Car Hire - Pre pay fuel question?

diver

diver

Well-Known Member
I have just booked 5 days car hire for July. Reading the small print on the voucher, the company BK rentals (booked through an agent) want a full tank paid for upfront and returned empty. Bit backward to me and a rip off, what if i dont use it all, there are no refunds ?-

"On arrival you will be asked to prepay the tank of fuel so please return the vehicle as empty as possible as we are not able to refund money for unused fuel."

Is this the norm now?
 
Yes thats a popular ploy now in Ibiza and other countries. About 40% of them use that technique.

Similar to the Ryanair method, the price may look cheap but by the time you go to checkout, extras and charges have been added on.

Expect to pay €60 for the full tank and tough if you dont use it all and leave it back empty. No Refunds.

I didnt fall for the same trick a second time so put it down to a learning experience and drive the F#ck out of the car while you are there
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bez said:
Yes thats a popular ploy now in Ibiza and other countries. About 40% of them use that technique.

Similar to the Ryanair method, the price may look cheap but by the time you go to checkout, extras and charges have been added on.

Expect to pay €60 for the full tank and tough if you dont use it all and leave it back empty. No Refunds.

I didnt fall for the same trick a second time so put it down to a learning experience and drive the F#ck out of the car while you are there
Click to expand...

Cheers Bez, I think I can cancel this booking and probably wil on principal. How the hell am i gonna use 60e of fuel in 5 days in a 1.1litre motor that does aabout 900mpg!

Any recommends ? Airport pick up and return required
 
I usually go ahead and pay for it.
The price is usually no worse (and sometimes better) than you'll pay at the pump.
That said, it might be hard to use that up in 5 days.
 
one of the very few things still available for a very good price on ibiza is a rental car.
if you look around a little you can get a good a car almost new (f.e. peugeot 206-size)
for a price less than renting a bike,ok maybe not in august but other times mostly no problem.
even when you have to pay for a full tank but don´t need it so a few litres are still left
when returning the car it´s still a bargain.

love people who pay 50, 60, 70 euro or an even higher fantasy-entry-amount
for some whitetrash-dj and 25 for a double voddyredbull but start crying
because of the tank-regulations of some rentalcarcompanies :twisted:
 
icebaer69 said:
love people who pay 50, 60, 70 euro or an even higher fantasy-entry-amount
for some whitetrash-dj and 25 for a double voddyredbull but start crying
because of the tank-regulations of some rentalcarcompanies :twisted:
Click to expand...

As Diver says and I would be the same.....its the principle and ethics of the business.

I know how much a ticket into a club is...its clearly stated. But in my opinion these car companies do not clearly display the fuel charge, instead burying it in the small print hoping that you wont take the time to read it.

If a company is going to take that approach then I dont want to do business with them as it does not argue well for any other problems that may arise.
 
We had to pay upfront for the tank and it was no problem for us as we did return it very close to empty but that was 2 weeks!
 
If I hire a car I expect to be able to drive it, therefore some sort of propellant would be useful. The price I pay should include petrol....not an added extra when I go to drive it.

In Rugby it would be referred to a double movement and a foul play.
 
Bez said:
... in my opinion these car companies do not clearly display the fuel charge,
instead burying it in the small print hoping that you wont take the time to read it ...
Click to expand...
nothing against your opinion :twisted:
but we have "your opinion" vs. "reality" :idea:

i only rent from the companies with office in the ibiza-airport-arrival-building.
all bills from rentalcarcompanies i still have from the last years don´t hide
their tank-regulations "in the small print" or elsewhere, but on page 1 of the contract.
and i had different carrentalcompanies, because one year this one is good,
next year another one.
and all office-people clearly said tank-regulation is full/full or full/empty or whatever.
 
Hiper rent a car booked through hispa car was the old school way of returning with a full tank

should add this was September 2011
 
Bez said:
If I hire a car I expect to be able to drive it, therefore some sort of propellant would be useful. The price I pay should include petrol....not an added extra when I go to drive it.
Click to expand...
The price you pay NEVER includes fuel and never has :spank:

Either you pay initially, or you bring back a full tank which means you pay at the petrol station.

In reality, there's little difference IF you'll be driving enough to empty a tank once.

@ icebaer - I've never paid more than mid-20s EUR for a car in Ibiza.
 
icebaer69 said:
i only rent from the companies with office in the ibiza-airport-arrival-building.
all bills from rentalcarcompanies i still have from the last years don´t hide
their tank-regulations "in the small print" or elsewhere, but on page 1 of the contract.
and i had different carrentalcompanies, because one year this one is good,
next year another one.
and all office-people clearly said tank-regulation is full/full or full/empty or whatever.
Click to expand...

I usually do too. But also depends on when I arrive. All the main companies' offices close between 11pm and midnight.. so if you land late evening (as most 2012 flights from London are this year) you have no choice but to either get a taxi and then have to get a car the next day, or rent from a company which does out-of-hours collection and pay extra for that. Most of these off-airport companies charge up front for a tank of fuel especially for hires of more than 3 days.
 
By the way, Icey is also right that it's usually pretty clear on the booking whether it's prepaid fuel or not. I wouldn't call it small print.
 
"How the hell am i gonna use 60e of fuel in 5 days in a 1.1litre motor that does aabout 900mpg!"

Go explore Ibiza : )
 
I hired from BK a couple of years ago on the full to empty arrangement,managed to empty the tank quite easily in 7 days. I do prefer the other way though. I will recommend Autos Mari,nice people.
 
fact is, a lot of people will bring them back with a tank half full or a quarter full, and they save money this way as they've already skinned you for a full tank - it is a rip off.

Although, that said, I do agree that car hire in Ibiza is refreshingly inexpensive! But then I tend to go in September so can't really speak for the busier months.
 
fatphilb said:
fact is, a lot of people will bring them back with a tank half full or a quarter full, and they save money this way as they've already skinned you for a full tank - it is a rip off.

Although, that said, I do agree that car hire in Ibiza is refreshingly inexpensive! But then I tend to go in September so can't really speak for the busier months.
Click to expand...

The full-to-empty is only a rip-off if the hire charges are close to the competition you're weighing up. If the hire cost is low, you can sometimes add on the cost of the tank and still come out cheaper than hiring from a full-to-full company in the terminal (although with in-terminal companies it's really much less hasstle to get your keys waiting for your bags in arrivals and walk to the car park opposite, and no buses on return). Just need to do your homework and the sums to get like-for-like pricing and weigh it up.

Hiper is actually very reasonable and some nice pre-scratched cars you don't have to worry too much about ! They'll sometimes drive you on to the terminal in your hire car too at the end - avoiding buses /off-loading at the office (which is just beyond the roundabout coming out of the airport - really close).

Have had some great hire prices even from Avis, Hertz etc. last couple of years - really cheap. Only exception is August - cheapest quote I could get in 2011 booking close to departure was about £70 a day and £45 - £50 a day in mid-late July. Prices vary hugely depending on the season and availability.
 
Reading everyones coments I still think that its a rip off. Yes, it is in the T&Cs (which admittedly I did not read) but its vastly in favour of the hire company, a stealth payment. Not only that, its environmentally immoral to encourage me to drive round the island just for the sake of it (I know:roll:, like my jet airplane trip to Ibiza) to use the fuel up?

I also have reasonable expections as to the price of club entry, drinks, sunloungers on the beach, cans of pop in PDB supermarkets, which I am more than happy to pay for. But I wont be expected to order say, two drinks in a bar when I only want one.
 
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