CalAuto Group Reviews 

Awful service - rude approach and total neglect of clients' needs. They didn't deliver the car and stole my deposit. Never, NEVER book with Cal. Disgusting and pitiful experience in Israel (Ben Gurion airport station).

This car rental company is disgusting and disrespectful. The dollar you're saving by choosing them will cost you big time!
These are many examples for the poor Cal Auto experience we had and here are some highlights:

1. Even though I booked the car in advance (airport pickup), my whole family (5 of us) had to wait on airport benches next to their desk for 2.5 hours (after flying from Australia for 25 hours) with 10 other families. When you ask when the car will be ready, it's always "10 more minutes"... No one tells you the truth and the manager is hiding in his office behind...
2. On our second day, our car had mechanical issues (brakes felt funny). I called their customer service and they asked me to drive and service it in their main mechanic station in Hulon. Yes, they asked me to spent half a day of my vacation to service their car and couldn't understand why it's a problem. eventually, they towed it but I spent way too much time coordinating it all, swap cars (and kids car seats) and arguing that I'm not going to swap cars again after my car is serviced (they threatened me that I will need to pay almost double the original cost because I got an upgraded car).
3. The people in the help desk are rude, useless and has no customer service culture.

Be smart, don't choose Cal Auto for your Israel trip!

Do not go near, do not be tempted by the “low” prices, just stay away. This bunch are incompetent to say the least.
After using the same rental company in Israel for many years and being tired of their mediocre service, we decided to try Cal Auto. We will not repeat that mistake again.

1. We reserved a medium car at a price of 465.66 USD and that was confirmed in the reservation confirmation. When arrived to collect the car we were told that we are going to receive a bigger car (nice isn’t it?). But they also charged us an extra 30.00 USD. No other rental company behaves like that. Totally unacceptable

2. When we collected the keys, I asked whether I could pay in local currency upon returning the car. The answer was yes, and that the conversion rate will be the official Bank of Israel rate. However, when we returned the car, we were told that the conversion rate will be the “higher rate for cheques and transfers”. It should be noted that while there is only one official Bank of Israel rate, each bank in Israel has its own rate for cheques and transfers, or in other words Cal Auto can pick and choose whichever rate they like. Of course, we paid in USD.

3. When we reserved the car, we were told to go straight to the car park opposite terminal 3 to collect the keys. However, when we arrived, we were told to go back to the terminal building to the Cal Auto counter. The excuse “Those in Tel-Aviv (i.e. those who took the reservation) do not know how the Air Port branch operates, you should have called us directly”. Really?

4. We reported over the weekend that one of the number plates light is not working. I was told by the adviser that they are actually a “third party”, that they can’t help with such problems, and that I should call Cal Auto directly on a weekday.
So we did, and we were told that the problem will be fixed within three hours. After 3.5 hours when I haven’t heard anything, I called the call centre again and the excuse this time “The call was taken by a new adviser and he sent the call to the wrong place”.

5. On 7 Jan 2020 I sent a letter of complaint detailing the above, so far, as per 12 Feb, they have not bother to reply. Not that I expected any

A really nice rental company, isn’t it?

This is my FB Post from May 2019:

After seeing all the posts about the way you treat your cars and your customers, I feel grateful that I was able to get off lightly.

I collected my car from the airport on the 14/5. I got a Nissan Micra which was old and full of scratches and dents. It wasn't very clean either.

It was about 9pm when I collected the car, after a long day.

The collection desk is not where the car is, so the clerk got me to sign all the paperwork without me seeing the car. He didn't volunteer any information about the condition of the car and I had to insist that he would give me the current report (both printed and emailed).

When I got to the car, there were so many dents and scratches that even if I took photos of all of them, it would have been impossible to document everything. Add to that the poor lighting at the parking area and you can see how I was set up for a failure.

When I returned the car, the person at the return point went through the car with a fine tooth comb (a total opposite to the pick up process) and found a 'new' dent at the bottom of the car.

Next started a 40 minute saga where I was insisting that I didn't cause the damage and people at the returns point trying to pin the damage on me, claiming that they have no record of it.

It took 40 minutes of conversation and repeated checks through previous records for them to finally agree that I didn't cause the damage and let me go. And I had a flight to catch.

Calauto - when you give a client an old, beat up car, don't try to pin past damage on the the client.

You are very relaxed about it at the pick up point and then you try to nail your customers upon return.

Spending 40 minutes at the returns office, I was able to hear internal conversations where your team members complained to each other about poor paperwork, drivers walking around with nothing to do and general consensus that the office and the processes are a mess. I even overheard one of your team members tell another that one of your corporate clients refused to carry on with the car you gave her and demanded a different car.

This is despicable practice.

As many of your other customers said, I doubt that I'll be using you again.

Cal auto is the worst car renting service ever experimented - unprofessional - terrible customer care - awful management - this company should be ignored by all potential customers and closed for terrible service provided - Never rent with them!

I arrived at the airport to pick up my car with my 3 month old baby.

I was told that unfortunately they were closing the branch and we would therefore not be able to return the car to the airport.

We were told we must return the car to another location nowhere near the airport.

We have a young baby hence the reason we booked the car from the airport so this has left us in a difficult situation.

To add salt into the wound they then left us for 30 minutes in the car with our baby before picking us up in the shuttle to take us to the car, apparently there was a shift swop and they forgot all about us. This was late in the evening so it was very cold.

Totally unacceptable with no recourse to be had. Don't use.

Unatrustble, rude and general bad service.
when called to replace car i was told I must talk to the brunch I got the car from (air port) but there was no way to get in touch with them.
car was dirty as if it has just been in a desert trip.
stay away

I rented a car from them in Tel Aviv airport in March 2019. All seemed to be fine. Then in August Cal Auto Tel Aviv charges my credit card ILS 56.83 for no reason. I dispute the transaction and my credit card issuer gets it refunded. Then in December Cal Auto from another city, Ness Ziona (never been there, never had anything to do with them) charges my credit card ILS 55.04. I do NOT recommend Cal Auto.
Looks like a crooked company stealing in small amounts in hope it would not be noticed.

Rented a minivan in Tel Aviv, waited for more than one hour to get It, while there are people waiting more than one two hours still waiting. Boy at the counter very rude, annoied and not polite. Tryed ti call customer service and after waiting for the operator 10 minutes the line was cut off.. really the worst service ever received, never use it anymore.

The worst rental car ever ,
No customer service at all .
You can’t trust them at all
Charging me extra money for something I didn’t ask for
They didn’t reply to my complaint, ignoring my emails
Please avoid

We rented a car trough this compagny and it was NOT a nice car. I can only advice you not to use them. Filthy car, not the one we had ordered, broken and i can go on.

DONT RENT A CAR FROM THEM !!!

I used Cal Auto in June 2019.

They stole money from my bank account when the renting contract was closed.

They are also liars.

NEVER USE CAL AUTO, they are CROOKS

I have put 1 star because i coule not put 0. First, they wanted to send me out of the agency because they had a problem of computer!!! I had to wait mord than 1 hour before they give me a car. And you must know that what they gave to me was not a car but a trash can... A réal shame. Whole in the carpet of the driver, car full of scratches, seats so dirty that i had to put towels on them to sit. A réal shame. I will never rent a car in this company. Working with them is something very bad for your reputation. I have never seen such a dirty car in a rental company !!! I understand now who it was not expensive. Those people are overpassing the limits of decency.

We hired a car through Argus car rental. We arranged to collect the car in Haifa. The staff were dealing with other customers on arrival but it appeared that only the manager could do anything. We then listened to other customers and their issues.
Finally it got to us. When we had booked a large estate we were told they had none. The company seemed totally disinterested with the fact that we booked a large vehicle for 5 people and they gave us a much smaller car.

The vehicle was in a terrible state lots of bashes etc. Turned down the first car the second not much better but we had no choice. The manager said that they would arrange a replacement which never materialised, despite contacting the company and the manager got nowhere.

Returning the vehicle they wanted to charge 240nis for some sand in the vehicle so we had to get that hoovered. Not a pleasant company to deal with.

They are cheaper but in life you get what you pay for stay clear.

I have rented from the airport with this company and it was a better experience.

We had a horrible experience with this company. We travel often to Israel and in general, this has been amazingly bad. It took us three hours to get the car. The company couldn’t mane the deposit on two different credit cards. We called our bank who confirmed the pre-payment could just go through and they could see just one attempt.
The most amazing thing was that the staff did not show any interest from the beginning to try to help us out. They simply wanted us to give up.
This company gives much lower prices than the large rentals but it’s a bit like gambling. You don’t really know what’s gonna happen. Quite some other people around where also having issues.
When after three hours, the staff finally managed to process the payment, which went through all of a sudden very easy as I had an in between agency on the phone with them, the very rude and unhelpful employee offered me a much smaller car then what I hade reserved. He even blamed me because it took us much longer and in the meantime he had given away our car.
To fish up the story, we even had to wait another 45 minutes because they sent us to pick up the car but the keys were not at the car parking office.
It was amazing how everyone was not willing to help and bothered by the fact that they had clients.
Again. The most awful experience we had with renting a car.

This is the worst, and most dangerous car hire company I have ever come across. The cars were in appalling condition. When it broke down, there was no way of contacting them. We had to drive with the boot wired shut. They then fraudulently charged us for petrol, having lost half a day of our holiday, as they could not be contacted. They should be banned.

CAL Auto spit on me... really.

For our 40th wedding anniversary we went to Israel with our kids. Through CalAuto we rented a Citroen Jumpy.
We had to wait at least 45 minutes at the airport to get the keys. The employees were constantly talking to eachother instead of helping us. Very unfriendly and unprofessional.
Once at the parkinglot the CalAuto representive was unwilling to help us find the right van and was highly annoyed when we wanted to report some previous damages on the car. Again such an unfriendly and unprofessional way to treat customers. Especially when this prices are not right for such a treatment.
A few days later the AdBlue in the car got low. We filled it but the car didnt register that so we had to deal with a technical issue. We contacted CalAuto. They would call us back WHICH THEY NEVER DID! In the end we took time out of our precious holiday and went to a branch of CalAuto in Jeruzalem. There we were appointed another car. The state of that car was VERY BAD. The window didnt close, sigaretbuds where still in the car, the windshield was damaged, seatbelt didnt work, CD-player was broken, holes in the doors etc. etc.
But worse was to come… as the parkinglot was packed with cars we needed help of a CalAuto employee to move some other cars to be able to drive away with the replacement car. It was parked in… did they want us to bump the other cars to be able to leave?

When we asked for help THE EMPLOYEE SPIT ON ME. HE ACTUALLY SPIT ON ME.
I have never been treated this badly in my whole life.

Just gave my car back. At start tried to give us half broken car, with flat tire signal , mechanical noise and scratch everywhere. After argumenting they agreed to change to half decent 5 years old one. When came back : tried to charge a day more when we have it back early , tried to charge toll when we did not use.... Not trustful, very bad car rental company avoid at all cost.