Car Hire

If useing SOLMAR at San Javier, take note that cars hired on a basic tarif (without  extra insurance) have to be returned 30 minutes early in order to have a check for damage - this is very thorough including underbody examination.

I got caught for a 5mm paint chip -result €200 penalty. It could have happened when I was driving, but as I took possession of the car after dark who knows whether it was allready there. If you hire  Peugot 208 reg 8840JGS check back door driver side. Could be a nice earner if not marked up  on hire docs.Will see how good CARJET insurance really is.

Thanks for the heads up Henry.

Unfortunately it seems that the mirror on a stick is a common way of extracting money from customers. See the recent reviews on tripadvisor.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187518-i980-k6318506-o10-Solmar_car_hire-Murcia.html

Another one to add to the list of car hire companies to avoid alongside Dickmanns.

TYhe fact with cheap car hire is that you are going to get ripped off for extra charges regardless of who you use and a cheap deal isn't actually a cheap deal

In my case recently Dickmans who have a really bad reputation now charge €42 if you return the car empty as a refuling fee and charge VAT on the rank which means that it costs over €100, almost twice the going rate

I have an policy tha cost me €52  a year to cover excess insurance and have successfully used this once when Budget made a claim in the UK,  it means that I have to leave a large deposit on a credit card but is works

A word of praise here for Easyrent and La Manga cars, nice easy contracts

Firefly are also pretty good as they don't worry about scratches etc.

Of all the car hire companies we have found ourselves using over the past ten years, we have had the least trouble with Budget and Firefly - yes, they all want to charge this excessive car insurance, and try the hard sell when we tell them we don't want it because we have an annual policy, so they "block" 800 euros (maybe more) on our credit card, but neither of these companies have ever taken that money from our account, and we have always been treated fairly by them.  They are consistently the companies about whom we have never had to complain (and there are plenty of others who have treated us disgracefully!). 

While we are on the subject of car hire companies to praise, I will give a shout out to Interrent. They are the budget car hire arm of Europcar.

What I like about them:

• They tend to be competitive in price with the very low end of the budget car rental companies.
• They do not give the hard sell over their insurance, they ask if you want it, you say no, they move on. This is both at Alicante and San Javier.
• They are not bothered with scratches or dents under 2cm, so none of the microscopic examinations with magnifying glasses or mirrors on sticks. Usually very quick to sort you out at the desk on pick up and return. I actually did manage to leave a very small scratch and dent with a bike rack but they weren't bothered at all.
• They do not debit your card and refund as others do with respect to insurance deposit.
• I had a speeding ticket once (112km/hr in a 100km/hr zone) and they didn't charge for supplying the police with my details.

My only gripe is the last time I used them on a full/empty basis. I returned the car with the fuel gauge showing around a quarter tank of petrol but they only refunded €0.01. I will continue to use them, but only on a full/full basis in future.

Thank you for that information.  We are always hiring out of Valencia or Reus so have not have heard of Interent, but are familiar with Europcar so we will give them a try.  Really, that is all we can ask for - a company who do not actually take "deposit" money out of your bank account and then take 25 days to return it - the petrol will always be a problem unless it is full/full, although we had problems with that at the new Castellon airport when there is not a petrol station anywhere near the airport!

Read the small print on your UK purchased top up car insurance

In the case of my paint chip, the insurer has after a lot of requests for paperwork accepted my claim but ONLY for the actual repair.The hire company (SOLMAR) also charged me €20 for time the car was being repaired - this is not covered by CARJET gold topup

The insurer quoted:

Unfortunately, the wording is such that the charges for the loss of usage would only be covered should this relate to your own loss of use of the vehicle during your rental period. As the repairs were carried out after the vehicle had been returned by you, the loss of usage that the rental company experienced falls outside the coverage provided. The rental company does not fall under the definition of "You", which is defined as being "The lead contracting person who is named on this policy who must be the person named as the main driver in the Vehicle Rental Agreement."

In my case not a big deal but if the damage had  needed a couple of weeks of the road, then the cost to me would be rather a nasty shock, perhaps SOLMAR's own insurance is better value for money if anything does go wrong, you are at least covered for every thing ?

BEWARE of the small print

Has anyone bought an annual insurance in Britiain to cover the excess?

Regards

Lesley

Hi Lesley, when we first went over we got really ripped off paying for the  insurance in the UK and then being told by the car hire company it wasnt valid and we still needed their insurance or they would hold 950€ on our credit card until the car had been inspected.  If there was no damage this would be refunded.  As it was late at night and we were tired we just paid their insurance at an extra 160€.

Since then we use Leisure Guard car hire excess insurance policy (annual) at £32 and use Centauro full to full option with basic insurance - they won't guarantee which car you get but we go for the cheapest option so could be a Fiat 500 or Fiat Panda or something of a similar size and the cost was roughly 10€ per day.  There is never an issue once you tell them you have your own insurance to cover damage,my hey never try to sell you theirs.

hope this helps

Thanks Polly I will look into this

Lesley