Goldcar Portugal Reviews 

Never again. I booked a car through a partner of Goldcar with premium insurance. When I arrived at the pick up location they (Goldcar) told me that the insurance I bought wasn’t applicable on the island. So I had the option of paying +- €1500 coverage fee or take an extra insurance of €285 (the car rental was €160 in total). A pure scam in my opinion. Won’t recommend it at all

Never book a car with Goldcar.
When we arrived at the Porto branch, it turned out that the car we had reserved wasn’t available (apparently this is completely normal for this company). So we had to rent a different car and pay for an expensive insurance. The replacement car had over 100,000 km on the odometer. After just one day, the engine warning light came on and the car barely had any power.
At that point, we were in the Douro Valley, quite far from Porto. They sent a tow truck, but made us wait for hours for a taxi back to Porto to pick up another car. They couldn’t even bring a replacement vehicle to us on site.
We lost an entire day of our holiday.
Total scam.

We have used Goldcar several times, purely because they tend to be the cheapest on-site car rental company, but the last 3 or 4 times have been bad experiences

Things that have happened are:

1. We were offered a reduced upgrade. Both times we declined we were given the keys to the most awful cars, high mileage, lots of damage, dirty and smelly

2. We take out our own excess insurance, much cheaper, but the last 4 times we have explained this we were aggressively told it was not good enough and strongly advised to take out their policy. They didn't look at my policy, so how would they know

3. Tolls in the Algarve are switched off. However, you must, by law take the transponder, should you ever venture out of the Algarve

4. The last two times, we have been presented for repair bills, even though the damage was already there. I have tried to explain this, but because I did not take photo's of every single damage, plus, all damage supposedly already recorded, I have to prove I did not cause the damage. I know I can challenge but a previous experience shows me I will not win and they take payment in advance so it's up to me to get it back

4. I once made the mistake of returning empty, not realising, no matter how much fuel is left (3/4's of a tank), you have to pay for a full tank, at premium, not forecourt rates. 92 EURO's for a Fiat 500

Exactly same as Tracey. Goldcar invent damage and advise you weeks after the return despite saying everything is ok.
Without any proof you caused damage they take money from your credit cart. THEFT??
Despite so many emails asking to see proof (if I caused it I will pay!) their standard response is ‘we have reviewed the evidence and you are liable’!! But don’t send you proof.
I WILL NEVER EVER EVER RENT FROM THIS COMPANY AGAIN, I ADVISE TOU NOT TO EITHER. TTOO MANY PEOPLE REPORTING THIS ISSUE FOR IT NOT TO BE A COMPANY ENDORSED PRACTICE.

Picked up car from Faro airport for Easter holidays. Very scratched and bumped but we accepted that hire cars don’t get the best treatment. Car broke down after 3 days and although the car was picked up promptly, we had to go via taxi back to Faro airport (at Goldcar’s expense) to pick up a different car. Most inconvenient and they ripped us off for the petrol too. You’d think there wouldn’t have been any charge in the circumstances, never mind overcharging! The second car we were given was in even worse condition. The guy who handed over the car just gave it a cursory glance before giving us the keys. We took photos when picking up and dropping off car and even video’d the car on return, as it was out of hours. Received an email later that day confirming receipt and no charges incurred. THREE WEEKS LATER received further communications saying there was damage to the front bumper and we were being charged £83! Despite several emails over several days with photographic and video footage to disprove this, Goldcar said there was insufficient evidence and charged my credit card anyway. Absolutely disgraceful but frustratingly nothing you can do from a distance when they have your credit card details. Totally disgusted with this business and would never use again. HIGHLY DISCOURAGE ANYONE FROM USING GOLDCAR AT FARO AIRPORT based on our experience.

Big hassle at the desk, gave in and paid for an upgrade then they tried on the insurance, refused that eventually. First car they gave us covered in dents and scratches, carefully photographed everything, drove off - aircon didn't work. Brought it back had to go to the terminal, long process, got another car even more scratches and dents. took some photos but not enough it seems a month after returning it they produce a photo of a scratch on the bonnet and demand 155€ - turns out I didn't have a photo of the bonnet. Another fight by email.... Don't use this company, I won't ever use them again.

So 3 months after they fraudulently stole £111 from me for ‘damage’ on return of the most dented and scratched car you’ve ever seen ( I had full video & photo evidence to show them that the scratches they claim were there when I collected) but they don’t care about this. Anyway stupid mistake I used them again through a broker last month… this time ive done £350 damage 🤷‍♂️. Now they are refusing to respond. I’ve got the clearest evidence possible showing the damage again. Pretty unbelievable they keep getting away with this. I will be raising a dispute with my credit card provider when this leaves my account. And for good measure they won’t return the toll transponder deposit AGAIN. They are theives aswell as fraudsters. Please let everyone know about this company and get them shut down!!!!

Gave me an old car 100k miles. Full of scratches and bumps. Was overcharged on deposit. ( contract said 1200€, I was charged 1500€).
After few days engine light came on and I returned the car.
Can’t get my deposit back nor a cancellation of the contract.
Avoid this company at any cost!

Please avoid. Booked via ryanair. Car had scratches all over it with significant damage to area around back wheel. We named it el scratchio.

Red light came on for open door but no evidence of this so carried on. Next day we heard rattling from the boot so returned the car, we asked for no replacement as we had lost trust in gold car. Wish I could provide pictures.

Took insurance out with Ryanair, gold car wanted 1200 euro deposit which is ridiculous, I was lucky to have enough to cover it on my card or would've been forced to take Their insurance, I can't help be suspicious that's the reason they have such a ridiculous deposit.

Impossible to reach. They don't answer any email. The phone numbers on the voucher don't work or don't connect you through. When you make the complaint at the desk that the phone numbers don't work, they laugh at you and say you have to email at lis [at] goldcar.com. When you show them the 3 emails you sent at this address, they become quiet and ignore it.
They also refuse to give you a payment confirmation. On your bank statement, you suddenly see more money is taken than said. They also give you crappy cars. 100000km+ and damage all over. Impossible to check all damage in advance. In the end, they always find a new damage for which they charge 6x the amount it would cost to fix it. They don't even fix it, they just put the money in their bag. Unless ofcourse, you buy their expensive insurance.
This company needs to go bankrupt.

Do not use this company! I rented a car from this company. The car was full of dents and scratches and the back seat had stains on it.
The dents were marked and I didn't make much of the stains (looked like salt stains).
After delivering the car they tried to make me pay for "new" scratches that, after complaining, they realised that were old after all and are trying to charge me for "special cleaning" services to take care of the stains.
Going for legal course now and will never use their services again!
I should have seen Trustpilot reviews before renting!!

undocumented charges for damage and l

Car hire company will charge you for damage that is not on the car . I had photo evidence of the car and showed them and they said there was nothing they could do .
This is twice I’ve been charged from this company for false damage . AVIOD at all costs .
Left a google review and they told me to. Email them to resolve it - they never got back to that email either .
Avoid avoid avoid

At Gran Canaria desk to collect the car, the bald male employee tells me that the fuel tank is full and I will must return the car with an empty tank and that the cost is 28 euros (which will not be returned to me when they unblock my deposit). Instead, when I go back to the desk to return the car, the female employee tells me completely different things: I had the option of returning the car with a full tank of fuel and that 28 euros was just the cost of the tax (it would have been returned to me if I had returned the car with a full tank of fuel), instead the cost of the full tank of fuel is 72 euros (an absurd price considering that it was a Hyundai i10), so in the end they withhold 100 euros from the deposit due to their incorrect communication

Check in is just terrible at this desk! On rush hour it’s only a few people doing the check in! All people in the row waiting made a reservation, so you can plan the people who can help during rush hour. But no they let clients wait up to one and a half to two hours. Absolutely insane and absolutely unacceptable. Choose Hertz or Avis as their check in is much more efficient. However looking at the reviews here, which I should have been doing before, the don’t seem to care about their customers

Don't use Goldcar Lisbon. They let you wait intentionally and then hope people buy the "speedy" check in at their kiosk.

I waited for more than an hour with only 10 people in front of me and 6 people working at the desk, and otherrl rental agency helped their customers 8x as fast, literally. I timed it. DO NOT BOOK IF YOU WANT TO PICK UP WITHOUT GETTING FCKED IN THE S.

Liars, they spread false advertising. I live in England and I paid for the rental in advance, and when I arrived in Lisbon, I had to pay again, with nonsensical excuses. They "forced" me to take out insurance for almost 370 euros because they wanted to book it on my credit card, 1600 euros for a possible accident, which didn't happen with another company I rented from last time. Since the credit limit on my card was no longer enough, I was forced to pay the 370 euro insurance. The service at the counter was tiring, because for each customer the employee served, he would leave the place to smoke and have a coffee or whatever (if it's company policy, it's bad). People often arrive from a trip tired and want to hurry up and encounter this attitude from the employees. When I went to return the car, the inspector said that everything was fine and I had to sign the document agreeing, and then they sent me an email pointing out problems that there were no problems with the delivery. And on Booking.com, Goldcar Lisbon is rated as GOOD, but that's not true. In short, I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS COMPANY. I give one star because I can't give none.

Charged me twice on two different occasions, showing that they’re just looking for any reason to charge you for something. The picture they took of the scratch I allegedly caused was so feint it couldn’t even be seen on the pictures. First occasion was for damage to a tyre. Again, impossible to say that I ‘caused’ it - it’s a tyre!

There’s always a bit of risk when you’re promised a Renault Megane “or similar.” Unfortunately, we got the “similar.” And by “similar,” they apparently meant a DR5.0, which sounds more like a printer than a car.

We’d never heard of it, but it’s from China and rebadged in Italy.

To be fair, it looked okay and was surprisingly spacious. That’s where the compliments end and the comedy begins.

Despite only having 35k miles on the clock, it looked like it had been in a few scrapes, most probably previous holiday renters desperately reversing into walls in the hope of swapping it for literally anything else!

The rear door seals were flapping in the wind like party streamers.

Every time you approached it, it let out this ridiculous “futuristic” whooshing noise like a spaceship was landing—that kind of thing might impress you on a Tesla. On this Chinese box of bolts? Absolutely hysterical.

The engine performance was… well, I’ve seen electric scooters with more get-up-and-go. We had to drop to first gear just to climb mild inclines. At one point, a pensioner on a moped glared at us like we were holding him up.

Then we’d hit a power spot and it would let out a faint wheel screech followed by a strange noise coming from the engine area- kids bursting into to laughter and shouting ‘DAD THE BEAST FROM BEIJING IS FARTING AGAIN!’

On the motorway, we found ourselves in third gear just to avoid being swallowed whole by passing lorries - genuinely frightening given I could only see 2 airbags in the front, god knows about the rear?

But wait—it gets better! When going downhill, we somehow crept above 120 km/h and the car completely lost its mind. Alarms started blaring like we were about to launch into orbit. The car was basically saying, “STOP. TOO FAST. YOU’RE IN A DR5.0, NOT A DAMN JET.”

And the air conditioning? Let’s just say we were boiling in Spain in May. The AC had the strength of an asthmatic hamster blowing through a straw. I’ve had more refreshing gusts of wind from opening the fridge.

All in all, driving the DR5.0 was like being in a parody of a car rental commercial—except it wasn’t a joke, it was our actual holiday transport.

Goldcar you truly outdid it this time. 10/10 comedy value, -2/10 driving experience.

AVOID. Unhelpful and they will find anything to take your money. They forced their insurance on us and we said no as we had another one. They proceeded to treat us badly and charged us for a "damage windshield" upon return, the size of a tip of a pen. DO NOT USE.