Hello,
Looking to rent a car in Sydney for 3 weeks. Any experiences with hertz? I keep stumbling on hidden fees, what's the best car rental choice ?
Thanks.
Alex
Best Place to rent a car in Sydney?
Barbacana on 16/07/2018 - 14:01
Comments
$0 excess
You have to pay extra for that, but it's reasonable - $35/rental (from memory). The big name companies (hertz/avis/budget) charge like $25/day to reduce the excess to $500.
I'm a regular with budget, and avis because that's what's close to us. But if I'm in Sydney, Bayswater is my pick too.
Had a couple of rentals with them before. Have nothing to complain about and the rates that I found were better than what the others were offering.
I checked them out, but they have like 3 sort of cars to offer ( all Toyotas) and the prices were bit higher than hertz as well. But the reviews are insanely good
Just a warning, Bayswater Cars have a history of trying to pin fake damage on renters. Make sure you photograph EVERYTHING if you go with them. They're more known for this at their Perth location.
From all the car rental posts I've read over the years, pretty much all car rental companies try and pull that trick.
Ive rented dozens of cars and only ever had it happen to me once. Once I showed them photographic evidence, they pretended they'd made a mistake
Never had it happened to me
I think that's partly true, and partly a result of people only posting online when they have complaints. There'd be nothing to post about if the process was just "Returned car, was not charged for damage we didn't do."
Anecdotally have never had this happen, but I still do walk around photos and video every time (before and after) just in case.
I was in Sydney recently and rented from Budget (alamo/Redspot), using an all in flight/car/hotel and ended up getting the car rental for free.
But I choose not to purchase insurance. And while driving a Ute ran into me smashing his own hood very badly but only putting a 4cm dent and about 3 scratches which can be easily buffed out by hand on the bumper of my rental SUV. I called Budget to let them know I was hit in case his insurance tried to make a claim. Budget tried to tell me the contract said if I had an accident I had to pay $5,500.00 just because the car was hit. I refused to pay. They sent me an invoice for $5,500.00 which I will not pay. And I did take pictures of all the marks just in case I need proof later.I knew not to pay as once they get your money it is impossible to get it back even if the damage did not result from your fault and/or the repair cost was nil or next to nil.
Did they not try to max out your credit card 💳?
I did not use a credit card but a debit card and I told them I did not have the funds and then to be safe I transferred most of $ that I did have into another account.
@Quantumcat: if they did charge the excess separately, you could report it as fraudulent, as you did not authorise it.
@hashtagbargain: I think you authoritised it when you gave them the card when they asked for a way to charge you later. Same with hotels that take credit cards for if you steal bed linen or use the mini bar.
@Quantumcat: It was the bank that told me to remove the funds from that account before they tried to use the account number I used to pay for petrol. Said otherwise I would have to dispute it with the bank afterwards. And no I did not sign any agreement that they could charge my account for anything. I was not even aware there were storing the debit card number in their system.
I have rented from Perth Bayswater 3 times.. No problem with damage that you mentioned.
They did forward a speeding fine that I got to police And charged me $25.00 admin fee,
which I thought was a bit steep.
I have domestic excess cover on my Credit Card so accepted their $1000 excess, so saved $35.
$5/Day for additional driver.
Orana
Interesting as well, had good experience with them?
Yeah, no issues, but like everything, YMMV. Have hired from them and Budget (I think we used an entertainment book thing to get a discount or free days).
What I didn't like with budget is you have to use their etag and you get charged a daily admin fee if you use a toll on that day. I posted about it.
Make sure you you get 3rd party insurance from someone like tripcover and not the hire company you eventually go with.
What I didn't like with budget is you have to use their etag and you get charged a daily admin fee if you use a toll on that day.
What's stopping you from using your own etag and putting their one in the glove box (or somewhere where it wont scan automatically)?
@salmon123: It was double sided taped directly to the windscreen, right down the bottom where the dash meets the windscreen, so there wasn't much room to work in.
I probably could have removed it and reattached it if I really wanted to, but didn't want to risk damaging it or the car.
@John Kimble: Wonder if you couldn't just stick some aluminium foil over the outside of the windscreen over where the tag is.
@HighAndDry: Yes, that was a suggestion at the time. I didn't want to risk getting pulled over for obstructing the windscreen.
@John Kimble: Oh true. I was thinking more of the risk it'd come loose at faster speeds but this is probably a bigger worry. And neither is likely to be worth it for a few dollars savings.
Oh yeah, have tried Orana too. Pretty good (obviously anecdotal) but they marked all the dints and pre-existing dmg on the vehicle when we got the car which is a good sign, and basically said (and kept to it) that so long as we didn't do any major damage they wouldn't really care.
Yes, their cars aren't perfect (but what hire car is), usually there are a few small dents here and there that they don't bother repairing for a while (because you can see rust sometimes), but they take you around with them and show you so you're both on the same page.
I was recommended to vroom vroom which was a car rental comparison site years ago and have always used them since with no issues.
Try https://www.drivemycar.com.au/ if you are renting for 3 weeks. You'll get a much better car for the same price as a rental agency would charge you or you could rent an older car for about half the price. I tried a sample search for 3 weeks in August and got the following all-inclusive prices:
- 2009 Mazda 3 $443.73
- 2016 Toyota Camry $739.20
- 2012 Mercedes c200 Avantgarde $828.87
Plenty of 2018 models direct from dealerships too if you want something brand new.
I'll have a look at that as well. Thanks.
Just bear in mind "all inclusive" is usually limited to 100KM per day then you get charged above that. So as long as you don't intend to do 2000+KMs over the 3 week period should be fine. Also there's loads of www.Goget.com.au pods if you don't need a vehicle continuously/daily and may be cheaper renting by the hour etc.
Yep just saw that, it a kind of a deal breaker
Check your credit card benefits to see if they have free excess cover. Most gold and platinum cards do. In that case, don't pay extra to the rental place for excess reduction (since you don't need it).
https://www.bayswatercarrental.com.au/
Cheapest rates (outside of private Gumtree ads), $0 excess, after-hour returns.