Too Many Variables with Car Rentals in Brazil
Fordeler: The car was available when needed, had a/c and power front windows.
Returning the car was (luckily) uneventful.
Ulemper: 1) Lengthy paperwork and bureaucracy to get the car: after a long flight and the car reservation done two months in advance, it took approx. 35 min for the paperwork alone to get done by the front desk. Have to say though this was somewhat expected since in Brazil companies try always to overwhelm customers in a miríade of bureaucratic maneuvers.
2) Pre-authorizing my credit card in R$9,000 (+- U$ 3,000): I always get insurance on car rentals, primarily with the rental company however AVIS was charging an absurd amount for the term, which forced me to look for alternatives which brought me to Allianz for a fraction of what Avis quoted and better terms. Here are the numbers: Car Rental: R$ 497; Avis Insurance: R$ 514; Allianz Insurance: R$ 210. To help even more, I rented the car with my Visa Infinity, which also included insurance at no extra charge - so that I had double protection.
3) Taking Possession of the Car: the car was very small, had a number of dents and scratches and the explicit threat of R$250 of extra charges if the interior of the car had signs of excessive dirt, however there was no clear definition of "excessive dirt" in any of the paperwork signed
In summary, the car was rented as part of purchasing air tickets at Kayak website, in which I thought would have helped with all the bureaucratic process Brazilian companies live by, to my surprise it did not help. I may decide for another company next time as I got quite used with the easy of renting and returning cars in Canada, US and Europe.
