Car Rental fuel policies
 

I read somewhere that you had to be careful with fuel polices when renting a car. Full/full seems to be the best option, but I notice that the current trend is full/empty. Which means that unless you are travelling around the island a lot the rental company "gains" the used fuel and which is not insignificant.

Which companies offer a full/full option?

The blue-chip international operators, eg Avis, Europcar etc all use a full to full policy. They generally tend to have the newest cars, and choose good-mid-spec models.

There are a number of Spanish operators, such as Goldcar and Centauro who have a presence at the airport, and they usually operate on the basis that you have to buy a tank of fuel from them as part of the rental. The rental prices are usually cheaper, but they can gain from the fact that the fuel is priced at a premium, and in many cases, most people will not have time to use all the fuel that they have paid for. Certainly few holidaymakers will risk returning to the airport on fumes.

Keep a close eye on the insurance product too - What they call CDW may still leave you with a big excess to pay, and they make an additional charge to reduce this further. Often these little things are not mentioned, and can add quite a bit to the price.

A good local operator who doesn't have an office at the airport, but offers a meet and greet service is Vanrell. They don't fill the car, so you may have to stop when leaving the airport to top-up, but they just tell you to put in the fuel you need. As long as the car comes back with the same, or more than it went out with, they are happy.

I have used all of the companies above. I personally really like Avis, but they are a little more expensive. Vanrell is a good company, and although the cars may be upto a couple of years old, they have a good reputation, and are well-priced. They have an office in Alcudia, so if you have a problem with the car and it needs to be changed, you don't have to drive to the airport and back to get it sorted.

Villaparade have used Vanrell for a couple of years, after they stopped using Goldcar. They have a lot of customers in and around PP, so I think that is a good sign.

We use sixt and always happy with them , they have a full / full policy and if you book far enough in advance great prices , we have 15 days in July for €320 ( we did book months ago ) . We also have insurance4carhire insurance to cover the expensive extra supplements they like you to have to protect tyres windows etc , it only costs £39.99 a year for multiple trips so a much cheaper option than the extra 5 euros a day or so the car hire companies like you to take out .