STAY AWAY FROM GOLDCAR AT ANY COST !!!

I find that too much of a stretch ... surely no–one pays €64 a day to rent a regular car anywhere in Europe ... possibly in the whole world.

I find that too much of a stretch ... surely no–one pays €64 a day to rent a regular car anywhere in Europe ... possibly in the whole world.

How can you be so sure, that's probably the average price if you book it through a good rental company:

Just checked with Avis in Switzerland. Got a price for 5 days with the smallest car available for 277 CHF...so
55 CHF per day....which is with the current exchange rate about 1 to 1 to the Euro....
(Hertz was 209 CHF, but again for the smallest car available; Fiat 500 / Sixt showed me right away the price per day, which startet at 66 CHF !!!)

So what emmeff wrote could be the case. As different companies show their prices different, with Hertz and Avis I got the full price, with Sixt it showed me the price per day.

I have just done a dummy run on rentalcars.com - Madrid to Madrid for five days - and there are several cars (including Goldcar) at about that €60-€100 for five days (not per day). This includes majors such as Alamo and Europcar.

This is a fairer comparison perhaps than Switzerland. But the main point is (as I noted previously) - it is extremely unlikely that the OP has mistaken five days rental for one day. Anyway - not a major issue.

The most common mistake people make is to not note the fuel policies on any rental. The cheapest prices from any company invariably involve pre-paid full tanks which can be returned empty. The litre price is charged at any rate the company wishes plus ofcourse fuel service charges on top. The only sensible rental is a full-to-full policy and if you look at the Goldcar rentals available, the very same car on a full-to-full rental is more expensive than the prepaid. It is however far better value but unfortunately people don't do the maths, they see the cheapest offer and go for it.

The second most common mistake is to not be aware of any insurances you already have or need. Rental companies will hard sell their insurance and if you do not have your wits and knowledge about you, it's not difficult to be persuaded to tick the wrong boxes for additional insurance which is always very expensive from the rental company itself.

Goldcar is not a scammer, it's all in the T&C's although they do, like many other rentals, prey on the inexperienced renter in the hope that he will not read or understand the T&C's. Do your research, forewarned is forearmed.

recalling a number of posts from artemis' thread (as mentioned by lucapal in #2), imo scalping the client seems to be the business model of Goldcar and mustn't be excused by putting the blame on guileless customers alone - even those who have been lured by the lowest price should still have some consumer protection rights on their side.

They do have consumer protection rights, I think you'll find that cancellation is free up to 48 hours before rental - certainly when booking through an agency. The point is, no matter how much time you give them, you can't help people any further when they simply refuse to familiarise themselves with the T&C's and contracts they are signing.
I mean seriously, do you not read what you are signing ?

I think I'll stay in the real world, rather than fantasy-land.

a free cancellation policy may be part of, yet is no substitute for consumer rights. often enough courts have overruled some companies T&C's because paragraphs were deemed too discriminating or intransparent towards customers.

as I said, I'm not referring to the OP, who has given no details about his situation, but to many of those who filed their complaints in artemis' thread. 'hard-selling' sounds too cuddly for some of those examples - which are all, I admit, anecdotal. yet one has to wonder why this specific company gets mentioned so much more often than any other rental agency around.

Because Goldcar is a mafia-owned scamming machine, notwithstanding soothing tones to the contrary.

In some cases the plural of anecdote does turn out to be data!

Since the OP has not detailed the charges, and is unlikely to return to TT in any case, we can only speculate on what they represent. But it is possible that you might pay €64 per day if that incorporates no gap/no excess insurance. The €264 could represent a fuel charge, or compensation for damage, or an international drop-off fee as suggested in the same thread in the Italian branch.

There is no clear-cut choice regarding insurance. Consolidator websites push their own offerings for no-gap insurance, at a much lower rate than you will pay at the counter, but you need to claim back whatever you pay for damages after the event. This requires paperwork, perhaps quotes for repair, and continued effort. The same effort applies to claims made under travel insurance.

Rental car companies charge a fortune at the counter but you can then walk away with no further thought on the matter. For people flying out of a country, this option is all too appealing.

It's a matter of much you value your time.