Any experience with Swift Car Rentals?

I have never used Swift myself. However, all of us are familiar with Athens traffic, and dread the challeng of getting a car delivered to ones' Hotel, or picking one up at an agency on Syngrou street, and then finding one's way through the maelstrom to the intercity highway(s) out of town -- toward the Peloponnese or Delphi etc. Many of us have chickened out and took a taxi or bus or metro to the Airport -- in order to driv directly onto a modern highway that totally bypasses Athens. Others of us have configured our trips so that we could fly INTO the airport from an island, and at the airport pick up a rental for Peloponnese or the mountains. (On typical recent trips, my companions & I would fly immediately to an island on arrival, ferry to 1 or 2 more, fly back from the last, get car at airport for a few days in Nafplio area, then return car to airport & taxi to our Athens hotel for final few days).

In years past (haven't looked lately) Swift very astutely figured out a marketing strategy.... they would PICK YOU UP at your Central Athens hotel and deliver you right to the on-ramp of your chosen highway out of town. (the driver would then find his own way back to the agency). On that basis, as a regular contributor on 3 forums, I'd advise people who were leaving from Central Athens to check out Swift . Then I began reading troubling feedback -- about older cars, malfunctions during trips, breakdowns, etc. Thus I decided not to mention it any more. It may be fine now... havent checked it lately.

As for Crete, there are a number of well regarded local Cretan agencies; I've always had good service in 5 trips there, haven been there in 6 years. All the agencies will let you pick up car in one major port/airport & drop off in the other, avoids backtracking

Thank you, Janet!
Although I had seen the offer from Swift to bring the car to you, it works better to pick the car up at the airport, drive to Nafplio & environs, then return the car to the airport and fly to Crete, so that's not a consideration.

I haven't seen any reviews of Swift other than what they display on their website, so the bad feedback is helpful to know. Given that, and the 15 euro fee to drop the car at the airport, I will move to Athens Car Rental.

In case anyone is curious, I found Swift through a RS-recommended website, Matt Barrett's greecetravel.com

Matt Barrett's website is an absolute treasure-trove of Greece information but in my experience some recommendations have not been updated in a few years... I think his site is wonderful for a general over-view of places to go, and the general atmosphere, so you can come to a forum with basic knowledge, to ask for very specific recommendations like which hotel, restaurant or car-hire. Here is his all-in-one index -- https://www.greecetravel.com/index.html This will lead you to his sections on things that never change, such as great Greek Food -- https://www.greecetravel.com/greek-food/index.html -- it has SIXTY PAGES!! one of my faves is HOW to SAY IT -- https://www.greecetravel.com/greek-food/restaurants/ordering.htm ... tells the ingredients of many popular dishes, and how to pronounce the greek words for each... you won't need to, waiters all know English, but they LOVE you for t rying!!

Terrific - thanks again, Janet!

The Greek government has lowered the standards required of car rental agencies, allowing them to rent cars that are up to 13 years old!! I was shocked, have never rented an old car and paid full price! But, with Covid hitting and cars not being rented last year many local agencies sold off their cars and now are having trouble getting inventory that is chipped in order to keep up with the demand this year causing soaring prices, low availability and older cars. Whomever you use, clarify the year of the car if it’s important to you. I’ve also heard it’s wise to pay in advance. Hope this helps

We used Swift for our last trip to Venice in 2019 and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. They picked us up at our hotel in the Plaka, drove us to their office on Syngrou, pointed us in the right direction, and it was an easy drive out of town from there. On return, someone met us at Athens Airport. Extremely stress free renting.