Thrifty Car Rental (Aeroporto da Madeira)

I have to admit that I was really worried about renting a car on Madeira from ANY company as all of them are rated between around 1-2 stars here. However, my rental through Ryanair Car Hire (built on top of RentalCars.com) went pretty flawless and I had driven the car for 14 days. The ladies at the airport desk were extremely nice. I got a free upgrade from segment B to segment C+. The deposit was exactly like expected (over 1000 euro for a car and less than 100 euro for fuel). The deposit was returned super fast after returning the car (less than 24 hours). The car itself was pretty cool for a non-premium brand. By booking under 'Thrifty' label I got a one year old turboed kombi car, which was with 'Hertz' labels. You just need to be careful about noting any single scratch on the car BEFORE you pick it up. Then, you have to be careful not to hit anything on the road... And you're good :) I mean, really, these all negative comments about literally any car rental on Madeira seem to be written by competing companies.

Booked through Expedia for fixed price. When we arrived we were told we had to pay an extra 36 euro for an upgrade as they did not have the car. Given no choices. Poor service.

Its a scam !! They charged full cover insurance plus daily charges and when you try to collect the car still a big surprise €1.500 as deposit. I had rental car in many countries and never been through such a fee like this one €1.500 at the end lost £100 no refundable as the guy blame the website car rentals.

They do not answer when you have inquiries about previous bills.

ATTENTION - ABZOCKE It is everywhere trying to generate a little more income We were advised to purchase the fuel from Thrifty because there is no VAT on it. I have recalculated and it is true - BUT: it is not the remaining tank contents zurückvergütet - that is, the gasoline in the tank goes to Thrifty (it is charged a FULL tank), so better FILL TANK - or completely empty. Only the advantage with the VAT was sold - from the fact that the remaining quantity in the tank at Thrifty goes nothing was mentioned !!! In addition, how often we tried to sell insurance, which we already had much cheaper from our agent.