 Poster: A snowHead
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Was looking at holidayautos.com checking car hire prices from mountain airports, can currently hire a car from Barcelona for €13 a week for dates in January or for about €60 a week from Milan Bergamo? How can that work? Same dates €250 a week from Geneva?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It works by charging you for every other tiny thing you might expect to be included, having loads of compulsory add ons once you go to pick it up, by being nowhere near where you thought you were going to pick it up from, by not being the car you thought you had hired, by compulsory charging you for their fuel at rates way and above the going price, and by going over the car with a fine tooth comb once you return it and charging you unreasonable amounts for tiny stone chips. There's no such thing as a free ride!
Extensive trial and error of booking cars from Barcelona has led me to conclude that it is only worth renting from the recognised names. A £13/week car with a £270 surcharge from a cowboy rental company is not better value than a £200 a week car with no surcharges from a reputable company.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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+++++++1
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@pandora, Yes I was wondering would they look for a tiny scratch in the paint work to get a few hundred euro out of you. Couldn't think of any business reason they would charge so little. Although the Milan Bergamo one is also very cheap.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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We always get third party excess cover to make sure we don't get screwed over by cowboy car rentals. We once lost out massively on charges and exchange rate changes when we had our credit card deposit refunded. Oh and we had to wait weeks for the money. Always use a reputable firm - it's just not worth it otherwise.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I used to do some contract work for Enterprise car rental. An American manager gave me the low down on their business model.
Profits are based primarily on resale. These guys are bulk buying from manufacturers at massively reduced prices. They then run the cars for a few months on the hire fleet and then send them to auction before the mileage clocks up. They are then sold for a profit.
The manufacturers turn excess stock into cash, the rental companies make profits, everyone wins. The rental income is a little icing on the cake.
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@Peter Ross, thought the same when booking from Milan Malpensa for my 4 day trip. They were offering a Fiat 500 for £27.
We went for a Ford Kuga for £100.
Maybe just down to demand and supply?
| pandora wrote: |
| ... Extensive trial and error of booking cars from Barcelona has led me to conclude that it is only worth renting from the recognised names. A £13/week car with a £270 surcharge from a cowboy rental company is not better value than a £200 a week car with no surcharges from a reputable company. |
This is with Avis. Winter tyres come as standard and I've already got an annual excess policy.
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| Mollerski wrote: |
I used to do some contract work for Enterprise car rental. An American manager gave me the low down on their business model.
Profits are based primarily on resale. These guys are bulk buying from manufacturers at massively reduced prices. They then run the cars for a few months on the hire fleet and then send them to auction before the mileage clocks up. They are then sold for a profit.
The manufacturers turn excess stock into cash, the rental companies make profits, everyone wins. The rental income is a little icing on the cake. |
Very true. Prices are very low at the minute, reflecting demand as people are not booking in the Alps due to conditions.
Some of the unscrupulous look for all kind of damage and stick it on the price at the end. Don't expect great service from the names either - I've hsd a Hertz rentl break down and thet didn't want to know, leaving me to hitch.
Enterprise is actually a good company and I've rented off them many times before both in teh States and Europe. I decided to go with them after I saved a few quid by renting with Don's Discount Car Hire just north of Boston only to find the brakes caught fire as I drove down Mt Washington.
The biggest problem I have with car hire is how long it takes to issue cars at the airports. I always get near the door or the plane, run off and get to my rental booth knowing that a queue takes about twenty minutes per customer to go down. Many of the smaller companies at smaller regional airports have staff who come in for landings. I'm sure they're paid by the hour so spin it out to earn more.......
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Peter Ross,
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Yes I was wondering would they look for a tiny scratch in the paint work to get a few hundred euro out of you.
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Guess the cost of this little b*ggar ("Budget/Avis" car hire : luckily we had a separate excess cover insurance)
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I always make a great show of photographing the car before and after the hire and, so far, have never been stung for ridiculous claims.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Mollerski wrote: |
I used to do some contract work for Enterprise car rental. An American manager gave me the low down on their business model.
Profits are based primarily on resale. These guys are bulk buying from manufacturers at massively reduced prices. They then run the cars for a few months on the hire fleet and then send them to auction before the mileage clocks up. They are then sold for a profit.
The manufacturers turn excess stock into cash, the rental companies make profits, everyone wins. The rental income is a little icing on the cake. |
Not just Enterprise, all the car hire companies were doing this at one time. Maybe they still do, I'm no longer in touch with it.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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If you get a small scratch similar to above pic, one way to avoid being taken to the cleaners by car hire co, is to have the mark fixed by a local panel beater /repair shop, before dropping to the airport
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| pandora wrote: |
It works by charging you for every other tiny thing you might expect to be included, having loads of compulsory add ons once you go to pick it up, by being nowhere near where you thought you were going to pick it up from, by not being the car you thought you had hired, by compulsory charging you for their fuel at rates way and above the going price, and by going over the car with a fine tooth comb once you return it and charging you unreasonable amounts for tiny stone chips. There's no such thing as a free ride!
Extensive trial and error of booking cars from Barcelona has led me to conclude that it is only worth renting from the recognised names. A £13/week car with a £270 surcharge from a cowboy rental company is not better value than a £200 a week car with no surcharges from a reputable company. |
If you are savvy you can beat them at their own game.
Get a 3 phone with the home and away package that gives you data at the UK rate and you can use google maps for SatNav (I have a GPS Garmin but one of my colleagues does this). I also have a worldwide policy that covers car rental excess of £54/year. The best deals are when the excess is high so having this is a real saver for more than a 3-4 day hire. A European policy is about £35.
I use Hertz and registered for free with their scheme. They will sometimes have a new person deal that can save 30%.
Herts also don't bother if it is a <2.5cm scratch (Disclaimer. I've never scratched a car) and a real benefit is when you register, you can prepay for fuel. That way you simply drop off and they deduct the fuel at the "Local" rate e.g. £1.10/litre. If you don't prepay it is something like £2.90/ litre. Ive not used this scheme yet because Southampton airport has a garage 1km along the road.
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You know it makes sense.
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| geoffers wrote: |
@Peter Ross,
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Yes I was wondering would they look for a tiny scratch in the paint work to get a few hundred euro out of you.
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Guess the cost of this little b*ggar ("Budget/Avis" car hire : luckily we had a separate excess cover insurance)
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Excess cover is a great thing to have and cheaper than the car hire company "super cover" for more than 3 days/year.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| geoffers wrote: |
@Peter Ross,
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Yes I was wondering would they look for a tiny scratch in the paint work to get a few hundred euro out of you.
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Guess the cost of this little b*ggar ("Budget/Avis" car hire : luckily we had a separate excess cover insurance) |
Small scratch but looks quite deep so would need filler/sanding and across two panels (just, but that's the kind of hamming up that they'll do). You could probably find someone to do it cheaply for about £125 over here but using a 'recognised' company like a hire firm would I'd guess at somewhere between £200-300? The problem is with the paint matching, you either do a whole panel (which could still look out of place) or you overspray and try to blend it (which takes a lot of labour).
| dublin2 wrote: |
| If you get a small scratch similar to above pic, one way to avoid being taken to the cleaners by car hire co, is to have the mark fixed by a local panel beater /repair shop, before dropping to the airport |
My old man dented a wheel (luckily a steely) on a hire car so we just found a garage that had a spare.
I also make sure to take a hi-res video around the whole car when I pick it up and detailed photos of any existing damage to make sure I've got proof if they try to get me paying for someone else's damage. I suspect that a lot of companies will charge people for a repair but never get it done, instead just adding it to a pot and then doing a proper job before they sell the car on. Sadly the days when you could treat a hire car like a tank are long gone.
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Poster: A snowHead
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@geoffers, not sure, are there any set fees for damage on the terms and conditions I wonder?
@Mollerski, thanks for that info on the business model.
I noticed this trend last January also, It must be a slow time for car rental at some airports.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Quote: |
Guess the cost of this little b*ggar
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The original estimate was 1,060eu!!! We got that reduced a bit, but the final balance (which was luckily covered by the excess insurance) came to ~£690, so be aware out there 
They claimed there was damage to 2 panels (door and arch) so that was 500eu per panel - the estimate also included some cost for electrical items, so sounded like they were quoting for door removal (maybe disconnect electric windows?) for respray
I'm sure that the quote was over inflated, but they know it'll be covered by insurance so push it to the max...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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A client of mine hired a car in the summer in the South of France.
She had it for three weeks and only used it very sparingly. The hire company charged her 30 euro cleaning bill because the passenger side had a small amount of sand/ dust in the footwell.
The back seats hadn't been sat in and in all other respects the car was perfect.
I was gobsmacked. What do hire companies expect you to stop off and hoover the car out and give it a quick wax and polish before returning??
I would have stood my ground but she wrote it off and made a mental note never to use them again.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
|
A client of mine hired a car in the summer in the South of France.
She had it for three weeks and only used it very sparingly. The hire company charged her 30 euro cleaning bill because the passenger side had a small amount of sand/ dust in the footwell.
The back seats hadn't been sat in and in all other respects the car was perfect.
I was gobsmacked. What do hire companies expect you to stop off and hoover the car out and give it a quick wax and polish before returning??
I would have stood my ground but she wrote it off and made a mental note never to use them again.
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