Goldcar in Faro

Good value car rental. Quick and easy at pick-up and drop-off. I use Goldcar often and has always been good.

Everything went smoothly as always. I was greeted by a very pleasant young lady, who was very professional and helpful. Picking up and dropping off the vehicle was quick and efficient, thanks to the staff on hand. I honestly cannot fault Goldcar and I will continue to use this service as well as recommend them to friends and family. Recommended to everyone really. A++++

Second time using Faro Goldcar. Booked direct with Goldcar, opted for an Economy AA group vehicle since I was after value for money and didn't need anything big. 15 min wait at office and no hard sell on the extra insurance (I have an annual policy with a 3rd party for overseas car hire). Charged extra for the e-toll machine which I think might be refundable as we didn't use it (could be wrong on this). They did try to add and charge me for their 'smart return' service, told them to remove this which they did. I would advise not to rush when collecting the car and to take the time to understand what you're being charged for before leaving. The car we got was a tired Fiat 500. It was a former Eurocar vehicle and had clocked up 78k miles. Lots of small areas of external damage which were all marked on the inspection report. Not an issue for me as I wasn't looking for a pristine car. Drove OK for first few minutes and then amber warning lights started popping up related to stop/start, power steering, hill assist, and tyre monitor systems. I ignored them all for the 6 days, a couple of times power steering amber light went red and steering became heavy. For me this wasn't a problem but for other drivers I can see it being an issue. I mentioned the amber lights to the desk after returning vehicle and the response was "it's normal, you don't get a car without the amber lights for the price you pay". Fair enough I thought, the car got me everywhere I wanted to go so not an issue but worth keeping in mind when you hire an economy car from Goldcar. I would be ok using Goldcar again as they offer value for money and I'm familiar with the extras they and all hire car companies try and sell. Also familiar with their cars and know what to expect. Couldn't give them more than 3 stars given all the amber light issues despite the value for money.

To get the car meant standing in line for nearly 2 hours. When we received it... after paying all of the extra costs the car looked worn. The radio didn't work as the touch screen was faulty. The car drove ok. On the last day before flying home the car wouldn't start meaning missing flights and having to rebook those as well as the rest of the extra costs included. The worst part was being told that while a taxi could be arranged it would not carry sports equipment... meaning forking out another 180 euros for a private airport transfer. I can honestly say that I hope to never use this company again.

Car was filthy inside and out. The filth inside was not from a previous rental, it was caked in from months. The first car had a misfire and just the general condition was poor. The second car was still very dirty and a manual when I had originally ordered an automatic.

Overall I had a surprisingly great experience - goldcar has really attractive prices, easy and hassle-free pickup and return procedure and the very rare option to pay for everything with a debit card (which usually is a deal breaker for people who don't use credit cards, like me) I booked a compact class car for 6 days via goldcar website a week before renting it and chose the Key'n'go pack with all insurance options available. All I had to do at the airport was introduce the booking number, place the fuel/road toll deposit (~280 EUR in my case) and that's it, the machine just gives you the keys. The car return is even simpler - you park it, somebody checks whether the tank is full and that's it, you're good to go, no questions asked, no arguments about previously unidentified dents and scratches, you go away and receive a confirmation via email a few mins later I could choose between 2 available models and went for a pretty much brand new Kia Stonic with ~12k km on it - the car was not only in a great condition but also surprisingly well equipped (lane assist, apple car play, cruise control etc, seemed like the highest trim level available) I can see that most of the bad reviews are related to post - rental card charges and unexpected payments (which generally seem to be the main problem for large rental companies) but as the terms and conditions clearly state (I recommend spending 15 mins and reading all of them BTW, saves you a lot of trouble), most of them will not apply if you go for the best insurance option. So my recommendation - either read the terms and take the risk of paying whatever the insurance excess is for whatever you or somebody else does to the car while you're renting it or pay some more for key'n'go and don't worry about anything As for negative points - I couldnt log into the goldcar app despite trying multiple times. Also, I couldn't find any specific estimate of how high the fuel/road toll deposit is going to be and I found that out right before paying it while collecting the keys - not a big deal, but something that I think could easily be improved on. Also, Kia Stonic is technically a small city crossover (noticeably smaller than an Astra/Focus that the website was defining as compact class), but I'll give it a pass since it was practically brand new (the interior still smelled like they do at dealerships) By the way I received the full deposit refund 2 days after finishing the rental and my debit card was charged for the via verde tolls 1 day after (with the charge list breakdown sent via email), so even that was super fast and transparent So yeah that's it, if you want to rent a car here just get the key'n'go with full insurance pack and you should have a problem-free rental like I did, I also received a discount coupon so next time I'll visit Faro I think I'll know where to go :)

DO NOT RENT YOUR CAR HERE When we picked up our car, the lady at the desk first wanted to sell us an extra insurance (even when we repeatedly told her we already had an insurance). When we finally got to our car, we received a wreck. The car was severely damaged, with dents and scratches everywhere (even on the roof!). The boy accompanying us to the car remained silent (we think he did not speak any English). After repeatedly asking him to speak to someone, he took us back to the desk. This is where the nightmare happened. The lady at the desk was extremely rude and started cussing us out in Portuguese to her colleagues. She did not want to listen to us, nor did her colleagues. Eventually she answered saying that 'it is a rental car, show me a car on the lot with no damage and you can take it'. Talk about good publicity... After asking the same questions five times, she finally asked another employee to accompany us to our car to write down all the damage the car had. Save yourself the trouble and book at another agency. Cheaper is not always the best choice. (The photos are only a fraction of all the damage we found on the car)

Good value just be prepared for the large deposit if you don't (or wasn't by mistake like me I forgot) want to pay like different insurance. I was happy. The staff was very helpful as my card didn't work from the beginning and I started packing due to the fact it was late, like very very late and I definitely needed to get to my hotel somehow, which was a +1 hour drive or a little longer. I'm going again now. So that experience was in 2 months ago, and I picked this one again despite the fact for the last many years I used different rental services