Car hire

[bazza]

Just a heads up on this topic of car ownership in Portugal for holiday stays. Petrol has a shelf life before it goes stale, it starts going off at about 3 months, at six months it has lost a lot of it's octane and begins to varnish.This can bring big problems for you car whether fuel injected or carby model. So if you are going to leave a car for an extended period put fuel stabilizer into the tank and use the car for two days before you leave it to stand.
Regards
Bazza

[Geoff]

Just a heads up on this topic of car ownership in Portugal for holiday stays. Petrol has a shelf life before it goes stale, i

....and perhaps a trickle charger for the battery...

[mojowilts]

Thank you all very much for the comments and advice. Food for thought, jury still out at the moment.

[ceh]

I’ve been looking at car hire for 10 days for early June and have a price of nearly €400 from the usual company. I know that prices have gone up, there’s a shortage of cars etc but I need to look around. Does anyone have any recent experience (ie from the last couple of years) with Travel Rent or Drive 4 Fun or any recommendations? I have some quotes but I remember all the horror stories in the past!!
Thanks

[Geoff]

2 weeks in June with Travel Rent 360€...haven't used for some time though....cheaper than Algarve driver, for once!

[Braken]

Have used Zest Car Rental for the last 15 years.

Through them have hired Drive for Fun and Travel Rent (now LC Rent) no major problems the few minor issues were sorted right away.

Prices increased significantly. 6 Sept. to 21st for Renault Clio with LC Rent £399

[ceh]

Thanks Geoff and Bracken.

I've now booked with Drive4Fun through Zest with a 5% discount - I was going with Travel Rent but then between looking yesterday and booking today there wasn't a small car available so went with Drive4Fun. £295 for 10 days - Algarve Driver was 400 euros. Shame not to support them after 15 years or so but it"s a significant difference.

[PhilT]

Useful posts, thanks.
I also found Zest cheaper than Yor (who I've used for years). In this case group C 290 euro less over 31 days in October, and after the airport charge and slightly higher transponder hire.
The actual supplier is Master Kings. To coin a phrase: Is anything known?

[destroyer]

Not seeking to be provocative but I'd be interested to hear Steen's view on this. There are a lot of his customers here, me included, and I can see that there are issues for the car hire sector as a whole. However, I'd like to understand why his prices, generally very competitive, now seem more expensive than many of his competitors'.

[PhilT]

Likewise. I contacted Steen for the advertised price match but was declined due the current availability situation.
On the face of it, the business model is similar. Adjacent desks at P4, same cars, similar t&cs. Then 20-30% delta.

[PTBUXTON]

Booked YOR for our trip in June some weeks ago now, small car A rated 288 Euros current quote elsewhere approx 395/415 euros, however YOR quoted me 309 euros for October visit ZEST quoted me 141 euros.

[Geoff]

My son was quoted 260€ for 3 days in September, so decided not to go!

[Farol]

We have used YOR/Algarvedriver for 20 years but for our next trip have gone through Zest which was a fraction of YOR. Through Zest you can see a range of offerings from several firms that all operate out of the same P4 portacabin offering similar cars to YOR so although I accept that all rentals have gone up it seems that YOR have put their prices up more than others. I hope I don't regret switching.

IT WOULD BE GOOD IF STEEN POSTED TO THIS THREAD TO EXPLAIN.

[destroyer]

Does anyone have any recommendations regarding Zest's suppliers? I have used Drive4Fun with them in the past but they appear upper end in cost terms.
Also, I buy an annual excess/top-up cover - anyone had any issues with Zest suppliers accepting this sort of insurance? I really don't want to get involved in being pressured into buying their cover.
Thanks.

[Braken]

I have used Zest for car hire in Portugal for the last 15 years which speaks for itself.

All options for car type and prices are clearly shown on the website. NO hidden extras.

I have never been offered top up insurance when collecting my car from any of the car suppliers.