Due to the desire of entrepreneurs to make money on every customer, faulty cars end up in rental fleets. Such sad auto news were provided to travelers by experts from the German automobile club ADAC. Before the start of the holiday season, they tested rental cars and came to disappointing conclusions: only half of the offices earned a positive rating, and every fourth rental car had serious technical problems.
The 'Yellow Angels' (as the employees of this technical service are called because of the color of their uniforms and special vehicles) checked more than 60 large firms from six countries that experience a significant influx of tourists in the summer: France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and Cyprus. German experts incognito rented cars and then checked their technical condition. At each center, the 'angels' took one car for testing. The reliability of the vehicle accounted for 70% of the rating. The remaining 30% was determined by the quality of service and the terms of the contract. As a result, each center and car received a rating: 'very good', 'good', 'average', 'doubtful', and 'unsatisfactory'.
For their tests, they chose the most popular cars in Europe. Among them were the Renault Clio, Peugeot 206, Mitsubishi Pajero, Hyundai Getz, Ford Fiesta, Suzuki Vitara, Opel Astra. Approximately one-sixth were SUVs. And about equally medium-sized sedans and subcompacts. Most examples had a mileage of 31,000 km and were manufactured in 2005-2006. Although some had a mileage of only 2,000-6,000 km, this did not guarantee them successful testing.
Among the cars deemed faulty, about 70% had minimal mileage. Moreover, 26 broken cars were less than a year old. Most often (in 10 out of these 26), problems were found in the steering and chassis. The weak point for most test participants, regardless of age and mileage, were the wheels, rims, and tires.
Notably, the weakest category of cars turned out to be SUVs. Experts tested nine jeeps and deemed the technical condition of most of them 'unsatisfactory' (five cars) or 'doubtful' (another three).
However, while among new cars there is still a chance of finding a working one, old cars leave virtually no hope in this regard. Most cars rated 'unsatisfactory' are approaching ten years of age, with mileage nearing 100,000 km. However, similarly, among cars that received a 'very good' rating, all were from 2006 and had only 5,000-10,000 km on the clock.
Experts deemed cars from French and Italian rental offices the most reliable. In each of these countries, only one offending 'four-wheeler' was found. In Cyprus and Spain, almost half of the rental cars were rated 'average'. The worst performers were rental cars in Greece and Turkey. There, nearly two-thirds of the cars failed the test.
The inspection also revealed that 16 car rental companies do not provide child seats to their clients at all, and at one office, they asked for an additional €46 per day for one. Experts note that in some cases, even after lengthy inquiries, they could not find out whether the car was insured or not. The confusion of rental contracts at many firms also caused dissatisfaction: most documents were drawn up only in the local language.
The worst result was shown by a company from Turkey. An eight-year-old Suzuki Samurai rented there was in extremely poor condition, and the rental contract was confusing and contradictory. The winners were the Avis center in Ibiza and the Volkswagen Polo they rented out. According to Gazeta.Ru, the experts were satisfied with both the technical condition of the car and the quality of customer service at the salon.