I have just come back from a holiday in the south of Spain having spent a few days and 500km with a Squashy.
Firstly, it was hired from Goldcar. They have a *terrible* reputation on the 'net for pushy salesmen upselling insurance, and fraudulent damage claims etc. etc. so it was with some trepidation that I booked through them, but it was Hobson’s choice so I bit the bullet... Needless to say they were nice, friendly and perfectly sensible when it came to the return. The car was £15 per day (their excess insurance was about £40 per day, but I bought that from a third party for £2 per day, they did take a €1200 deposit from my CC without the insurance).
Nearly brand new, but with a large scrape down one side, poor thing. It drove very nicely. Auto-stop-start, but with the aircon on full blast it only stopped *once* the entire time (about 500km).
What was the point of the Squashy though? There were two of us, and the boot fitted two hand-luggage-sized cases and a few odds and ends. It would have seated five in comfort, but what would they have done with their luggage? It’s a monster great car, tyres big enough for a bus, it sits high off the ground and there’s plenty of cabin space. But no boot space. I guess it’s good for putting a bike rack on the back, but nothing much else.
Big complaint, the visibility from the driver’s seat. Without the parking collision warning system it would have been completely impossible to drive. Indeed I had booked a much smaller car, but was ‘upgraded’ free as I was doing a one-way and it needed to go back home. In the narrow streets of old Spanish towns I cursed this upgrade several times!
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>> they did take a €1200 deposit from my CC without the insurance
I hope they only reserved that amount and not took it. Has been known to happen with some car hire companies in Spain. I hope they don't charge you for the scratch! ;-)
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I can't talk about the Squidgy or whatever it's nickname is, but I once hired from Goldcars on one of the Canary Islands and I think I was waiting over two hours to get served. Probably some kind of computer hiccup, there were masses of people there and once it starts getting congested it just gets worse. I'd use them again though, wrote that off as an unusual event for them.
I'm off to the US soon for a few weeks, and given I may well be using hire cars quite a bit in the next year I bought an annual policy for the excess cover, tyres, windscreen etc. It was under £40 for Worldwide once I got a few quid back on Quidco.
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I remember hiring a Citroen Saxo in Fuertaventura and they were all apologetic as they had none left and gave me a 4.0 litre Jeep Wrangler thing instead!
Was great fun on the beach!!
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On three consecutive occasions this year Europcar at Murcia airport have attempted to charge for non existant damage. They're always short term (48 hours) rentals, and I never wait for them to carry out a detailed check-in as they take for ever. But I do take lots of photos. Even so, I got bored of complaining and have used Goldcar on the last few rentals. Their cars do seem on average to be o,de and higher mileage. But they seem far more relaxed about the check-in / out process and have t (yet...) tried to charge for anything.
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In the past 4 years at Alicante I have hired 8 times and have used Gold Car, Centauro, FireFly & Europcar.,
All have been fine, no mucking about, never had the car I ordered tho.
Your Murcia trip Peter, is that San Javier? thinking of using that next time as might be using a different villa next year, in Los Cuarteros. Whats the airport like? good choice of car rentals? large selection of gins in the DF?
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Yes, it's San Javier. It's a very small airport - think Southampton not Gatwick. But that means that it takes no time at all to get through, in either direction. The only on-airport rental offices are Europcar and Goldcar though. There's one duty free shop, and limited catering. There is a costa coffee landslide, where you can sit outside. That's about it! The car hire queues can be fairly lengthy in the summer, but Easyjet priority boarding, hand luggage and a seat at the front means a brisk exit from the plane puts you at the front of the queue. The rental desks are in the baggage claim area, which is odd. The car park itself is a few minutes walk from the terminal, and you return to the same place. There's never much traffic.
I probably use Alicante just as often as Murcia, though I need to be in the Murcia region. It's 40 minutes further drive though. Flight times to Murcia suit me better from LGW, and BA and EasyJet fly to Alicante. I always use Avis at Alicante, and am in their loyalty programme which means I can go straight to the car park to pick up the car, usually a VAG group offering and often Audi. A3, Q3 and A1 were the last three. They are always very fair on damage - on the one occasion we did scrape / dent a car (rear wheel arch on a brand new Q3) we were charged less than €200 when we returned it. I reckon ChipsAway would have charged more!
Last edited by: PeterS on Fri 15 Sep 17 at 22:06
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Nissan Qashqai - Spanish Goldcar car Hire review of a Qashquai - rtj70
