Mrs B and I curently on short break in Spain. Flew to Malaga yesterday and picked up Citroen C1 hire car and drove to Granada. While beggaring about finding a parking space - bit of an adventure - emissions warning light came on. Still seemed to drive OK and has now been left 22hrs. Unless we go somewhere tomorrow or Monday next use will probably to Granada airport on Tuesday.
Should I report it to hire company and lose and hour or three of my holiday faffing around with breakdown co/vehicle change or just ignore it?
My inclination is latter, drove my own Xantia with engine light on loads of times; usually went off after a couple of re-starts.
Going to saunter down to car park and try it now then report tomorrow if that's best thing to do.
What's worst that can happen.
Renter is Goldcar/Interent but I have a 'no worries' all inclusive package.
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Best left alone I would say.
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Wouldn't touch it, wouldn't mention it.
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Thanks all, you confirm my first thought but we've moved on.
We're in a Pension without parking so car is half a kilometre away in an underground car park. Been over and re-started and light still on. Attempts to rev suggest it's hitting a 'limp' limit (though maybe it just won't rev off load) so reported it by phone. Excellent bi-lingual breakdown service. Cannot send me a replacement car until tomorrow as their nearest depot at Granada Airport closed a few minutes before we rang.
Agreed I'll drive out to Airport tomorrow for a swap. Better that then giving up chance we could drive into Sierras or to Cordoba in next couple of days.
PS If you take a city break to Granada and want to visit the Alhambra book well ahead, like months.
We could not have done as this was a last minute job. We'd planned a break before Brexit but were stuck with where/how/when. Was told in January that my paid work at CA for last three and a half years ends on 31-03-19 - contract taken in house by funder. I was interviewed for and got a job on another project (Help to Claim for those moving to Universal Credit) but it's more time and different days so until that was sorted we couldn't book anything.
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You rented a car with Goldcar? Widely held to be about the worst rental operation in Spain
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I've used Goldcar twice. Once was so slow picking up the car - well over 90 minutes. Second time nothing went wrong. They can be considerably cheaper than the big names, though the car I have at the moment in Portugal (not from Goldcar) is about as cheap as I've ever had - €159 for just over a month. Booked a Focus but got a one-month-old Seat Arona www.seat.com/carworlds/arona/overview.html . Not an exciting drive but fine for pootling round over here.
I have additional annual insurance to cover the extortionate excess and windscreen, tyres, recovery etc.
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>Second time nothing went wrong. They can be considerably cheaper than the big names,..
I had three cars with Goldcar when I was in Spain for a couple of months last year. Three different cars because the price jumps dramatically for rentals over 21 days.
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=26105&m=575676
No problems with them other than faffing around changing cars.
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1182 posts on the Malaga Tripadvisor site for Goldcar the vast majority negative. Virtually every other destination will yield horror stories about this company. Pretty sure the Telegraph ran an article about this Co recently as they had received so many complaints.
www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g187438-i333-k3282553-Goldcar-Malaga_Costa_del_Sol_Province_of_Malaga_Andalucia.html
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We’re currently on the Costa Blanca for 8 weeks....as said, long term car hire costs a fortune, so we’ve broken it down into 3 sectors. Not a problem as we arrange ‘changeover day’ at Alicante airport on Sundays giving us a sightseeing trip to other coastal parts.
OK Cars, 09/02 until 10/03 was €67. Same rental people, booked via DoYouSpain again, 10/03 until 31/03, €59. 31/03 until our return to the UK on 06/04 is €19. Pug 208. Which is now very very dirty!
We just flew ex Valencia to Ibiza for 48 hours earlier this week, very last minute ( never visited the island, loved it) OK Car 48 hour rental cost €2.37 cents. Full to full fuel. Yep €2.37. An almost new, not very nice, Citroen C3 but not complaining. Car parking at Valencia airport cost €13.50, over 5x the car hire cost in Ibiza.
OK Cars don’t have a free cancellation policy, unlike Firefly whom I normally use. The quoted rates were ‘full to full’ on fuel...we have our own annual CDW policy.
Just booked a Golf or similar through Firefly 11-25 May, Alicante again, €49 full to full for the two weeks. If it drops, a lot, I’ll cancel and rebook. It will probably be a a Leon as previously, which is fine by me
I’ll post my thoughts on Ibiza later, but will definitely be returning
Last edited by: legacylad on Sat 23 Mar 19 at 20:28
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>1182 posts on the Malaga Tripadvisor site for Goldcar the vast majority negative.
Just reporting that I used them for 2 months (and three different cars) last year and didn't have any problem with them. Maybe I should post a positive review on Tripadvisor.
I'm a Hertz Gold member but for personal use they're too expensive and I'm prepared to wait the extra few minutes to get my keys if I save £££.
Earlier in the year I'd used OK Cars for a month and like legacylad found they were OK too.
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>>Renter is Goldcar/Interent but I have a 'no worries' all inclusive package.
Last year we hired a car at Malaga airport through DoYou Spain after advice on here. Was with Firefly. Took about an hour for pick up but actual hire cost was ridiculous like £20 for the week or something.
Brompt, what is your no worries package - does this mean you have just opted for all the hire companies add-ons? We had an annual waiver policy so refused all their add ons which really annoyed the girl at the desk
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When searching for hire I was fully aware of Goldcar's reputation for offering silly 'come on' rates and then making up difference and more with extras. Hence decided against offer of a Berlingo for 20Euro. Having decided that going rate for four days on a one way rental with full insurance etc was nearer £100 I shopped around with agents and got deal via Auto Rent I was happy with. No excess and all extras like tyres, undercarriage glass and breakdown included. Hirer was Inter Rent which is co-brand of Goldcar but wasn't too bothered as terms were clear.
Agent who booked us out at Malaga airport looked a bit non-plussed that she didn't need to sell us extras but her colleague confirmed we were 'all included'.
If changing cars is an issue I'll post up later.
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Last time I rented out here the agent was fairly scathing about the "extras" insurance I told them I'd bought. He asked if I[d ever had to claim on it.
As it happened (and I think as reported here) I had two "incidents" in the nearly new car, and the claim went through and was paid within days, for somewhere around €500.
The insurance had cost me under £40, and may well have been worldwide for that. The one I took this time was a little over £40 I think, and IIRC excluded USA.
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Car changed OK. Only hitch was agent's computer terminal playing up.
Chap couldn't offer another C1 and rather apologetically offered a Toyota Aygo!! Apart from badges and possibly a couple of styling quirks it's identical - even the same shade of black!!
Having done a few km to coast and back today I'm now convinced the original car was running a bit rough. Thought it was just off beat note of 3cyl engine. At 120kp/h on the motorway the Aygo was perfectly acceptable transport for two. Got a bit fed up with the fuel economy nag light telling me to change down when I thought 3000rpm in 4th was fine.
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>> Got
>> a bit fed up with the fuel economy nag light telling me to change down
>> when I thought 3000rpm in 4th was fine.
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I assume you men change up to a higher gear, rather than down to a lower gear?
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>> I assume you men change up to a higher gear, rather than down to a
>> lower gear?
No, this one flagged need for change either way, in this case down. Was on motorway climbing from coast to 'altiplano' of Granada and can only think it mistook ascent for labouring. Might have used third for acceleration overtaking to avoid getting my heels in another car's way but fourth was fine for progressing at 100kph.
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Citroen C1 - Emission Control Warning Light - R.P.
