Dustyjoe,

To me hidden extras are the extra insurance that you have to pay (which did not appear in your quote when you booked the car) when you pick the car up. Such as an extra insurance payment to cover excess should you have a bump. 400 euros is a lot to pay! if you do not take out this extra insurance. However the car hire company link that I provided do not charge extra for this 'excess' and the price that they quote you is the price you pay with no 400 euros to pay should you have a bump. So no 'hidden extras'

Saying this they have now introduced a wheel, glass and underbody insurance charge of around £5.00 but you do see this before you book the car on-line. Sorry for not explaining this so that you can understand what I'm trying to say but in the end all I'm trying to do is warn people that the price you see for car hire with insurance on-line is not really covering all the insurance cost.

You are insured and you pay an excess if you hit something or damage the car. If you don't want excess, you pay extra. Its not a hidden charge, all hire companies operate that policy and everyone who hires a car knows it. Everything is there in the terms and conditions, you get the basic insurance, if your not happy with that you pay extra, whats hidden about that.

I don't know how simpler i can explain it

Dustyjoe - If you don't want excess, you pay extra. Its not a hidden charge, all hire companies operate that policy

M&N - the car hire company link that I provided do not charge extra for this 'excess' and the price that they quote you is the price you pay

ie not all hire companies operate that policy....

Yikes, like i said if its is included in the price, you pay for that exra in the price. I just did a quote on the site M&N Recommended for the 19th of October they want 64 euro for a super mini for a day. My site they want 15 euro. Big difference eh ? and with the added waver it would be half the price still of the other site. I did explain that you pay for things in the price if its included, so really if we want to talk about hidden extras, you are talking about M&N site, because the extra insurance is hidden in the main price and some, wrapped up to make it look like your getting it free. I did explain that in my first response to M&N.

Hi DustyJoe,

Yes for 1 days car hire they do come out expensive. However have you tried a quote for a week and compared?

I do find it a little strange that most car hire companies and private taxis are all now very similar in price

I do find it a little strange that most car hire companies and private taxis are all now very similar in price

denotes one of three things - a very competitive market place, price collusion, or a regulated market

car hire is very competitive, whereas private taxis are all priced off the official fares set by the Government

Hi Mark,

I consider your number 2 option to be the case. How can a worldwide car hire business be the same price as a local business

You will find that most companies like the one you linked too are not a world car hire company, but agents that have contracts out with car hire companies all over the world and they get their cut, for being the middle man, that means you pay more. That's why they are so expensive, compared to local companies.

Anyways whats the relevance between a local company or not? If your hiring a car in Malta it makes no difference. Apart from price and service

I would have thought that little things like overheads and the like would make a hell of a difference between the running cost of a small local operation and a company the likes of Avis. but maybe you're right Dustyjoe!

However for a weeks car hire I find that the link I provided has never cost more than your favoured company.

Is that with or without the hidden extras?

VeeDee.

I'll let you know after you make the booking

My favoured company, you can barter them down, as they own their business., they do not answer to anyone except them selves. Online you can not barter a price you book. I phoned and haggled and got a very very good deal, all the perks of going with a local business. You talk about overheads. When you are talking big, you get a discount on bulk items, such as fleet. So overheads can be lower.

I am due to visit Malta in four weeks.

We are staying in a villa and will need to hire a car. We would like to pick it up at the airport. Any recommendations ?

Kath x

i just returned from malta and have visited the island about 10 times, we booked a taxi company (a2b transfers) and they arrived late at the airport on arrival, but the taxi was nice, on departure, they picked us up ok at hotel, although the vehicle was a van like motor, it had no suspension, and the driver seemed like he had not taken a driving test, he must have chewed every nail off his fingers throughout the journey, and often loss control as his hands were not on the wheel, we were both very pleased to arrive safely at the airport, but my back may take a bit of time in healing, i reported this to the company, although i did not receive a satifactory explanation.

avoid.

Have you been to Malta before? The standard of driving is poor compared to the UK and so is the state of the cars.

he clearly wasn't fully trained, otherwise he would be smoking and using his mobile phone as well. The person you complained to was probably his cousin.

If you want to complain properly, visit ADT website

otherwise he would be smoking and using his mobile phone as well

And he would have been picking other passengers up along the way.

Can anyone advise me on the cost of a Taxi from the aiport to Silema and/or St. Julians please ?

Thx

Between 20 to 25 euro

My link does taxis and is normally on the cheaper side. If you like you can get a taxi from the stand out side, normally on the more expensive side, but not over the top.

http://www.raybezzinacarrentals.com/