Car hire Cape town

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Hi, I want to hire a car for a week in Cape town. A cheap car will do, like a Sandero. I have heard that some hiring places take a deposit, Is that like "damage responsibility". Friends of mine went down for a weekend, only to find R15000 taken of their account for some deposit.
Thank you.
 
Or just use Avis. Not the cheapest, but no mad deposits and general transparency..
 
Thrifty or Budget.

Deposit is about R1000-R1500 most of which is paid back if you deliver it with a full tank.
 
Disclaimer: I've never hired a car. I need to go to PE and won't have anybody to pick me up so I need to hire a car - I would have used Uber if I didn't have to play taxi myself.

vigras rojara said:
Or just use Avis. Not the cheapest, but no mad deposits and general transparency..
Click to expand...
I've been looking at Avis, I don't see any mention of a deposit anywhere?
 
YingYang said:
Disclaimer: I've never hired a car. I need to go to PE and won't have anybody to pick me up so I need to hire a car - I would have used Uber if I didn't have to play taxi myself.

I've been looking at Avis, I don't see any mention of a deposit anywhere?
Click to expand...

AVIS does put an authorisation hold on your credit card.
 
kripstoe said:
AVIS does put an authorisation hold on your credit card.
Click to expand...
I suppose the amount depends on the value of the car you're hiring? I have this habit of only leaving my money in my savings account and only moving money into my cheque account if and when needed. So I'd just like to get an idea of how much I need to move.
 
YingYang said:
I suppose the amount depends on the value of the car you're hiring? I have this habit of only leaving my money in my savings account and only moving money into my cheque account if and when needed. So I'd just like to get an idea of how much I need to move.
Click to expand...
Considering your particular.... demographic, you will probably have to pay extra.

Best way is to call them and find out. The main reason I got a credit card was for car hire
 
Relations from France used Carisma a few years back. Ordered a Audi A4 or BMWX3 and paid €1800 deposit

First problem was that car was not at the airport as agreed (flight was on time)
When car came, it was a Toyota Tazz. A phone call to Carisma got the reply "take it or leave it"
So they drove to Plumstead and returned it. Turns out that Carisma have no Audi or BMW cars. Manager was unapologetic and seemed unaware that he had taken their money on false pretences

They got a BMW X3 from SLV car hire. SLV delivered the car to the hotel

It took over a year to get a partial refund from Carisma. The excuses presented for not refunding were "no petrol", "car dirty", "excessive distance travelled", "missing spare and tools". The car had been driven from the airport to Plumstead, some 16km over one hour.

This person is a top surgeon in a Paris clinic and not used to being treated shoddily. I understand the French Consulate wrote a letter of complaint to Carisma
 
I have never in my life heard of Carisma and wonder how on earth someone in France would even find them?

Looking at their utterly **** website now I wonder why anyone would have opted to do business with them?

Google Maps references as laughable in that they expect you to wash the car before returning it, or charge you for it otherwise. Extra funny that all the 5-star ratings are obviously fake and done by anonymous people while the real users are 1-3 stars.

What a joke.

But in fairness why would anyone rent a car that needs to be delivered to the airport...instead of taking one from the airport and returning it there afterwards?

Their website doesn't list or even attempt to make false pretenses of BMW's and Audis though so I can only think that there was a third party involved here that did the swindling.
 
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YingYang said:
Disclaimer: I've never hired a car. I need to go to PE and won't have anybody to pick me up so I need to hire a car - I would have used Uber if I didn't have to play taxi myself.

I've been looking at Avis, I don't see any mention of a deposit anywhere?
Click to expand...

It's at the bottom of the booking details.
From a recent rental:
Capture.JPG
 
Here's from someone who rents from Budget about once a month in PE. Rather book with them although also owned by Avis - they're cheaper.
The average hold they put on a credit card is between R1600 and R2000 - group B to group P.
This is refunded about 2 days after rental return.
 
Robertvv said:
Hi, I want to hire a car for a week in Cape town. A cheap car will do, like a Sandero. I have heard that some hiring places take a deposit, Is that like "damage responsibility". Friends of mine went down for a weekend, only to find R15000 taken of their account for some deposit. Thank you.
Click to expand...

Try Tempest Car Hire - I hired a Tata Bolt from them in Durban for a weekend last July and the total cost was around R 650 - excluding petrol used.

The deposit was reasonable - around R 4,000 or so - and was refunded within 48 hours of me returning the car, as there is a separate link on their booking page to download a refund form to fill in and hand in to them, if you are paying with a debit card.

Website: https://www.tempestcarhire.co.za/

Debit Card refund form: http://www.tempestcarhire.co.za/Assets/pdf/Debit Card Refund.pdf

Rental of a Tata Bolt (Group A) for a week - I used 21 to 27 Jan as a guide:

R 5151.00 - Deposit required

R 1,847.58 - Super Waiver (200 KMs free per day) or

R 2,191.20 - Super Waiver (unlimited kms)

R 73.00 - Document Admin Fee

R 231.00 Tyre & Windscreen Cover - @ R 33.00 per day (optional charge)

Its a MUCH better specification car than the ****box Polo Vivo's, Renault Kwid or Datsun Go cars that the other hire companies try & fob off on you.

:whistle:
 
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