Rental car horror stories are making me nervous!

I think you have to remember that people generally only leave a review for a car hire company when something goes wrong. If you get your car as planned and no incidents occur there is really not much to say.

I have never had a problem with a rental car in Portugal or anywhere else. I don’t think these issues crop up as often as the reviews might make you think they do, so just pick a company and go for it would be my advice.

When you pick up the car with the company's representatives, take pictures or a video of it. If there is a dispute, at drop off, then show them the photos. In all of our travels with a rental, an unfair charge has only happened once. The photos quickly mitigated their claim.

Rental car reviews and airline reviews share one thing in common - People only bothered to write them if somethings bad happened. And of course some people will not ever want to accept responsibility for their own actions.

I returned the car once with a broken headlight, I didn’t try to argue complain, etc. But before I returned the car, I had contacted the credit card company that was the credit card I used and that has primary rental car insurance. In addition, I had actually paid for insurance. Between those two things I never saw any liability. The Credit card company told me they would deal with it and apparently they did.

I also once returned the car and took the guy outside to show him the scratch that somebody had put on my bumper. He looked at it, he then pulled up the paperwork and looked at it and said that scratch was there when you rented the car. I had not noticed it until about 4 days into our trip and he could’ve easily taken advantage of me. I was willing to pay for it, but they didn’t.

Of course in neither one of these cases did I write a review.

I tend to rent through Auto Europe and buy their insurance and as I said, I use a credit card that has primary insurance which means my insurance company never has to get involved. If you’re using your credit card for coverage, make sure you read to see if it’s primary or secondary. If it is secondary, your personal insurance will have to be involved too, which could affect your rates, etc.

When we rent a car we always buy the car rental agency insurance ( not a third party).
On return I just hand the keys and walk away ( never had an issue), even if there's damage the car rental agency is not going to put a claim against itself.
It's part of our travel budget.
We have rented cars numerous times at airport locations in different countries ( Orlando, Ottawa, Lisbon,etc) always followed the same procedure and never had any problems.

We too have not had a bad experience with renting vehicles. I rent from a major company like Avis or Enterprise. For piece of mind we get full coverage so in the event of a ding or scratch we just hand over the keys and walk away. Which insurance you get is dependent on your comfort level.

Photograph and video tape the check-in and check-out processes. I did not have problems in Spain (haven't rented in Portugal) and Greece. However, German and Swiss agencies sometimes get poor reviews. Also, many of these agencies are franchises, and therefore their service (and honesty) levels may vary.

Yes, here are some recommendations: First, relax - you are panicking for no good reason. Dial down the nervousness, keep your wits about you, pay attention, and things should be just fine.

I've rented over a hundred cars (probably a lot more) while traveling overseas, from Morocco to Mexico to Australia to the Azores to Turkey to Japan to dozens of European countries, and other than occasionally less-than-stellar customer service (the same levels that I experience every day in stores and restaurants at home in the USA), I've never once had anything bad happen. No "discovery" of damage after I returned it, no disputes, no surprises, no flim-flam, no fraud, no overcharging, no cheating, no hassles, NOTHING.

And I have had plenty of positive experiences, and great customer service from car helpful car rental employees, and I don't think I'm one-in-a-million lucky. I am attentive, calm and careful, as any reasonable person should be when borrowing somebody else's $25,000 tool.

Sure, bad stuff happens when people rent cars. Bad stuff happens when you go to Burger King or Walmart. If you follow a few common-sense practices, you should be fine, and you can have a great experience. My specific suggestions:

1 - Be organized. You need to do some homework. Get all your car rental details organized, understood, documented and have a clear, specific plan in place long before you start packing your bags for that trip. The last thing you want is to just show up at some rental outfit and "wing it" when it comes to insurance, how you're going to pay, etc. Have your valid, current drivers license and IDP if needed (usually required by law in most non-English language countries). Know in advance about legal requirements for drivers and traffic laws in the countries you will be visiting.

2 - Document everything. Bring printed documentation of your rental reservation, your plan for paying for it, proof of insurance if you are using coverage provided by your credit card, etc. and have it all with you, ready to show if needed, when you go to pick up the car. When you have finished the ceremonies in the office (wave the credit card, show license, passport, whatever they ask for, then sign here, here, and there, initial here, here and there...), when you go out and see the actual car, go over it obsessively, with a fine-tooth comb, in good light (bring a flashlight, and use it), look closely at every inch of the car, for scratches, dents, possible scratches and dents, hints of any scratch or dent, bugs, dirt or other things stuck to it that might be interpreted later as scratches or dents. Look at all the glass, the tires and wheels, every piece of metal, plastic, glass, chrome, or whatever else it's made of - point to every single item you see or think you might see, call it out verbally and note them all on your paperwork. You should be going through this step with an employee of the rental agency, and you should both have a paper diagram depicting every surface of the car. Mark every real/potential/suspected spot on your paper, and look at the agency employee to ensure they are making similar marks to yours. As you do this, have your spouse/travel partner take pictures of each imperfect surface. Make sure that the agency employee sees you doing this, and that they clearly understand you are making a v-e-r-y thorough record of every flaw on the car. Allow up to an hour for this, do not rush through it.

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3 - Check to be sure everything works before you zoom off! Check the trunk for a spare tire and jack. There may be some other required safety gear (some countries require other things). Make sure the spare actually has air in it and the jack is usable. Get in the car and sit in the driver’s seat - adjust it so the seat is comfortable for YOU and so you can see. Adjust the mirrors. Make sure the horn honks. Check to be sure all the lights actually work! Look over and TOUCH every one of the driver controls, and make sure you can operate them quickly, easily, mostly by feel (without having to visually hunt for them while you’re zooming down a twisty mountain road): the turn signals, all the lights, windshield wipers, windshield washer, front/rear window defrosters, aircon, heat and fan.

Check the radio/audio system, maybe tune to a station you could tolerate, turn the volume way down low, then turn it off. If the car has a built-in GPS/Nav system, Apple CarPlay or equivalent system, get that set up and functional if you have any plan to use it. Plan to use your phone in the car - for anything? Get out your car-mount/phone holder (don’t expect the car to come with one, bring you own along from home), get it firmly installed in a place where the driver can easily see it by just slightly glancing away from the road. The phone should NOT be down in your lap, a cup-holder, etc., it should not be blocking the driver’s view of the road, it should be just on the edge of their field of view as they look at the road ahead. Get this right now, before you start the engine, and make sure it’s secure, not flopping around. Plug in the phone and/or GPS to the car’s USB/power port. Need to secure something better? Bring a little roll of duct tape (I prefer GorillaTape). Get out your paper map (you did bring a good map, didn’t you?), get it folded so the navigator can easily see where you are and where you want to drive to, keep it handy. Look over your planned route (you should have already planned your route before you left home, this is just a last-minute reality-check, to confirm that what the phone/GPS is telling you makes some sense). Set aside the phone/GPS/map but make sure all will be available.

Load people and belongings into the car. Don’t block the driver’s view out the back window. Get everyone seated and settled down - the driver is going to need to be able to concentrate on driving, the copilot/navigator is going to need to copilot/navigate and assist the driver. Start the car, and don’t immediately zoom away. Just sit there for a minute, getting used to all the sensory inputs. Re-adjust anything you need to. Look around you carefully to be sure you are not going to hit anything as you maneuver out of the parking space and lot (I’ve seen major accidents happen inside or just outside the rental agency lot). Take a deep breath, and slowly, calmly, put it in gear and pull away and look for the exit.

Continued…

4 - Use your head, and take it seriously. Be careful with this expensive borrowed car. Drive defensively. Start off especially slowly and extra cautiously - the first few minutes behind the wheel in any foreign country are the most dangerous, as you will be disoriented and need a while to start to feel comfortable (even if you’ve driven overseas before) - there may be language issues, unfamiliar signage, and the usual jet lag and exhaustion. Your front-seat passenger is not just along for the ride, they are there to help the driver at all times. They navigate, manage things the driver needs (a drink of water, take care of keeping the map handy and GPS/app functioning, charged and visible, they quiet down unruly kids in the back seat or other potential distractions, etc. - and give navigation and driving guidance about upcoming turns, help spot other vehicles, remind you to drive on the left/right as needed, etc.). Copilot/Navigator/Helper is a full-time, serious job. You should study at least a little bit before your trip to understand some basics about the countries you will be driving in - traffic rules, signage, etc. Take it easy, remain attentive. Don’t drive at all after drinking alcohol, don’t drive when you’re exhausted (like right after you fly half-way across the world and haven’t slept for a day-and-a-half). Try not to drive after dark if you can help it.

5 - Enjoy your trip. The driving should become easier after a short while, but don’t let your guard down completely. We all have a lot of muscle memory and deeply ingrained habits, some of which you may have to unlearn and overcome, or at least adjust somewhat. Be careful, you have a lot of skin in the game (literally).

6 - The Return. A lot like the pickup. Unload the car and take a few minutes to do this. Go over the car slowly, again carefully noting it’s condition. If you have taken good care of it, there should be no visible changes you need to document, but you should still go over it slowly, take notes and take pictures. This (along with your records from the pickup inspection) is your protection against fraudulent “damage” claims after the fact. You will be tempted to skip this - you’ll have a plane to catch, impatient travel partners, etc. Don’t just fling the keys and run, that’s leaving yourself open to abuse (and I suspect the primary root cause of so many “car rental nightmare” stories). If possible, get the agency staff to come look at the car with you. IME usually they’ll take a quick look, shrug, say it’s OK, and release you (because they may remember you as the one who obsessively looked at every inch of the car when you picked it up). They have better things to do, and if they see you’ve taken reasonably good care of their car, that’s usually the end of it. Often they will release the “hold” (deposit) on your credit card on the spot (ask them about this). Save your paper notes and the photos of the car - don’t delete/trash these until a few months after you get home, just in case.

Are you bringing the car back absolutely filthy? Does it look like it’s been driven to Hell and back? Is there spilled food and dirt all over the interior? You might want to clean it up a bit before returning it (do that before you pull into their lot). I sometimes wash the car if it’s muddy or very dirty. This makes it easier to see if there has been any damage (so should speed up your return). Of course, if you really have trashed the car, maybe you shouldn’t wash it. Hey, it can actually be an interesting, memorable experience to try and figure out how a self-service car wash works in Estonia or Baja…

Portugal is great and you’re going to have a wonderful trip. I hope at least some of the above helps you do that.

We have rented cars all over Europe including Portugal with none of the problems you describe!
One thing we always do take photos of the whole
car when the rental agent is still there.
Rent a car and enjoy the freedom it will give you to explore!!

Thank you for all the great replies. I am not new to car rentals. We had a great experience in Munich a couple years ago. I just have never seen the kind of scams being perpetrated against some of these travelers. I am in the process of checking with all my credit card companies first. I need to know what is being offered, and what the restrictions are. Then, I will make a reservation. Thanks again for your help!

I will echo others who have reported good experiences. We have rented rental cars throughout Europe many times (20?), and our only issue wasn't directly related to the rental - we received a parking ticket that we didn't know about until months later, when the rental agency forwarded the ticket plus their own charge. Which is in the fine print, so we couldn't and didn't argue with it.

Last year, in Italy, my husband put a dent in the side of our rental car when pulling out of the hotel parking garage (he was so focused on avoiding the cars in front of us that he didn't notice the corner of the garage to his left). We of course took many photos of the damage, which was not huge but two side panels were dented, so would have been expensive to repair or replace. We notified the rental company (Europcar I think) and AutoEurope immediately. We were charged the damage deductible, if that's what it's called, and of course pointed it out to the rental agency when we dropped off the car, and never heard another word about it. That was a relief.

In this video, Rick Steve talks about renting cars and the peace of mind of having a zero-deductible collision damage waiver. Start watching at 20:25:
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/travel-talks/transportation

Well, there are some bad experiences. My brother had one when the name on his driver’s license did not exactly match the name on the reservation. (Charles vs Chuck). They refused to release his prepaid car reservation to him. Fair enough, there was an error on the name. Not fair was when they refused to refund money and classified him as a no show. Cost him $1200.

My advice
1. Don’t prepay
2. Make sure name on reservation and license match exactly.

I suggest that you take a look at ZestCarRental.com.

I did a lot of research before using them for our Portugal trip. I am very picky when it comes to car rentals. There are lots of positive reviews in both Tripadvisor and Google. In Google, they have a 4.7* rating. Read the very few 1* negative reviews and you will see that Zest takes the time and effort to respond and explain.

I emailed Zest several times before our trip and they always responded within hours. There were no problems with our rental.

Following general advice on how to deal with rental companies is always a good idea (take photos of car, etc). But it is best to find companies with better reputation and avoid the ones with lots of bad reviews. Zest is good one.