Reliable and reasonable car rental companies in the area!

Centaur have a well earned good reputation. Avoid Gold Car who also trade under another name but I'm afraid I've forgotten what it is. 

Agree - Centauro are good and avoid Goldcar & Interrent.

Thanks for filling in the blanks & the spelling of Centauro. I had a feeling I got it wrong.Family members have used them and found them v reliable.

Unfortunately, a) like a lot of goods and services, COVID has pushed prices up; b) as with most things in life, you get what you pay for. Headline prices offering cars for as little as €2/day often conceal a whole raft of other charges that can result in a lot more cost and a lot more grief than if you'd stumped up the mainstream cost in the first place. As implied in other messages, you can either stick with Centauro, the largest Spanish company, or go with the usual internationally recognised firms. Searching on Google will almost always result in broker websites appearing at the top with attractive/too good to be true prices. Be aware that these sites don't generally vet the companies who advertise on them. As a result, some of the more dodgy companies are to be found at the top of these lists. If you want to chance the cheap end of the market, you may get a good deal, but as a visitor, you're more likely to be seen as a cash-cow ripe for milking. If going down this route, watch out for:

- vehicles turning up late or not at all;

- an upgraded vehicle that you didn't ask for, but which they charge you the difference for 

- excessively large deposits, some of which you may not get back, or may have to battle for months to recover;

- phantom damage to the vehicle, especially if you don't opt for their extra damage insurance policies - one of their best money spinners. 

- you can take out specialist insurance with a UK company before you arrive and for a fraction of the cost, but if you do this, be prepared for a battle, because those hire companies hate that and will go to extreme lengths to negate the coverage of your UK policy or make out that your policy is invalid for the purpose of hiring their vehicles 

- always remember, in the case of ANY dispute, it's their vehicle; and you're a long way from home.

HTH

Forgot to add that, if you do decide to take out additional damage insurance, and you find a vehicle through a brokerage website, make sure that you take the insurance policy out DIRECTLY with the car hire company, and NOT with the broker site - otherwise, there's a fair chance that you'll end up paying twice. Everyone's got an angle to make as much money out of this business as possible. 

If you intend hiring cars on a regular basis you would be better looking at purchasing excess insurance online in the UK.

An annual policy might only cost you £70.

An example here

https://www.insurance4carhire.com/product-options

My family have booked with La Manga Car Rental. So many of the big companies take very large credit card deposits. 

Hi,

we are in the process of buying our holiday home in Composol, so far we have found either flying into Alicante the rental rates are significantly cheaper, or alternatively with good notice we have found Ok Rental at RMU airport to be reasonable, having driven in Europe for many years I have never bothered getting the non excess insurance either with the hire company or getting an excess insurance as both are extremely expensive for what is a very small chance of needing to claim, over the years I have saved over €20000 so if I ever do have to lose the excess I have already saved drastically more and to be honest you need to be very forthright with them when bringing the car back to ensure that you are not taken advantage of on the return conditions 

have used Goldcar, Interent and Centauro many times without any fuss at all you just need to be careful on the overzealous returns person 

Lee

sorry also forgot to mention car hire brokers, try Carjet or justdospain as they do get some very cheap hire deals, I hired a car through Carjet for €9.60 for a week with full insurance