Car Hire In Spain

[SteveD]

Does anyone have personal experience of any of the less well-known car hire companies in Spain? (Centauro, Keddy, Firefly, Goldcar, Rhodium etc). Can you recommend them or is it best to stay with the big names?

[KARL]

Goldcar will probably ask you to return the car filled as received, and it is not a full to full situation but could be part full - which I find deeply irritating. Keddy is actually Europcar's budget product. I have no personal knowledge of the others although I have heard of Centauro. I would not hesitate to hire from a less known company but I would always go armed with my own excess insurance (google it) because all of them charge silly prices for zero excess. It is of course important to be sure to record any damage (including inside) when taking charge of the car - it is easy to take photos these days, but I have found that, by the way inspections are often only cursory on return, rental companies do not seem to worry too much about the odd nick (although I have never added any).

[Prudie]

Goldcar isn't lesser well known or small - it's really well known for being probably the most hated rip-off car rental company in Europe. You'll get better ideas by looking at the tripadvisor forums for real views.

[Playbill]

I have booked a car in Spain from Keddy for a few weeks time. I have never used them before but booked it - as usual - through Economy Car Rentals. I have booked cars in various countries through them and never had any problems.

[douglas9401]

Used Firefly in Fuengirola.
Picked up a sad old Megane that knew every kerb and quite a few bollards on the coast. It ran fine for the week though. The pick up at the airport was a bit fraught with their portacabin located in the bowels of the car park, well away from the big boys but at least it was warm. :-)

[SteveD]

Thanks for your replies. There is a message here and on other forums suggesting that it might be wise to avoid the lesser-known companies. We have gone for Europcar. I'll report back on our return at the beginning of April.

[SteveD]

When we arrived in Seville, there was quite a large queue in front of the Europcar desk at the airport and very few or even no people at the desks of the other companies. Maybe this tells you something?

The car was pre-booked and pre-paid and everything went very smoothly. The cars are just opposite the terminal building and we were very pleased with the service.