Barcelona-Valencia-Granada-Ronda-Seville-Madrid

The counter staff upgraded my car without my consent, doubling the rental cost. Extremely frustrating.

Our group of four booked a Touran seven-seater online, which was supposed to accommodate four large suitcases. The site showed that the car had seven seats, and the last two seats could be folded down to make more trunk space, which we believed would fit our four suitcases based on past experiences. However, Europcar only provided a Renault five-seater, claiming it could hold four suitcases. When we picked up the car, the staff saw the size of our luggage and we confirmed multiple times if it could fit four suitcases, but the trunk could not accommodate them. We went back to inquire, and they said our booking only included space for four hand luggage items, and that the Renault was in the same class as the car we booked. They suggested switching to a nine-seater Vito, which indeed could fit our luggage and was easier to drive, but this came with an additional fee of 340 euros per day, later reduced to 120 euros per day. We reluctantly accepted and switched to the Vito. After driving for half an hour, we realized the Vito was too large and hard to control, had no rearview camera or sensors, so we returned to request a seven-seater. We ended up with a five-seater Touran instead, which could barely fit our luggage and had no rearview display or sensors. The 120 euro daily fee was not refunded. When we returned the car on April 6, there was a fuel charge of 78 euros, claiming we didn't return the Vito with a full tank. We contested this as the staff didn't inform us about a full-to-full policy, and it was unreasonable to charge 78 euros for a one-hour drive. We drove the Touran for five days and over 1000 km, and refilling the tank near the airport cost only 45 euros. I have requested follow-up from the rental staff, and am very dissatisfied with Europcar.

Very convenient

1. Never trust after-hours car return arrangements. Europecar in Barcelona is extremely bad. More than 20 days after returning a car, they charged extra, claiming the air compressor was damaged. This is outrageous! How can internal damage after such a long time be blamed on the previous renter? Another car had scratches when picked up, which I reported and photographed. Still, I was charged for repairs. 2. QEEQ is powerless in disputes. Despite providing photos, evidence, and reasons, there is no result from QEEQ. All I got was to wait patiently. After more than a month, there's no progress. I decided to use insurance for the compensation. 3. Always get full insurance. Without it, European car rental companies will find excuses, and QEEQ is useless. There's no way to recover your losses.

We prepaid for the full amount, but due to a flight delay of over two hours, the rental company gave our reserved car to someone else. We had to wait at the airport for more than an hour, and the car they eventually provided was very dirty, with bird droppings on it.