Lagorent - www.lagorent.com

We have just returned from our summer holiday in Vilamoura & we were delighted with every aspect of our trip, particularly the excellent & smooth service from LAGORENT, this is the best car hire company we have ever used, their rates were incredibly reasonable in comparison to other well known organisations, we were met at the airport, transported immediately to the off airport area where the office is, which was very quick & effortless, paperwork was dealt with efficiently & in a very short time our car was ready to go! We were fortunate enough to be given a brand new Seat Ibiza, all the cars are immaculate with several options to suit all budgets. Returning our car was easy & we were ttaken to the airport within 20 minutes, there was no delay & everything was perfect. We would highly recommend this company & will certainly be using them from now on!

We were met at the airport and taken the short trip to the depot. The airport expansion has meant that there is a charge for collecting a car at the airport (€30 I think) so it makes sense to use the a renter with an external depot. The depot was almost alongside the ring road so easy to find and no tricky roads to negotiate. Also close to fuel.

We hired a Ford Ka which worked very well for 2 people. Smart and reliable.

Their M-way tolls arrangement worked well and was cheaper (less than €11) than some other renters.

During our stay a local driver caught our bumper while parking alongside. Lagorent were available on phone to tell us what to do (call the police!) and we had to go through the local procedures.

When we returned the car they were helpful in telling us what needed doing with our excess insurer and asked up to contact them if we had any problems. We paid them for the damage (€100) and tried to claim back from our insurer. As Lagorent were also going to be claiming from their insurer this could have been tricky but they provided information to us promptly and our claim was successful.

I hired a Corsa Automatic from Lagorent who are very pleasant and helpful on the phone. There are 3 reasons I would never use them again.

1.The car had done 45000kms+ (drove like double that) and had scrapes and dents on most body panels and wheels (pics available). Clearly not inspected/repaired before hire.Worst I've hired in 25 years of Portuguese trips

2. Fuel policy. The car was supplied EMPTY. ie told 5kms left and garage close by. Fine, if you want to drive off in opposite direction in unfamiliar city. Would you risk trying to return it similarly empty with family in car? They got an extra quarter tank.

3. Made clear that the no excess policy I'd paid extra for with Economy Cars would mean I would have pay Lagorent then claim back separately from Economy Cars. Negated whole purpose of avoiding hassle and paperwork but may be standard prctice for all I know.

Moral: Go back to Europcar

I booked a car with Economycarhire a few months before the moneygrabbing owners of Faro airport slapped a surcharge on all car hires transacted in Car Park 4. In February, I received an email from Economycarhire telling me that Lagorent, the hire company, had moved offsite to avoid the surcharge and that I would be shuttled to their new base "3-5 minutes away from the airport". This was very bad news, because my only previous experience of an offsite car hire at Faro was when I used Europcar. It was a nightmare experience never to be repeated.

This was quite the opposite. I was picked up outside the terminal building. No wait for anybody else: just a 2 minute drive to the Lagorent base. No queues, no hassle, no hard sell re insurance. I was on the road far quicker and with less fuss than I had ever been previously. Returning the car was just as pain-free. Paying extra to remove the damage excess really does remove a level of stress.

The car itself was in great nick with 8,000 kilometers on the clock.

Overall an excellent experience courtesy of Economycarhire and Lagorent.