elf618

Avis at jnb airport charged our entire reservation a second time on the following months' credit card bill. Credit card company resolved it after a few months. I suspect it could happen anywhere but always save your documentation.

kraftdinner_

Do any companies in JNB rent GPS with their cars? I just had a quick look at the Hertz JNB website for a dummy booking and NeverLost didn't come up as an option...

johan rebel

I completely gave up on Avis and Europcar in SA many years ago, and now only use Hertz. I don't base my choice on rates, but on the quality of service. The former two have failed me a couple of times too many, whereas Hertz have always provided excellent service, and have gone out of their way to resolve problems. It maybe helps that I almost always rent from the same little two-man Hertz office, where I of course know both of them personally by now.

Johan

elf618

avis did have some kind of GPS that we rented by the day with our car

CBear

I'm not sure if they still do, but all the rental companies I've used so required a deposit authorization on my credit card. I can't remember the amount. R5 000?

Cheetah_SA

I once booked a car from National at MQP. To my surprise the full rental amount was immediately charged to my credit card even though this was a flexible booking. It freaked me out a bit as I have never had this happen before. Even worse, there was no way to cancel the booking on line and I had to call their offices to get it cancelled.

Turns out they are a franchise operation using their own dodgy practices even though the booking was done on the National web site. Took ages to get the refund. Wouldn't touch them again.

Buddy Eleazer

Avis in JNB definitely has GPS. I've always had good pricing from them in South Africa.

Time traveller

Hertz in Cape Town is franchised and not corporate. So even if you have Hertz Gold or 5 star or whatever status, it takes a long time to pick up the car as they will ask for your drivers license, passport, hotel you are staying at and automatically add all the insurance options, essentially doubling your rental rate and then add an extra day to your rental. They will manually enter all this information into the computer and it can take a good 20-30 minutes, especially if you ask them to take off all the excess insurance coverage they automatically added and remove the extra day they added as well.

skaya

Had to pay a daily charge for GPS renting from Sixt in Joburg. Both airport and Sandton location had this.

We chose Sixt as they had less stricter restrictions on taking car to neighbor countries.

iahphx

Well, I just had a couple of not entirely satisfactory car rental experiences in South Africa. As discussed above, for my first rental, I used Auto Europe to "beat" the published rates, and got a reservation though them with Hertz.

The Hertz pick-up at the CPT airport was relatively speedy. But the car they gave me as a small automatic was terrible. It was a VW Polo, and the worst car I've rented anywhere in the world in years. It didn't have much power, the engine light often came on, the air conditioner would sometimes stop working, and it didn't always start easily. Several times I thought about returning it, but it wasn't so easy for me to do that, so I limped along with the vehicle.

Upon rental, they did take some sort of deposit (about US$120) and the charge appeared on my credit card. A few days after I returned it, I got the money back, less about $5. They apparently crammed some more fuel into the car and charged me for it.

After that rental, I looked forward to trying Europcar (via a self-booked National USA reservation) at JNB. Picking up that car there was a nightmare. The staff was very, very slow, and the line was long. And then they insisted on charging me for insurance, even though my National rez clearly stated the insurance was included. I said, "fine, I'll use my credit card CDW instead." They wouldn't accept that, though, "without a letter from my bank." At that point, I demanded to speak to the manager. The agent eventually found the manager, and they decided that, yes, my rate DID include insurance! We'll see what I'm eventually charged for the rental, though as, so far, nothing has been billed.

Despite the hassle, Europcar gave me a nice vehicle: an almost brand new, very fancy Honda Civic, probably worth at least 50% more than the Polo. But when I turned on the engine, the car was only half full with gas. I had to drive the vehicle with one of their employees to a fuel depo (about 3 km away) and refuel. Overall, a very strange rental.

Given the strange rental practices in S. Africa, I'll probably go with Auto Europe's "beat rate" the next time to avoid a counter argument over insurance and such. And if the billing is wrong, perhaps I'd have someone to help get it sorted out.

EDIT: Europcar charged us the agreed-upon-rate.

johan rebel

Here is a story on how traffic cops rip-off tourists leaving JNB in their rental cars, demanding payment for traffic offenses they did not commit.

Welcome to South Africa!

Johan

iahphx

Some of the comments to that story are particularly alarming.

The only time I've had that happen to me was in the '90s in the Czech Republic. At a major intersection on the way to Germany, the police pulled over every car with German plates and claimed they didn't come to a complete stop at the end of an exit ramp. I had German plates and was stopped, and required to pay an on-the-spot fine. We made a big deal about it -- and became instant champions to the Germans who were also being pulled over -- but in the end our choice was pay or (apparently) be taken away by the police.

My wife still dislikes the Czechs to this day. There's something awful about being subject to police corruption.

johan rebel

I also know of people who have paid the bribe, only to find upon return home that the rental company has paid an admission-of-guilt fine and debited their card. The cops know that rental companies will not contest fines, but simply pass the buck to their customers, most of whom are already back home. The cops therefore hit the tourists for a bribe, and then please their bosses by issuing a regular fine as well.

Johan

AirD0c

Does anyone have any recent experiences renting cars in South Africa? My wife and I will be driving from Cape Town to Durban, including a brief stay on the wild coast with reportedly poor road conditions. I was told, however, that SUV would not be necessary so looking a standard compact car.

I'm getting the best rates with Europcar, followed by Avis and then Hertz, so leaning Europcar at this point.

Finally, regarding GPS, I plan on getting a local sim card for an unlocked iPhone 5 when arrive. This seems reasonable. Has anyone relied on using a smartphone for directions? Would it be better to pay for an actual GPS device?

Many thanks!

Roger

IMO a separate GPS advice is unnecessary. Outside the cities, there's rarely more than one road to navigate.

In February/March, I used CoPilot https://copilotgps.com/us/personal/ in my Android phone with optional voice directions. This worked well in Western Cape and would work well all over SA, I think. Once downloaded, no data connection is required.

I have also used it in California, Nevada, Switzerland and the UK and like it (though the pronunciation of Swiss street names left something to be desired). On a long-ish journey, e.g. LA to Las Vegas, my battery ran out, so it's important to have a full charge.