In the past, when you picked up your hire car, it would typically come with a full tank of petrol and had to be returned full. If it wasn’t, you’d cover the cost of the missing fuel, usually at a higher rate than at the pumps.
Then hire companies realised they could make more money by being creative with fuel policies. Some provided full tanks, which had to be paid for in advance, and then required the car to be returned empty — but cars tend not to like running on empty. Many do not offer refunds on unused fuel.
The fuel policies of the Spanish outfit Goldcar have annoyed several Travel readers. (I tackled its dubious approach to excess insurance on February 1.)
Goldcar offers two systems: Quick and Classic Return. With both, cars come with a full tank. With Quick Return, the car can be returned empty and the renter receives a refund for any remaining fuel, minus a service fee of up to €54 (£39). With Classic Return, the renter has to leave a deposit on their credit card. If the car is not returned full, the renter is charged for topping up, plus an additional €40.
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Another twist is that Goldcar calculates the cost of fuel using the average cost of the cheapest and most expensive rates in the local area, even though it presumably gets a much better deal for buying fuel in bulk than the typical individual renter.
Reader Alan Baxter says he hired a Fiat 500 through Goldcar at Pisa airport and was charged a deposit of €130 to buy a 50-litre tank of diesel — €2.60 a litre. At the time, the average price in the area was about €1.60.
Some readers tell me the company is quick to declare that a car is not full. Phil Burton, from Stockport, filled up his Goldcar rental car with petrol less than four miles from Venice’s Marco Polo airport. Phil says: “When I gave the car back to the Goldcar staff member, he sat in the car, switched on the ignition and stated, without waiting a second, that the car was not full and I would have to pay a refuelling charge.”
Phil took matters into his own hands. “I took the keys off him, went into the airport building, and at the car-hire counter addressed everyone in a VERY loud voice in Italian, saying they were crooks. A few customers walked away.”
After this, another member of staff declared that the car had a “faulty fuel gauge”, so Phil avoided paying the charge.
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This is in contrast to the fair-fuel policies introduced by some companies to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. Avis now allows renters to buy a full tank at a discounted price. We’d also recommend Alamo and Enterprise’s policies. The search engine moneymaxim.co.uk has a fair-fuel filter, and at skyscanner.net, you can filter by companies that offer full-to-full policies.
I have some good news for Alan and Phil. A company called Investindustrial has bought a majority stake in Goldcar. A spokesman has told me that it plans to revise the company’s fuel policies in order to address such complaints.