Top Drive Car Rental.

[pwood319]

Hello!

This coming March will be my tenth trip to Aruba, but my first with my fiancé. We are on the search for a rental car which is not outrageous in price. I stumbled upon Top Drive and seem to have a wonderful deal of $175 for the week.

I am curious if anyone has dealt with Top Drive. I am looking for honest reviews from someone who has personally rented from this company.

[OneHappyTraveler]

We've used top drive for several years and have not had any problems....

[mmattalo]

We've used Top Drive for 6 years (and almost 30 visits) . . . we highly recommend them. Peter and his team always try to do a very good job. Mane is always there to pick us up and they have done a very good job upgrading their vehicles over the past few years. We typically have a very new Corolla or Accent that is well appointed and a great AC system :-)

We also like the idea of supporting a locally owned and managed business. I highly recommend Top Drive.

Michael

[EHampite]

We used Top Drive for the first time last month and were very pleased with them. While they didn't have the car we reserved when we arrived, they did provide us with another vehicle for a few days until ours was available. We arrived on Dec 29 when the island was at it's busiest, so we could understand this.

Both cars were in pretty good shape and seemed to be kept in good condition. We would not hesitate to use them again on future trips.

[schmidtm1965]

I tried top drive for 3/16 for 6 days and they wont rent me one for under $225. I cant seem to find anything for 6 days under $200

[Andrea J.]

i cannot speak for TOP DRIVE, but......
a 6 day rental works out to be sometimes more costly than a 7 day rental.

a car rental place would rather rent to you for a week and price their best pricing would be for a week.

ex: tropic will not rent for only a day or 2.
they do not want to tie up their vehicles on a 2 or 3 day rental when the car could be out for a week.

Originally Posted by schmidtm1965

I tried top drive for 3/16 for 6 days and they wont rent me one for under $225. I cant seem to find anything for 6 days under $200

[gaby]

I went to Top Drive's website just in case Hans is not available (which I always hope he is, lol). but anyway, they charge a $500 deposit for the car rental??? That's extremely high. I would not be comfortable with that.

[Arubalisa]

Originally Posted by gaby

I went to Top Drive's website just in case Hans is not available (which I always hope he is, lol). but anyway, they charge a $500 deposit for the car rental??? That's extremely high. I would not be comfortable with that.

If I am not mistaken, it is a fairly common practice.

Think of it as a refundable deposit on their $20,000+ piece of machinery they are "loaning" you.

Whether it is $250 or $500 and the company were disreputable and refused to give you your money back, you could easily dispute the charge through your credit card company.

Same thing as when you check in to a hotel and they ask for a credit card.

Hotel holds on credit cards?

Originally Posted by TomFrederick

>>> "Most hotels do this at most destinations that we've traveled to"

They do this so they know you have funds to cover any charges you may do against your room/unit number. Even with AI you may have phone charges, gift shop charges, ........ You can normally tell if they ask for a credit card at checkin they are putting a hold on.

Originally Posted by TomFrederick

Sometimes you don't realize there is a hold as when you check out they make the necessary changes in $$ amount.

More info on holds/blocking at

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/cons...dit/cre11.shtm

Hold on a Credit Card for Car Rental Deposit

Don't use debit card for car rental

[gaby]

i never paid a deposit for any car rental i had. this is the first time i heard of it. i've rented on other islands, of course here in the states, too, and i've never been asked for a deposit. the rental insurance whether with them or through your own policy, I have the AMEX premium, is the whole point of if something happens to the car, whether accident or stolen.

[Andrea J.]

We rented a few yrs ago from Avis and they charged us the deposit w/out telling us. I saw it online as pending when I checked my cc (which I do daily). When I stopped by Avis later that day and asked they told me it was standard procedure.

Some do it others don't, tropic does not. But they all have your cc info so it really is as good as done. And they do not process that charge, it just sits as pending til u either return car undamaged or not ;-)