Auriga Crown/Alicante- No new Fleet!

Another update regarding possible refund from Do You Spain.

Credit where credit's due ,I've recently received a £155 refund from DYS due to the difference in my car rental agreement.(see start  of thread )

It was something I'd written off but out of the blue I receive a letter from my bank confirming the transaction & I've checked it online too.

So well done all those at DYS & thank you, your credit has been restored !

    Andy

Hi ladyV, welcome. Yes, I think our members these days are well aware from the many posts in many threads, not always posted in the Driving in Spain ones, many are in General Chat or the newbies sections, that the banks haven't financed car hire companies as much as they (the car hire companies) would like recently.

I've often checked prices however with Carjet & DYS compared with booking direct & I've found booking direct hasn't been cheaper. I guess car hire companies give the likes of Carjet & DYS huge discounts to get bookings through them so, even though Carjet & DYS obviously make something it's still cheaper to book through an agent.

Having been quoted serious money to rent cars recently as we're in Spain over a month each time every couple of months we invested in our own car in June.

** Regarding advertising, which of course you aren't, can I suggest that you put your website as your signature as many do here to help generate revenue for you. That is totally acceptable. You can add text explaining why members should ask you for a quote too, just a couple of lines. Have a look around, see others signatures. Many are blatant with massive text but that's frowned on somewhat.

Hello

I might be a bit of a different view on car hire in Spain. My husband and I have resided on the Costa del Sol for the last 6 years and own a small rent-a-car company. I'm not touting for business so I won't even tell you who we are.

We experienced our worst winter ever at the back end of 08 going into 09 at the hands of the big car hire companies and the wonderful Do you Spain. In general there was an over supply of cars and not enough people renting due to lack of tourism during the winter months in a recession, hence the reason you could obtain very cheap car hire, naturally this couldn't continue and the leasing and finance companies have pulled the plug on the likes of the big car hire companies, which now means there isn't enough cars to go around and the prices have gone sky high. With the economic situation in Spain being just as bad as the rest of Europe if not worse, I wouldn't imagine that anything is going to change much in the next year or so in regards to supply of cars - the Spanish banks and finance companies just won't take the risk.

I my opinion you would always be better going to a car hire company directly rather than using an agent like DYS, at the end of the day they are just a middle man taking money on behalf of someone else and taking a cut along the way.

Hi,

In June, after a late evening flight,  we were 6th in the queue at the Atesa counter at Alicante and waited 90mins+ to be served. 

A lot of time was used by the 2 lots of folks ahead of us  who were turned away because they were 'not on the on list'.

Phone calls, copies of vouchers, printouts of confirmation of payments in advance meant nothing. Paper work was ignored. The computer list ruled!!!!

So ..we waited and waited whilst the arguements raged. 

We were lucky ..we got the car we booked.

Must admit..if we had been one of the ones turned away I would have argued and argued my point regardless of the queue behind me .

'Its alright suggesting you can ring Do You Spain whilst at the desk but when you have already waited 20 mins + to be served and have a queue of people behind you, the last thing you want is to be further delayed trying to work out who is telling the truth.'

 Russ & Louise  

Its alright suggesting you can ring Do You Spain whilst at the desk but when you have already waited 20 mins + to be served and have a queue of people behind you, the last thing you want is to be further delayed trying to work out who is telling the truth.

 DYS have always been good to use, that's why we kept going back. maybe it's time to use someone else

I'll keeep emailing Claire Davis & Alex M yer at DYS for the nuisance effect 

Hi Milli

It makes you wonder why she came into EOS in the first place doesn't it if DYS weren't going to honour promises.

 I've got one of her emails too. I still haven't had a reply to my emails or a refund 

We booked through Do You Spain for Auriga Crown, arrived in Murcia late June

When I mentioned to the guy at the desk that I had been informed that I didnt have to pay the €300 deposit, he said this arrangement does exist with some brokers, but not Do You Spain !

Needless to say, I had to pay up

Actually carsafe http://www.insurance4carhire.com/ do not cover every eventuality. I spoke about this previously in a post as I emailed them specifically about it.

If you look at certain car hire companies conditions (& I quote Auriga Crown conditions for one)  they say you are not covered (unless taking their policy) for gear box (which no one can really say if that was due to you or another previous driver) see Auriga conditions Scroll down to Super Insurance.

It says if you do not agree to take out their insurance you are required to leave 300€ deposit. (If you book through DoyouSpain Claire Davis who posts as 'Doyouspain' has said on here 18 Jun 2009 13:09 that they have instructed Auriga Crown not to do this with their clients, but whether or not this is actually happening is anyones guess). 

When I emailed http://www.insurance4carhire.com/  & asked about the gear box they said categorically they did not cover this. Ask them. They say.....

However, if you hire cars in Europe a lot they are ok on price. For £49 they only cover the Policy Holder, who must be the person hiring the car, and all additional drivers named on car rental agreement  (up to 7) so if you give another person's name as hiring the car even though you as the policy holder are a named driver, you're not covered unless you've paid for that (Europe Family and partners option £79) 
 

I can't understand why you are all getting your knickers in a twist about excesses,for many years we have taken out a worldwide excess policy for £49(Europe),with Insurance4carhire(check their website);this covers all excesses,and in the rare event of a claim they pay up promptly

Update.Just to confirm that I did manage to hire a car from F & C for 414euros plus petrol ,another 40 which I thought  was v.good.

I've tried to get a refund from Do You Spain but as usual they don't reply to any emails ,so that's the last time I use them.

Perhaps Claire Davis might read this,you never know ?!!

Good luck to anyone trying to rent.    Andy

Kev, if you've read my post about these cars & read the owners posts (see link I gave you & post numbers) you'd see that I've stated their new prices, one has been reduced by 200€, one by 300€.

Why not ring the numbers on the posts, I've just spoken to my friend Richard who tells me the Seat Leon's still available & I understand from Marian the Nissan Micra is too.

Good luck.

 Morerosado, I do understand. I still can not access private messages! I've been trying for a while and filled in 2 or 3 requests. I'll try and log in whilst in Spain. The two cars you mwention do sound attractive. I wonder how much they have come down by. I'm out there for 12 days without a car. So it might be difficult to get around. Kevin

Hi Kevin

When you posted in this thread Framon Motors I said I'd sent you a PM which I did 27/6 12:43hrs but you said in that thread you haven't access to your PMs even though you've made many posts. That PM explained how we went about it. I want to keep certain things in a PM so sorry.

I did say in the Framon thread that ..

Our friends have a Red Seat Leon, 5 door, 1.6, 16valve, petrol, with climate Control. Registered Oct 2000, 2 yr ITV, full service history, quality reliable car. 3700€. (but we wanted a much newer car). We have others friends selling their blue Nissan Micra 1.4 2003, 75000 km, excellent runner, reliable and economical, 2,700€  

The Seat Leon's lovely, been in it many times.
 

Check out adverts in posts no 1802 & 1806  HERE  (Cars have been reduced since ads were posted)

Morerosado, I think the idea of buying a car is the best. Love to know what you got, where, when, how and price. I am a nosey devil! I'm out tomorrow morning so I do hope you can reply tonight. I've given up for tomorrow and am getting a friend to collect me from the airport. kevin

We looked for our break in Sept/Oct with Carjet, Doyouspain etc, & Carjet quoted 1122.00€ for 42 days without the extra insurance we always would buy to cover tyres, windscreen, glass, underside. That was for a Renault Clio 5 dr or similar.

Needless to say we decided to buy & now are the proud owners of our own car in Spain. Let no man/woman prang it either.

Hi I can't seem to find anything reasonable either.  Prices have doubled over last year for the same period. The cheapest I've been able to find is aorund €800 for 3 weeks, July/August. I tried the suggestions below and if they are cheap they don't have the cars.

Anybody got any ideas?