Are Car rental companies making you break the Law in Spain!

Cheap high visibility vests (£1.99) will be on sale at Lidl in UK from 11 June.  Also lots of other car accessories - spare bulbs, first aid kit.

Diane.

Whilst we have been waiting for our place to be built we have been taking 2 Hivis vests, 2 warning triangles and a spare pair of glasses with us, but this week we take over our apartment, so will be leaving the said articles there and not taking up valuable luggage space every time we come out.  Not much we can do about the set of bulbs though as we never know what car we are going to get.  A good point about the insurance doc's though!

Mike

This has answered a lot of questions for us, we are over about 4 times a year and each time we hire a car, we could never understand why so many drivers had the yellow jackets in the car, now we know, thank you so much, we will make sure we have them next time we come over :-)

Elaine, you can buy the hi vis vests on market stalls for 2€, we did. We tend to leave them in Spain & put them in our hire car's glove compartment as soon as we get to our villa. (Illegal if kept in the boot where people often find them if they're there at all. ) If anyone's really concerned you can buy triangles for next to nothing in the UK, we picked up two in a pound shop.

Zetog, we bought a set of universal bulbs at a village shop only £2.99 so no need to concern ourselves if stopped or have an accident.

You really do know where all the best bargains are, Morerosado!  Im sticking with you !!

The above is not true ! I'm on a strict learning curve.

I too looked at the warning triangles in Poundland but they are quite light.  When the rules where first introduced into the law they stated that the triangles must conform to a specification.

I bought a set of two from Carrefour in a red plastic container, cant remember how much but I don't think they were more than 12e.

I also bought a couple of car safety kits in a yellow container from Aldi's in UK.  Each one came complete with triangle, visibility vest and gloves.  By removing the safety gloves I managed to get both triangles into one bag which I keep in our car here, the other bag I took out to Spain to use there.

I've just looked at the triangle and it says that it conforms to European Standard ECE R27 and each one is very heavy.  They are probably designed that way to ensure that they do not blow away if it's windy and we all know how windy Spain can get especially if you are near the coast.

There's a possibility that if stopped and you have triangles without this stamp above on them you could be fined.  Personally I can see the logic in these rules, they are there to save lives and that's why I have the items to use here.

I went shopping in Aldi's yesterday and they currently have another safety kit  on sale contents as above but now includes a tow rope £9-99.

I've been getting cars from Doyouspain recently and on my last two hires I was given used Centauro and AurigaCrown, both cars had one HiVis vest inside car and car triangles in boot.  In one car I had to search for triangles and I found them with the spair tyre, the other were strapped at the side of the boot.

I've also heard that people are being fined as they only had two vests and traffico insisted that they needed to have one for the amount of seats in car  I carry one with me back and forth and when I get to the house I load up the car with the other four and triangles that I store there.

So much for travelling light!  Hubby says i already take everything but the kitchen sink .... and still i can never find anything to wear!

x

Ah but when you find your Casa then you can leave the kitchen sink there and travel with hand luggage only ( complete with hi vis vest of course)

Thread drift but how may holiday home owners do travel light?

I've been travelling back and forth for 4 years now, at the beginning I was like a pack horse getting everything over that I'd been collecting for Spain.  Took adavantage of all the cheap Winter flights and free Golf bag travel.  C's travel bag had bedding and curtain poles in and got an empty golf trolley box to take out further items.

I keep saying that next time it will be just hand luggage but now we have to put some items into the hold I think what the heck might as well take a full case

Lidl's are selling hi vis vests again from Monday 30th July £1.99 see www.lidl.co.uk

I go out to Spain regularly and have hired from a number of companies. I always ask for a security pack when at the office [contains triangles and vests] and pay a returnable deposit of about 18 euros. You can ask for more vests in the pack. However, none of them provide spare bulbs, and all of them deny that this is a legal requirement! I must admit I've never had an 'insurance' document, only a copy of the hire contract. I'll ask for one next time!

Peter C    

Peter-c  The insurance document is inside the glove department, it could be tucked inside the booklet which contains the operating instructions.  If it's not there then ask at the kiosk in the garage.  They should be able to give you another car without you having to go back inside the airport.

Before I read the articule I always thought the rental contract was the insurance details, now I have another thing to add to the mental list of things to due before you leave the rental area.  Check where the door lock is, remove rental stickers, any dents or scratches, is fuel tank full (been caught out there as well) or if Record does it agree to what you where told in terminal and now where's the insurance.  It's no wonder my hair is going grey!

One trip I was asked to return my car and as I was due to pick up my husband at the weekend I arranged to do it then, all documentation was done in the kiosk including putting my husband on rental contract.  Which is something that Record will not do as we do not travel together at beginning of rental and they insist on seeing the original Passport.

We've rented from many companies, both at Alicante & Murcia & have never had insurance details left in car !

We've also been told it's 30€ deposit (refundable) for a vest & a triangle when these haven't been supplied. We now use AurigaCrown offsite at Murcia airport (at Santiago de Ribera about two miles away, they take you by minibus) & always get a vest & a triangle left in the boot & you also always have a full/full fuel arrangement, no matter how long rental's for. They tell you when you sort details out, you don't have to ask. Pay for full tank, be refunded at office on return after tank's checked. Suits us.

As I've said we bought two hi vis vests from Guardamar market 2€ each & picked up two triangles from pound shop here. For £2.95 we can buy a universal bulb set too ( as I make a mental note to do that ). I do realise these triangles we've bought are rather lightweight but the triangle supplied was not that much weightier that it would survive strong winds any better. (I'll put a carrier bag of sand in the boot )

Hi All,

With regards to the spare set of bulbs, if you have a car in the UK with a set bring it with you. Even in the unlikely event that you are going to be asked to show the police the set of bulbs it is extremely unlikely that you will be asked to prove to them they fit the car you are driving at the time!!!

Have a nice day y'all

When I first read the posting on another forum about the insurance document being out of date, I was a little dubious.

I made a point of looking in glove box next trip and found it in a wallet in there.  This was in Alicante but I must admit that the last couple of times I haven't been looking.  Both times I travelled with someone and forgot all about it.

Perhaps we can do a survey on here with people travelling out in August, maybe it depends on the hire company.  I was probably using Record at the time but I'm not sure if that was the company that made the mistake.

God forbid anyone should have an accident and not be insured, your travel insurance will not cover you as you would be expected to claim on the hire cars. 

I've just found the post and it was Record who do not operate from Murcia.

This happened in Feb 07, the person who posted warned a friend who was travelling after her and there Insurance was out of date as well.

Anyone travelling with Record please check before leaving airport.

thanks for that info ... thats not something that we would have thought of doing as presumed that if you paid for cover you were covered!  We will check from now on!