In praise of Avis

[Tonsyl]

We have literally just got off the plane from PMI and a couple of fantastic weeks in Pollensa. (Not Port but town but more of that later in another post). Normally, we have used Goldcar but this time we had a car through Avis. and I must say they did us proud. Basic car booked and paid for ( by the villa company) but on arrival upgraded by 2 groups at no extra cost. Vehicle checked in my presence and signed for both on collection and return which we have never had with other companies. A minor dent was also pointed out to me (which I had not seen) on collection and recorded on the paperwork accordingly. The vehicle, which was almost new was fully fuelled and spotlessly clean. If this service is typical, I will use Avis again.

 

[Del_RFC]

We have literally just got off the plane from PMI and a couple of fantastic weeks in Pollensa. (Not Port but town but more of that later in another post). Normally, we have used Goldcar but this time we had a car through Avis. and I must say they did us proud. Basic car booked and paid for ( by the villa company) but on arrival upgraded by 2 groups at no extra cost. Vehicle checked in my presence and signed for both on collection and return which we have never had with other companies. A minor dent was also pointed out to me (which I had not seen) on collection and recorded on the paperwork accordingly. The vehicle, which was almost new was fully fuelled and spotlessly clean. If this service is typical, I will use Avis again.

Just returned on Sunday morning and also used Avis. Car was part of a Villa deal with Villaparade. They had a Seat Ibiza allocated however the guy at the desk enquired how many in our party, when I told him 5 he gave us a free upgrade to a Seat Altea.

Car was spotless, almost brand new and served it's purpose very well. Full / Full policy is alway good in my book.

Cannot complain, all seemed to go very well.

The other car in our party came from Goldcar. Usual nonsense. The Ford Fusion had 35k on the clock, had barely been cleaned, had bumps and dents all over. The usual 60 Euros additional insurance coupled with 70 Euros for 45 Litres of fuel on a Full / Empty policy ensured my mate once again felt totaly ripped off. All in 450 Euros for a fornight

 

[ragdollabbi]

Glad to hear that you were happy with Avis. When we priced Avis they were really expensive, so we tried Hertz, as we have always been happy with their service. Very expensive also (compared to last year) but after a few emails to them, we managed to get a good deal for 8 days. That was until we arrived to pick up the car. We have taken out Supercover Insurance with them in the past for approx £80 for a week (saves them taking a swipe of credit card and placing a hold of mega euros on the card) This year we were charged €151 for the insurance and because we paid by cash had either to leave a deposit of €100 for full/full on fuel or pay €50 for fuel on a full/empty basis. We chose to pay €50 but did not use the full tank of petrol so Hertz benefited from at least a quarter tank of fuel. This is another rip-off by the car hire companies and has made us think twice about hiring a car at all, in future, as €201 on top of the original cost of the hire is way over the top. Where do we go from here........boycott all car hire companies until they lower the prices!!!!!

 

[eleanor]

These tricks are just awful but whilst people continue to pay then the tricks will continue.
To boycott car hire companies is a great idea, but it just won't happen and people will continue to hire and pay the rip off prices, i'm afraid.
I will be walking with my feet - literally - as my next summer visit will be the Hoppa and then walk. We are lucky as our villa is in Gommar so we are within easy walking of the beach and town but not all are so lucky and a car would be necessary. Public transport on the island is very good and very reasonably priced.
My winter visit will mean a hire car as I am having a withdrawal problem from a lack of Ikea and need to get there this next visit! - don't think it is possible by public transport though!

 

[whaleywanderer]

As you say Eleanor, Ikea is not doable by public transport (not even from Palma!). We hired a car for the day from 'Hiper' in the port to do our Ikea fix a couple of years ago but sorry can't remember the cost, it certainly was a lot cheaper than having a car for the week and having to pay full/empty fuel policy. Less than 3 days you are charged full/full.

I love to visit Ikea and it's such a shame you can't get there without a car.

 

[Belladonna]

Interesting that you can hire a car daily locally. I did post an enquiry on this much earlier on but no one came back on it. Would be very interested if anyone has further info on this.

 

[ragdollabbi]

Further to my previous post, I decided this morning, just out of curiosity to price car hire with Hertz for 8 days in October 2010. Think I am buying the car....£308.78 for a Polo and £430.29 for an Astra. Avis are not quoting for October, but in September for 8 days are charging £262.07 for an Ibiza so don't know what they will charge in October. Whoever had the idea of PP Car Hire could make a fortune charging "normal" prices if they could provide quality cars...come on who's got money to burn!!!! You could be a multi millionaire in a few years, because I think everyone who uses this forum would be a customer.

 

[ragdollabbi]

Just had another thought...would multishare be a possibilty (just like a timeshare). Dont know if this is possible where a group of people eg apartment/villa owners owned a group of cars and shared in the purchase/insurance price etc etc. Would only work tho if people wanted to use them at different times. I don't own accommodation so it wouldn't help me unfortunately.