Aluvia

Our experience with Aluvia was very bad. In general it was very hard to have them honour previously made agreements. On top of that, our car malfunctioned (electrical fault with motor) and it took a lot of hassle to get a replacement car. We lost two days of our holiday and a lot of money on phone and toll charges (in the end we had to drive back to Lisbon with a rental car from another agency to get our replacement car). However, it got worse. When I got home I found out that they had charged my credit card. After I called them why they had charged my credit card, they explained that it was due to the fact that we didn't leave the malfunctioned car with a full tank!!! They even charged us the 12 euros refuelling tax, because they claim that nothing was wrong with the car and we must have pretended that the car malfunctioned because we wanted an upgrade!!? (We didn't get one and we never asked for one.) Do they really think that anyone trying such a scheme would have the car 'pretend' to malfunction in the middle of nowhere, on a Sunday, in an area with no Aluvia office, where they would have to wait two hours in the burning sun before the tow truck arrived?

I would suggest not to rent from this company, but if you do, refuse the Ford Fiesta with license plate 83-JD-23. It has an electrical fault with the motor which has not been addressed.

Aluvia was a company who Argus Car Hire subcontracted us to. We got to the airport and had to ring them to come and pick us up. It only took them 10 min to reach to us and at arrival the man spoke English although I was portuguese he still spoke english so my partner could join the conversation. When we got to their office which was inside a hotel we were well received and dealt with straight away. 20 min and we were on our way. on returning the car we had the same treatment. Overall a very good company to rent from and no problems