Zippidydoo

Recommendations for car rental company? So far seems like Mapache Rent a Car is the best value. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Travelling in June.

Thanks

sean420

I've had good experiences with tricolor

shillmac

We use Tricolor. Our daughter used Mapache once and had no problems. I'm sure either would be okay for you. I always thought Tricolor's prices couldn't be beat (and the service, in our experience, has been excellent). If you can get a better deal, that's great. Just be sure everything is included in the asking price.
It is with Tricolor. Get it in writing and take a copy of the e-mail with you. Have fun!

Zippidydoo

Thanks for your help.

Al (zippidydoo)

Boleslav

Last year we rented a car from Mapache, local company, http://www.mapache.com/fleet.htm they even have a 800 number that you can call from USA. When I was doing the research, the forums were recommending several renatal companies, Mapache and Dollar were among them.
Dollar is very quick in responding via email, Mapache never replied, but I decided to call them and they gave a much better rate than enyone else and they did keep their promise. Their office is outside the airport so you won't have to pay the airpot fee and they will deliver the car ro Alajuella for free and once you return the car they will drive you to the airport for free, too. We had Toyota 4 runner for $400 a week incl. basic insurance, btw. as we knew we will go off road a lot. Great car, nice people at Mapache, gave us a number that we can call 24/7 if in trouble.

LikesToGoPlaces893

This August was our second trip to Costa Rica. We had used Mapache on our first trip and did not have any problems so decided to book through them again.

BIG MISTAKE!

We had spent 5 days in Santa Teresa with no problems (not really driving the car) and were headed out of town to Arenal for the second leg of our trip. Ten minutes into our drive the car turns off and wont' start again, looks like it has overheated.

Me and my girlfriend have to hitch-hike back to town to try to find help because Mapache tells us it will be about 8 hours before someone can get to us (they ended up not getting to us until the next day). We are advised by some locals not to leave the car on the road as it could get vandalized overnight and the car rental company would hold us liable.

To avoid this we arrange to have the car towed to a nearby gas station where it will be kept safe overnight with security. Of course we incurred expenses for both the tow and the parking, but we figured it was worth it. We ended up having to stay an extra night in Santa Teresa (while still having to pay for the night we missed up in Arenal) waiting on a new car.

The next morning the new car did show up and we went on with our trip. When we returned the car back in San Jose we left without authorizing any charges since the man there couldn't resolve our issues including the lost day and the expenses we incurred keeping THEIR car safe. We were told this would get resolved later since this person couldn't make these kinds of authorizations.

A few days after returning to the states, we were hit with 2 charges, one for $1000 ($300) too much for the rental fee and another for $3,000 since they were claiming that we were responsible for the damage to the car since we had blown up the motor. The second $3,000 charge had a false signature on it that my husband immediately recognized as fraud.

It's taken nearly 2 months but AMEX resolved this for us and we are not responsible for anything other than the original rental fee (which is still too much considering but I can live with it!).

These guys are out to take advantage of people who are just trying to do the right thing!

STAY AWAY!!!!!!!!!

mad

Also had a bad experience with Mapache. they gave the car we reserved to someone else and they only had a car twice the price available. The service was fine in the end, but we were bitter about paying for a much nicer car than we needed.

RAC

We used Tricolor twice and had very good experiences both times.