next size up is a 16 seat mini bus BUT very few hire companies get there hands on them..instead of car hire look for van and comecial vehicle hire..also it would prob be cheaper to get 2 small/medium cars

Yes Novisad we received a letter regarding this, with the promotion code, cant fully understand it though as we get 10% discount anyway and have done for a long time, are they saying we will get an extra 10% discount with the points?.Advice on this would be most welcome. Cheers Jayjan

Decided to hire 3 small cars "a" class, free upgrade to "c" i.e polo or fiesta, also 10 % discount for booking early = mega cheap deal!

Only thing i'm unsure is how much the excess is in case of a accident.

Does anyone have a direct email addy i can contact someone there because i need some questions finalising - cheers Mark.

Who did you book with eventually Mark as if it's economycarhire there isn't any excess as far as I'm aware

You are probably better off with 3 smaller cars. We went in a large group a few years back and it allows you to have a day out on your own without confining everyone else to the villa/apt as they have no transport. We found 3 cars was better than 1 large one.

Lummie

Hi everyone

Has anyone used carhire4less?

They seem to be proving the cheapest for what I want but I would rather go with a recommended car hire company.

Many thanks

Lisa

Has anyone used the firm Bolicar - they have sent me a quote which looks reasonably and state that insurance is fully comprehensive and there is no excess.

Just had a look at the Economy car hire website - prices look ok (although there are a lot of exclusions to the fully comprehensive insurance).

But when I go to book they ask for my credit card details - does this firm charge you up front then?

I normally find http://www.economycarrentals.com give me the best quote with full insurance.
You normally have to pay a small reservation fee up front (about 10euros) then the balance on collecton of the car.

I've always had to pay the full balance up front with economycar The only thing we pay when we get there is the fuel deposit.

Glynis, it was with Algarve car hire but i thought it was with economy car hire when i booked - no card was needed to book though.

Can anybody recommend the car hire company Drive4fun, they have provided me the best quote through economycarhire.com. I know from reading previous posts that economycarhire.com are highly recommended but most people seem to use Travel Rent through them, would just like to read some opinions on Drive4fun before I book with them.

Any info will be greatly appreciated.

I think the majority use travel rent because they have been with economycarhire for a long time & they have got to know the car booking staff, whereas drive 4 fun is a relativley new company economy have started to use. If you click on the captions you will see that the terms and conditions & petrol issue (On return put the same amount of petrol back in the tank that was in when you picked it up) are near enough exactly the same for the two companies but another company called air auto has different terms for petrol (Pick it up with a full tank and it must be returned with a full tank). Hope this helps. Cheers Jayjan

Thanks for info Jayjan, think I will give it another couple of days to see if anything positive comes up about drive4fun and if not I think I will stick with travel rent, shame really as newer companies should be supported as it increases competition and hence prices should lower, probably too much of a gamble for me though.

Roundsy, Go onto economycarhire website, click on Read What Customers Say (Lefthand side),click into Portugal, and then the individual resorts, and it will come up with customer reviews. Quite a few I went into give Drive4fun 5 out of 5 star rating for satisfaction. Maybe this would give you some reassurance that drive4fun are a decent company. Cheers Jayjan

Whats yorcar.com like now? They are giving very good rental prices with free child seat and additional driver that many charge extra for.
Thanks,

Paul

Hi

I'm thinking of booking a car through either Economycarrentals.com or Economycarhire.com. They're both fairly similar prices, but was wondering if anyone had used AirAuto thorugh economy car hire and what they were like? I've heard Travel Rent is good, and was wondering if it was worth paying that little bit extra (£13). Apparently with Air Auto you have to pay for a full tank of fuel on arrival, rather than just return with the same amount.

Thanks

Laura

Hi

We rented a car from economycarhire.com and the car hire firm was Travelrent. No real problems apart from long queue at Faro airport to pick up the car (only one girl on the desk). When we picked it up the fuel was almost on the red, just about got us to Tavira. So we returned it with the same amount but the guy got a bit stroppy with us as he reckoned we picked it up with a quarter of a tank in it. I had signed the hire docs and it stated a quarter of a tank on there but I hadn't noticed and was in the airport at the time so was unable to check. Anyway, he didn't charge us but gave us a warning to "be more careful next time". Also, the docs specified a €450 excess although economy car hire told us there would be no excess.

So just be aware before you sign anything - when you are tired after flying and collecting suitcases you are not always as careful as you would be normally (I'm not anyway, just wanted to get to our villa!)

Apart from that, car was good and reasonable price.

I used to use Travelrent all the time and was very happy with their service, until I got a wreck of a car that made me embarrassed to be seen driving it (I picked it up in the dark in the unlit airport car park and didn't see all the crash damage and missing trim until daylight, by which time I was in Lagos. I constantly expected to be pulled over by the police and have never driven so carefully in my life before.). Since then I've used AirAuto and been more than happy. The cars still vary in age and mileage but all have been acceptable both in looks and performance. Last month I got a Seat Ibiza with 1800 kms on the clock.

The petrol thing is slightly inconsistent. The AirAuto blurb talks about getting the car with a full tank and having to return it full and that's happened a couple of times. The other times the tank has had varying amounts of petrol in it and I have returned it with the same amount. As long as you check the amount shown on the booking form against the fuel gauge, it's no problem either way. (Btw for anybody travelling westwards along the Algrave, I've always found the petrol station at the Portimao retail park far cheaper than anywhere else, sometimes by 6 or 7 cents per litre).

Another advantage of using AirAuto is that it's far less popular than Travelrent and therefore the queue at the airport desk is usually shorter (considerably so if a couple of planes have landed near together and you're last off the second one!).

One other difference I have noticed is that, when Travelrent told me about the insurance cover, they simply said that the no-excess cover excluded tyre, windscreen etc damage. AirAuto said the same but offered to extend the excess to cover those items for 2 euros or so per day. I didn't take it up, but, for extremely risk-averse travellers, it might be a plus point.

Having used economycarhire exclusively for 18 months, I have just done some online market-testing and I couldn't find anybody to touch them; so I'll carry on using AirAuto.

P.S. I've not found AirAuto to be overall cheaper or dearer than TravelRent.