Review of Centauro Hire Car (Portugal)

[Satsuma]

Given all the horror stories about European car hire, I was very careful when selecting a hire car provider in Faro.
We booked via Holiday Autos (cashback), who showed us the “all in” prices and also the hire company (there are some providers to avoid like the plague - Goldcar I am looking at you).

Researched and finally settled on a basic/cheapest car with Centauro, selecting the full-full fuel option but declining the extra insurances (and added extras) as we have a standalone excess policy with LeisureGuard (and offline google maps etc). All paid in advance.
Note: the paperwork clearly says the main driver must provide a credit card in their name at the rental office for the security deposit (which can be thousands). We had used a different card for the online booking/payment and there was no problem, but beware of this, as some reports say using cards in different names is charged as an additional driver!

Plus points:
- Very simple but effective numbering system allocated by the rep in arrivals, so when you get to the minibus pick up point in the car park outside, there is no scrum (others in our party who had arrived earlier and used different car hire were sharing tales of adults literally pushing kids out of the way to get on the minibus ahead of them).
- They didn’t give us the hard sell regarding the insurance, just a couple of questions and explained to us the risk of not having theirs, but perfectly polite when we declined.
- The outbound car check was thorough and good natured, under a well-lit canopy. They showed us the sheet which clearly says any damage smaller than <about a golf ball diameter> is not chargeable. I was very obviously was taking lots of photos of the car inside and out which was fine and no problem; and we pointed out damage which was smaller than the golf ball and they still marked it for us.
- I wasn’t there at the return, but by all accounts it was easy and hassle-free. Again, photos taken and car checked by both us and the rep. Maybe it helps when they are busy as they just want to you gone!
- Even our little Class A Fiat Panda had excellent AC and was a great little run around.


Neutral points:
- The full-full fuel option was “mysteriously” unavailable. They cited the busy summer period so they had ‘not had time’ to fill it up before our arrival (hmmm). What they did was reserve the cost of the half-tank of fuel against the credit card and then refunded us that same amount when we returned the car with a half-tank. In practice this means they almost certainly make a bit with customers erring on the side of caution and it probably being over half-full.
- The rep was in Arrivals, but his only identification was the back of his clipboard, which he was using to write on much of the time. Having walked up and down it was pure chance I spotted the logo as he tilted it.


Minus points:
- The numbering system does not carry through to the rental office (about 5km from the airport). TIP: Have the main driver ready to leap out of the minibus the instant it arrives and go directly to the office, while the rest of you sort out luggage.
- The minibuses are half seats/half luggage so you may have to wait. In Faro, this is in the plain open air with no shade and in peak time can be a long wait in the blazing sun. We arrived at night and still had to wait for a couple of buses to come and go before it was our turn. You may want to consider getting a taxi to the depot, but another of our party did this after waiting 1hr + in the midday sun and the taxi driver was mighty unimpressed with the paltry fare.

So all in all it was quite stressful, mainly because the car hire trade’s sharklike reputation precedes it. If anything I am seriously tempting fate by writing this, but so far all charges have been released from the credit card and we have heard nothing, a few weeks on from the trip.

One final note: This review is only applicable to the office at Faro Airport, Portugal. I have seen some really awful reviews of other Centauro locations in Spain, so as always, DYOR!

Hope this is useful to others considering car hire.

Sats

[Slarti]

Because of having experience of Faro car hire before, where you have to climb in and out of mini buses and sometimes have a long wait, before we went there in May last year I asked on the old Fool for recommendations of companies that really do work on airport.

I was recommended to try http://www.travelrent.pt/ by a regular user and, although I found having to ask for a price unnerving, it was the best Faro rental experience I've had and one of the best overall.

A bit of a walk to the pickup point which was nice after the plane, no pressure to buy extras. Car arrived in about 3 minutes and was in good condition.

Drop off was actually closer to the terminal as they were working out of a car. Fast look round and off we went.

No naughty extras on the card.

Cheers
Slarti