The survey of car-rental offices in Mediterranean resorts also found that two in five vehicles did not have legally required registration documents. In 35% of cases, renters were not given a telephone number to call in an emergency.
The survey was conducted by EuroTest on behalf of 15 motoring organisations across Europe, including the AA. It examined 58 vehicles rented in popular resorts, including Bodrum in Turkey, Torremolinos in Spain, and Albufeira in Portugal.
Many of the worst offenders were local companies, but even multinational companies with good reputations were at fault. In the Turkish resort of Alanya, one Avis car was found to have a damaged tyre that left it unfit to drive, poor tyre pressure, a damaged spare tyre, no warning triangle or manual and an empty first-aid kit. It was rated “very poor” — the lowest category.
Avis said that all its cars are “equipped to the minimum legal standard required for each country”. It added that the incident in Alanya was an “unfortunate, isolated case”.
For details of each country’s road regulations, visit www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/overseas/index.html.