Hi everyone, we're going on a family holiday to Gold Coast with our 6 year old, and we're looking at our options for car hire.
It looks like the cheaper car hire options aren't based at the airport, and we need to get a shuttle bus to their car lot. The one we're looking at said it could take up to 20mins just for the shuttle bus to arrive for pick up.
Has anyone had experience with these budget operators and whether it's worth the time spent waiting for their shuttle bus and travelling?
Ring them when you arrive. Never had any issues.
1: pay premium prices at the airport and drive away
2: pay cheaper prices and drive a short distance from the airport
Both options involve leaving the airport in a vehicle of some kind so why not just relax, get the cheaper car and save your money for the GC and its rip off food and drink prices.
It's really not going to add that much more time onto your trip. It might be in the direction you have to go anyway
Think you have food and drink prices mixed up with Byron Bay
Have you considered Uber Carshare? Get $200 off your first trip with code UCS134. There are some cars walkable distance from OOL
THIS.
Very strongly suggest you try Uber Carshare. I used Carnextdoor for a similary trip and came off much cheaper.
The car rental that came the cheapest was https://www.eastcoastcarrentals.com.au/
I used them at Melbourne and yes using shuttle does add to the time but apart from that there was no hassle.
Very interesting. How does insurance work?
I've got free car rental insurance with AMEX but does it cover this kind of thing?
The thing with credit card insurance cover is they usually have a policy excess, in contrast to the stand-alone rental car excess cover (and some domestic travel cover) that allow zero excess. As you get billed the excess straight up regardless of whether you're at fault, I always prefer to buy it out so I don't have to cash flow that amount until I can recover it (in cases where I'm not at fault)
They are fine. You call them and if they don't have a van on the way already, they send one. 20 mins isn't long.
i went last year and these guys were buy far the cheapest https://www.familycarrentals.com.au/
i arrived after hours so they left the car in the carpark for me.
when it was time to return they shuttle bussed me back to the airport
they also had very good customer service i 100% recommend.
ps. you mentioned you have a child. the boosters are also free
Nrma members get a discount with Sixt
Has anyone had experience with these budget operators and whether it's worth the time spent waiting for their shuttle bus and travelling?
Only you can answer that question. If you fly often, you'd know that 20 mins is a wash in the scheme of things.
Do not use bargaincar rentals. They are based out of the airport at tweed heads and are a bait switch operation. Claim to use new cars, but I was given a 7 year old hyundai with 200K on the clock. I used Alamo from Coolangatta airport in January and they were fine.
You're 100% correct. I had the same issue at the end of April when I hired a car with them.
However, the car dis what it needed to in my case so even though it had 140,000kms on it, the only issue I had was that the tank was not full when I picked up the car.
Other than that it was fine for what I needed. Certainly nothing fantastic but I could deal with it for the price I paid.
However, I would NOT use Bargain car rental if I was taking family or children with me!
I'm looking at heading up to the Gold Coast again soon, do you know of a better place to rent a car from at that sort of price?
Sorry only just saw this. I used Alamo who are in the terminal and the cars are in the parking lot out the front. They are in the same desk area as National. Use Alamo if i rent a car in the USA and never had an issue.
Apex car rentals… right across the rd from the airport no need for a shuttle as you can easily walk there.. they arent on airport grounds so you dont pay extra taxes…used them several times.. too easy.
hey i am going this week to gold coat, can you share your experience and I am also looking for the same thing
I went with Apex car rentals. But they're not across the road like nekro said. It was a 10 min shuttle ride to the car lot north of the airport.
Our flight was delayed by 6 hours, and was scheduled to land 15 mins before 5pm. Apex was well aware of this and called us to make sure we went straight to the pick up spot and warned us that if we didn't we'd be stranded.
Turns out a lot of flights were late that day and when we got to the pick up point there were plenty of others waiting too. We got picked up at around 5:30pm and when we got to the car lot, the cars and paperwork were all prepped, took us 5 mins to sign and get in the car.
Even though we booked for 4.5 days (which is supposed to cost 5 days), they only charged us for 4 days due to the flight delay.
We got a Toyota corolla, and it was new and clean. Very nice car, and fuel efficient. Fuel efficiency was 4L/100km for the whole 4 days.
Returning the car was easy and quick too. Got the last shuttle to the airport.
Highly recommend.
Avoid MG car and if you get it ensure you check that car is maintained well since the rental company has major issues with this car.
I had serious safety issues while driving MG3 and the budget rental car company just did not care, hence I stop using them and was happy to pay a little extra for peace of mind.
Even though you book another brand than MG, when you go for rental they mentioned that you book the class of the car and not the car brand and you are in the situation of either you take it or leaving it (forfeiting your advance paid upfront at the time of booking).
Best avoid cheap rental companies for peace of mind.
Not much you can do, during covid only mg managed to pump out enough stock so most rental companies had to accept with what they got. You pretty much see a third to half of the fleet is MG at big chain like avis/budget, thrifty and hertz. Things improved a little bit now but expect mg to be dominant at rental in the next few years.
The only place that surprised me was Uluru last year with almost all new fleet are spanking new RAV4, probably they are the only place that can afford given their rental rates there.
I just cancelled my booking with Bargain car rentals because I called and asked what car I'd be getting this time and I was told it would be similar to the last car I rented from them, high mileage and approximately 5-7 years old.
Checked around for pricing and found a great deal with Apex. I called them in regards to their cars and if I could book over the phone. I found out that their cars were quite new and low mileage, the opposite to Bargain.
Unfortunately I couldn't book over the phone but they were very friendly and offered to guide me through everything online and gave me plenty of information.
The total price of the car and full insurance ended up being cheaper at Apex with their online deal, including upgrading from a compact to intermediate, than what I had booked it for at Bargain.
I was just lucky that I was able to cancel my old booking for free because the trip is still a month or so away.
If the experience is as easy as the booking, which it sounds like it could be, then I'll be extremely happy!
Closest one is a couple of k’s north up the highway.