go wrong,

John

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Thanks all for the help; especial thanks to John. "DoyouSpain" are doing a deal where you return the car with the same fuel as you got it. That was the clincher for me as I hate the full/empty rip-off.

Andy

John Cantelo said:

I always book through 'DoyouSpain' - www.doyouspain.com - and have found they always sort out a lower priced option with the benefit of English speaking back-up if things go wrong,

John

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I've just taken your tip John and booked a car for my autumn trip next month. They are 10% cheaper than the company I've used up to now and no hidden fuel costs.

Thanks.

Alan Seaton said:

I've just taken your tip John and booked a car for my autumn trip next month. They are 10% cheaper than the company I've used up to now and no hidden fuel costs.

Thanks.

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Thats who I'm booked with as well for next month.

Carjet's switch to a Full/Empty policy in recent years has left me feeling ripped off and I'm no fan of blatant robbery.

3 weeks Saturday and counting

I'm due to visit Almeria next week, so got an online quote from "Douyou" from/to Almeria Airport.
They quoted on a full tank/empty tank basis, as did "Carjet".
Guess I'll need to try elsewhere,

Ron

Surprised at that. Their site says "Prices all inclusive with no hidden costs" and "what you see is what you pay".

A 5 door A/c Clio from Almeria for 7 days from 7th Sept quoted at 105 euros.

http://www.doyouspain.com/

Here is the comment quoted for my car hire from Malaga in a couple of weeks time;

"A major credit card such as Visa or Mastercard is needed to pay the rental. You will be given the car with fuel in the tank and be required to return it with the same level of fuel, so you will only pay for the fuel you use. Thank you. "

"A major credit card such as Visa or Mastercard is needed to pay the rental. You will be given the car with fuel in the tank and be required to return it with the same level of fuel, so you will only pay for the fuel you use. Thank you. "

Mine says the same Alan.

I've conducted an experiment by booking exactly the same dates & times with DoYouSpain again just now and here's what I've found.

When I originally booked in April I was quoted 136 euros for 8 days, this time around I was quoted 112 euros for 8 days - both with Record Rent-a-Car.

However, the wording on the voucher has changed from the quoted above to this:

''A major credit card such as Visa or Mastercard is needed to pay the rental. On arrival you will be asked to prepay the full tank of fuel so please return the vehicle as empty as possible as Record are not able to refund money for unused fuel. If the rental is for 3 days you may ask the representative to offer full/full fuelling against your credit card deposit. Thank you.''

There you have it, they've quoted 20 euros less but are now operating a Full/Empty policy.

Just hope they're still obliged to offer the Full/Full policy that we've been quoted?

I'd have thought they are bound by the wording on the booking.

Mine's with Record too.

Looks as if I booked last week just in time! They must all be going over to the full/empty scam. A couple of years ago it was the minority.