Poster: A snowHead
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I've just (re-)booked car hire for next March out of Milan Malpensa. It was a toss-up between Goldcar and Locauto.
I opted for Locauto despite never having used them before - a quick snowHeads search seemed to suggest they are one of the more decent companies. Is that a fair assessment, compared to Goldcar?
(In previous years we've used Goldcar as they've been cheaper, and have had no issues. However I'm aware of their poor reputation.)
The booking is fully cancellable.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@denfinella, no help to you but I will be following this. I have booked hire from MXP for Gnarli and swerved Goldcar for the reason you highlight. I found the in-airport desk companies, other than Goldcar, were a fair bit more so picked Noleggiare. A shuttle pick up might be a pain on arrival but have more time on return. Also cancellable so this thread might help me find a better option.
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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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Pretty much all hire companies, even the name ones have to be dealt with the utmost caution and diligence. Though my impression is Goldcar are another level down.
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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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I’ve used Hertz and Budget, both are in terminal, Hertz do have vehicles with winter tyres and some 4x4 if you want that. Like other I’d avoid Goldcar based on their reported reputation.
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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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I've used number of different car hires in europe and Direct Excess saved me a few £k and most recently a small claim through eversure went really smoothly. Costs £30-45 a year but it's really worth it.
I used to use Goldcar because they are one of the cheapest one but depending on a day/airport you need to be prepared for an aggressive techniques to sell you their excess insurance. I've been always pleased with Noleggiare service but was charged £100 recently due to a small scratch on plastic wheel cover (got money back from eversure). Few times in used Centauro in italy some time ago with no issues and nice cars but they don't have cars at the airport so requires taking a shuttle bus.
Re Goldcar's reputation. I've had once a claim they didn't provide any documentation for (even though i they were right to charge for those damages). I called them and sent number of emails with no response so went through the bank and they didn't dispute it. The contract states they need to provide documentation for the damages and charge hence it was easy win through bank. If they had provided I would have got money back from DirectExcess.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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It was years ago but I did once rent a car from Goldcar at Malpensa. TBH the only problem was that they insisted on filling the car with fuel (at their price) and told us to return it empty. The fuel indicator was showing absolutely empty when we returned it. It is not a pleasnt experience driving trying to arrive at the airport with an empty tank. Once you factored in the fuel tank scam they were no less expensive than the other hire companies. They also insiosted on a mobile phone number when I collected it. As I didn't have a mobile phone this proffed tricky until they accepted 441234567890.
I've used Locauto from Venice in the past and they've been absolutely fine.
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I've used Locauto a number of times and they have been fine with decent low mileage vehicles.
Obviously you need to have your own excess insurance, but no hard sell once that was made clear.
I believe they are now tied up with the largest US car hire company Enterprise (along with National & Alamo) acting as their Italian agent, so that likely gives them huge bargaining power with the car manufacturers to maintain a modern fleet.
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Thanks all. Sounds like Locauto are (relatively) fine then.
Worth saying though that I'd be happy to use Goldcar from Malpensa again if the price was right, based on my 2023 & 2022 experiences. I don't doubt that they are bad at some airports, but maybe they are OK at Malpensa.
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