UK boating Verse Med Boating ,

He is of course right re the interiors.

Lacquered wood, fabric walls etc would not be the choice of a house. I suppose they are suitably expensive that then forms " the look". Interesting when manufacturers go away from this they are described as Ikea interiors - which of course is mostly indeed what they look like.
 
petem said:
For me, being in the Med means being on holiday (unlike sitting in the rain as we used to in the UK).

I don't actually find maintenance costs that dear but I'm lucky having an ex Fairline guy looking after our boat. Even the regular boat washes are cheap (I hardly dare say this but I pay €30 for en exterior wash - beat that!).

I don't even mind Med mooring (nudging your neighbours boats when mooring is almost expected).

The one thing that does my head in is hire cars. They're either cheap rip off merchants like Goldcar or really expensive.
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Pete, have you looked at doyouspain website for hire cars? Some excellent deals to be had.
 
GSL said:
Please explain..... what insurance scams?

Graham
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What I have seen is that the excess - £250, £500 started to rise and rise over the last decade and is now usually an unlimited liability for comp insurance with a whacking great excess for third party, and getting their insurance seems to double the very low rate offered and accepted. So we go for annual car hire insurance but I’m glad we’ve never had to claim yet.
 
It could be described as a scam, however I think that is a bit harsh.

Their terms and conditions are quite clear when a booking is made, we have used DoYouSpain.com for 8 years now and simply buy an annual excess insurance policy in the UK and have never had a problem.

They block (I think) 1,100 Euros on a credit card when we pick the car up, and it is unblocked on return.

I has never been a problem, and we have never bought the insurance policy that is offered with the car when the booking is made or at collection.

Graham
 
I have annual insurance for £50. I have claimed twice and they just pay. No need at all for the hire company insurance.

Record Go rent cars for E1 or less per day ( yes a euro) you can get this type of price anytime other than Easter ( lots of people and new cars not arrived on the island yet) and August ( when I don't rent anyway). How they make money ( probably the insurance!) lord knows.
 
Slight thread drift but hire car companies make money in many ways.
1. Extra insurance. Hard sell and scare the punter into paying extra at the desk.
2. Upgrade to a car you don’t need.
3. The full to empty fuel scam. Charge you 80+ euros for a full tank of fuel for a super mini when you collect it.
4. Crazy prices for satnavs, child seats etc.
5. Hope you have an accident or get a speeding fine. Even their super dooper insurance will have admin fees.
6. The main one is the damaged car scam. Just charge your card at a later date for a scratch that never was. Good luck arguing with them from the uk.
I’m sure there’s more.
The important thing is to inspect it with a fine tooth comb when you collect and make sure they sign it as ok when you return.
I’ve paid much less than a Euro a day before without any issue but the internet is full of horror stories with the cheap hire firms.
 
I think I hired cars perhaps 4 or 5 times from Reus last year. The choice of car hire companies is Firefly or Goldcar both notorious for spurious damage claims. I was charged twice for damage, one time I claimed from Excess Insurance the other I refuted. In my view, this simply wasn't sustainable in the long term.

There's a greater choice of car hire companies from Alicante. They tend to fall into two camps, the Firefly / Goldcar types that are cheap and then rip you off for spurious damage or more expensive companies that have zero excess. I'm tending to favour the latter but the cost is nearer £30 per day. Anyone who thinks this is an imagined problem should take a look at the Alicante Tripadvisor forum, there are hundreds of posts reporting unscrupulous practices. Record Go are one of the better ones but still aren't perfect.

Note that in some cases, the hire car companies the car hire companies refuse (at the desk) to let you have a pre-booked car unless you pay for their excess waiver!

As for DoYouSpain, there are a lot of complaints regarding them too. In my experience booking through them is fine until you get an issue. They have no contact centre that you can call and getting resolution to any issues takes months (and the car hire companies refuse to talk to customers directly.
 
adey said:
Slight thread drift but hire car companies make money in many ways.
1. Extra insurance. Hard sell and scare the punter into paying extra at the desk.
2. Upgrade to a car you don’t need.
3. The full to empty fuel scam. Charge you 80+ euros for a full tank of fuel for a super mini when you collect it.
4. Crazy prices for satnavs, child seats etc.
5. Hope you have an accident or get a speeding fine. Even their super dooper insurance will have admin fees.
6. The main one is the damaged car scam. Just charge your card at a later date for a scratch that never was. Good luck arguing with them from the uk.
I’m sure there’s more.
The important thing is to inspect it with a fine tooth comb when you collect and make sure they sign it as ok when you return.
I’ve paid much less than a Euro a day before without any issue but the internet is full of horror stories with the cheap hire firms.
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Yeah, but who wants to spend half an hour at collection and drop off doing a forensic check (and photographs) of the car?
 
If you are using Alicante airport a lot I have found Dickmanns to be a reputable car hire company. I have used them for @ 18 years. Never use Firefly and avoid Goldcar or Record. Dickmanns are off site so a 10 min minibus ride, however there is rarely more than 2 or 3 people in the queue - so it is usually quicker overall especially in the summer.
I book through carjet website. Much better than "doyou" - yes they "did me" several times!
The annual car hire insurance as Jrudge describes is probably the best/cost effective/risk free solution, along with the full/full option. And always always take pics of the car when you collect it regardless. Kneel down so you get a good pic of the sills and lower wheel arches too.
 
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petem said:
There's a greater choice of car hire companies from Alicante. They tend to fall into two camps, the Firefly / Goldcar types that are cheap and then rip you off for spurious damage or more expensive companies that have zero excess. I'm tending to favour the latter but the cost is nearer £30 per day. Anyone who thinks this is an imagined problem should take a look at the Alicante Tripadvisor forum, there are hundreds of posts reporting unscrupulous practices. Record Go are one of the better ones but still aren't perfect.
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I'm not sure that the more expensive companies are much better. I've been ripped off in recent years by Avis and Europcar in Italy and even Hertz try to load you with extra charges in some locations. The European car rental industry badly needs regulating and the EU needs to step up its limited efforts in this area so far

One small beacon of light in this shark pool is this outfit in Antibes http://www.midi-location.fr/. Fair prices and no rip off extra charges, at least not so far
 
Deleted User said:
I'm not sure that the more expensive companies are much better. I've been ripped off in recent years by Avis and Europcar in Italy and even Hertz try to load you with extra charges in some locations. The European car rental industry badly needs regulating and the EU needs to step up its limited efforts in this area so far

One small beacon of light in this shark pool is this outfit in Antibes http://www.midi-location.fr/. Fair prices and no rip off extra charges, at least not so far
Click to expand...

I think that there was some change in the law in Spain that the daily rate had to be the daily rate. Record Go used to have a E24 rental fee which has now been dropped by them any everyone else. The only explanation I could come up with as they all did it was some form of consumer legislation as with airline fares that the rate must be real. Surprisingly the rates continued at their rock bottom rate.

I took the kids to Italy - Pisa- a few weeks ago and hired from Goldcar. The total fee for a day - Euro 3!
 
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