CiCar...Tough times??

[paully]

Been on the island for 10 days and initially got our car from CiCar desk at the airport.(all the windows seem to be closed to the baggage hall now)...anyways got this heap of an Astra (upgrade gee thanks) whose steering was very suspect, had gear selector problems that almost required 2 hands to change gear and 115,000kms on the clock

  When picking it up I was charged 27euros for the fuel and asked to bring it back empty  queried this and he said` oh well yes you can always bring it back with the same fuel and we will do a refund` but it had to be dragged out of him..

  Cutting long story short changed it at the local town office the next day, so well done CiCar but was told there, when I queried the spaceship mileage, that it was new policy to run them to very high mileages.He showed me the bags of car keys with the mileages on and most were over the 100k....not really ok to run hire cars to these mileages, unless the maintenance is top notch, which is expensive and doesnt seem to be happening..Amazingly we would not accept these mileages on cars supplied in the UK or as main dealer loan cars but we do here....why?

  Anyway I was given an almost new Corsa, with bells and whistles so turned out well in the end...Have used these guys for  the last 10 years but faith has been knocked..Interestingly, and only a snap shot I know, the biggest queue for cars was at the Avis desk and having a look round their lot outside, they were much newer (u can tell from the plate numbers)and in better nick...you get what you pay for eh 

[Archer]

That's right. I'm on longterm rental from Autoplus Car at the mo, and it's a real heap. Looks like it's been used as a bumper car!
But where can you get a hire car, with all inc insurance, for less than â,¬80 per week in the UK?
I've had good and bad from both Autoplus and Payless, but always go with the cheapest. Who cares what it looks like as long as it's not unsafe.
I'm sure the rep some new cars are on the way .... but don't hold your breath.

[duncolm]

I was given an old astra earlier this month too. After 3 or 4 days a notice started appearing on the dash which I translated as 'fault, take this to a mechanic'. I was going to go to the CiCar office first time I was in Corralejo but before I could the starter motor failed.
Finally got through to them on the phone and the girl from the harbour office came and collected us from where we were stuck near La Oliva, took us back and gave us a newish corsa.

[notdeadfred]

We've pre-booked with Cicar Jandia office 5 times now. Cars have always been fairly new and clean, and often get given a car from a higher group than booked.

This year we booked a 1.4 Corsa for 10 days but due to non availability when we got there we were given a Volvo S40 Cross Country automatic with only 5k on the clock and spotless!

Never been asked to pay for fuel either - just return the car with same fuel as when collected. Perhaps your car's next booking was to the scrap yard and he wanted you to empty the tank for him!

[duncolm]

I suspect they're giving out those astras as "upgrades" to get the last use out of them. That one had about 70,000km on the clock.

I'd put fuel in the car and it was half full when it died. When I was given the corsa it was supposed to be half full too and I was told to hand it back at a quarter full. The gauge only said about a third of course and the corsa's tank is smaller anyway so I certainly lost out there...

[paully]

Think you are right about the Astras Duncolm..I think that the branch offices are able to act in a different way to the airport desk..Lately have always been charged for fuel on collection..To be fair the Correlejo office refunded what I had paid for fuel straight away. I suspect if you are able to collect away from the airport you get chance to get a better deal.....

[silent_running]

Although we didn't use them this time, they did have the baggage hall windows open last night for the late evening EZY flight in.

[DaveW]

I have been using CICAR for my last 8 or so visits. The first 2 times they charged  petrol deposit but not since.  So far have been given fairly new car.

[zedzedeleven]

It would be a shame if Cicar had lowered their standards, I hope that this is just a consequence  of a delay in the new fleet of cars arriving. I have tried most of the others in the past but stuck with Cicar who have always been great, good cars and good service, simple to collect and drop off with no complicated fuel deposit. Common sense to return it with the same amount in the tank that it had when you collected it. You might pay a bit more but that is ok too, it discourages the cretins that have, in the past, boasted on here that they returned the car with an empty tank.

[paully]

To be fair I`m prepared to give them another chance,because I`ve had good service for a long time...But its amazing how many clowns still trawl the internet for the lowest price, then are suprised when there is no airport desk for, wait for it Goldcar or Orlando and are even more suprised when they have their pants taken down..what the chuff did they expect for £60 for 2 weeks 

    CiCar must be feeling the pinch and are being forced to compete which is a damn shame, but as always the Brits love cheap don`t they  As you say ZZ you have to pay a fuel deposit due to the idiots who try to make a few euro`s on fuel..Hey ho such is life.................before you die

[zedzedeleven]

Well, I`m not so pleased with Cicar now. Just got back on Saturday and I have to say the car I was supplied with was the worst I have ever had from Cicar.  A Corsa with 90,000km`s on the clock. The bodywork was covered in dents and scratches, the front seat belts didn`t retract properly, the passenger seat reclining mechanism was faulty,  and the engine periodically made a strange moaning noise as you coasted to a halt. Not very assuring. I have sent a stiff email to Cicar complaining about it. When I collected it I walked past row after row of nice clean cars in the Cicar parking sheds. The car allocated to me was parked in the Payless area,(although badged Cicar). Not a problem as such but again, rows of nice cars there as well. I will be keeping an eye on this topic on here, many more complaints about Cicar and I will be transferring my allegiance elswhere. Oh, and another gripe, the low fuel light came on before I got as far as the first filling station on the way to Corralejo.

[paully]

Sounds about as quality as the Astra I got...Seems to be true that they are running the fleet into the ground and just hope that people keep coming back...I did a bit of a take on who was running what in their fleets and the newest were Avis/Budget. Cicar had some good ones but a lot of the Opels looked dogs  That said, the trick is book a Corsa with Sat Nav..Those models havent been out long so are ok for now.

  Doing a recce in Correlejo of hire cars, it pains me to say that Goldcar had some of the best and latest models. Autoplus had some that looked no better than the Opels but again the most popular was Avis who had the biggest queues at their desk. Must be the Germans, they tend to demand the same quality they left behind in the car park at Stuttgart 

  Hope you had a good time ZZ, still doing the nude windsurfing or are you sticking to jet skis now?? 

[zedzedeleven]

Hah, jetski`s, never saw any of them on the move, dunno if the demand has dropped to zero or if the proprietor has jacked it in. the things are still there moored up in the harbour but look a bit forlorn. Bit cold for the nude windsurfing Paully, had to insist on buttless wetsuit !

[Can the Man]

Well I don't know about CI cars, as I haven't used them in years, but I'm just back from a week and I hired from auto plus or plus cars as they sometimes go by.

We had a fiat qubo for 3 adults, and 2 kids incl. child seat and booster seat. Car was in great condition and plenty room, all for less than â,¬98 for the week.

[zedzedeleven]

Well I don't know about CI cars, as I haven't used them in years, but I'm just back from a week and I hired from auto plus or plus cars as they sometimes go by.

We had a fiat qubo for 3 adults, and 2 kids incl. child seat and booster seat. Car was in great condition and plenty room, all for less than â,¬98 for the week.

Was that pick up and drop off at the airport Can? Do they have a desk in the terminal?

[paully]

Pluscars meet you at a pre arranged stand in the public car park at the terminal..Do the paperwork and off you drive..Bring it back, with the same amount of fuel in it at collection, to roughly the same stand and leave the keys and ticket under the floor mat and off you go...To be fair no one inspects the cars when they are back either with Cicar although there are a couple of firms, I think Hertz being one, that have `clipboards` you hand your keys to on arrival..

  Pricewise similar to Cabrera Medina (not CIcar)..where you can get a 5 door corsa with sat nav for E100 a week in late June..

[zedzedeleven]

Thanks Paully, I`m not too keen on parping around on the car park, much rather use a desk in the terminal. I will probably try Cicar again just to give them the benefit of doubt, if I get another poor car it will be the last time. I have filled in the email survey that Cicar send as standard and reported what I found. No reply so far.

[paully]

They didnt send me one of those surveys, must have guessed my response..try the sat nav corsas next time, although they surely can`t hang on much longer to those Opel dogs.......can they?

[zedzedeleven]

I wonder what their criteria for taking a car out of use is? 55,000miles isn`t too bad on a privately owned car but on a hire car it must be approaching the end, especially for a company that charges a premium rate. As for Opel dogs, well, with Cicar I never seem to get the car I request, in the past I have asked for Polo`s, Fiesta`s and a Ka, the only time I got what I requested was when I needed a six seater.

[paully]

I don`t think they have a criteria now, the Astra I had, was showing 72,000 and I was told this is now the norm  .. Trouble is Goldcar and Orlando are still pulling the punters in and taking business from previously good operators like this. They are having to cut corners to compete and survive. Just been doing some digging and found names like `Global Cars` and `Rental Cars`which are just fronts for these monkeys..So the tight arses will say ho ho not using Goldcar again, but they always look for the cheap prices so guess where they are going to end up ....Until we all wise up its going to be a rough ride, as they say 

[Snowdrop]

We always use c-car and only on the odd occasion have we ever had an older car.  Tend to book via Vanessa in their Corralejo office - very pleasant and always a delight to visit her. 
Only short coming we have found is if you have to drop car off at harbour when the local office is closed as the harbour office closes early evening and then you cannot access the building to leave the keys.

[Can the Man]

Thanks Paully, I`m not too keen on parping around on the car park, much rather use a desk in the terminal. I will probably try Cicar again just to give them the benefit of doubt, if I get another poor car it will be the last time. I have filled in the email survey that Cicar send as standard and reported what I found. No reply so far.

ZZ, I don't want to tell you what to do and what not to do, but don't write off good opportunities, just for the sake of a desk. The auto plus cars office is just over the bridge from the airport, you the punter gets the benefit of the lower price because they don't have to pay airport overheads like a desk in the terminal, and official parking spaces in the rental car car park.

[lionfish]

Before buying my own car 12 months ago I had used Cicar, Payless and Plus car - in that order over many years.
Cicar, in those days, tended to provide newer cars, but were more expensive, hence I switched to Payless. On moving to Payless it appeared that they were using older, handed-down cars from Cicar, which was fine, but then they started to provide almost new cars, but mainly very basic underpowered models.
When I tried Plus Car I found them much easier to deal with and very reliable - never any queues to contend with and, with one exception, the car and rep were always waiting for me in the car park.
In line with other companies, their prices went up about 18 months ago and this coincided with me spending more time on the island, hence the car purchase which I have not regretted.

[Archer]

Comments that I go along with, Lionfish.
Did you get Residencia to buy and insure the car or did you manage it with just NIE? I am at the same stage but only have NIE.
Did you buy new?

[lionfish]

Hi Archer 101,

You do not need residencia to buy or insure a car, but you do need an NIE and an extra piece of paper, which the Town Hall supply for next to nothing - just pop in and say you need the paper for buying a car - the garage will need it from you to do the registration paperwork etc.

I bought a secondhand car from Ovrecame in Rosario (main Opel dealer) which is closely linked to Cicar, hence the car was an ex hire car, as most secondhand cars on the island are, or have been at some point! I was offered several cars to choose from and these are well advertised on the Ovrecame website. I decided on a Meriva which I have been very well pleased with - will have had it 12 months tomorrow and no trouble at all!

You may be interested to know that I chose a Meriva rather than an Astra as the Meriva tends to be more a family hire car and probably less thrashed than Astras or Corsas - same applies to Zafiras.

At the time, the Ovrecame policy was to take cars off the hire fleet at 4 years old, or around 80,000km - most hire cars do around 20k per an. They didn't have a Meriva in stock, but were willing to simply take one off hire as long as a replacement was on the way. The car was fully checked out and re-furbed before I picked it up including all the dents knocked out and a re-spray.

If, as people say, the likes of Cicar are running older, higher mileage cars it could be because they cannot sell the second hand cars quickly enough, or it could just be down to economics.

If you need any further help or advice feel free to ask either on the Forum or by pm.

[DaveW]

I recently hired a Corsa from Cicar for two weeks, after a week the car was playing up so took it back. It was replaced by a brand  new top of the range Astra with satnav and 67 km on the clock.

[paully]

After much thought ,I opted this trip for cicar again and got an almost new Corsa, with Sat Nav  and loads of gizmos...the Corsa size is better where I have to park it but delighted with it, especially after last time...hats off to them they have restored my faith in them.....on yes the car itself is bright yellow...no trouble finding it in crowded car parks he he..

  This time we did hand luggage only and 15 mins after landing we were walking out to the car park....yup deffo the way to go 😁

[Tatts]

Has anyone else witnessed the horrendous queues when returning Hire cars to the Airport at peak times, leave plenty of time to check in

[Archer]

Start of the school holiday: Last night the queues for the hire desks stretched right across the arrivals hall and along by the cafe. A very long wait for some! 

[jaynek65]

And it's for that reason why we only ever use Auto Plus Car as you just leave the car in the car park opposite departures, put the key and car park ticket under the mat and go...no queueing, no checks for scratches/dents, just park, unload cases, and go...simple as :-)