Good car rental in Pattaya?

[JackGats]

Going on a 12-day trip. I've never rented a car in Thailand. I'd be grateful for any tips on a good firm in Pattaya. What should I watch out for? I assume they offer full waiver insurance and such things. Do they book a guarantee from your credit card like they do abroad?

[SidJames]

Try Pattaya Rent-a-Car in Pratamnak between sois 4 & 5.

It's owned by proper English gent who has it many many years with staff who speak fantastic English as well.

First class insurance as standard.

If you're going on a road trip then I would recommend a fortuner or such like as the roads while destroy your backside & back for that matter with all the rattling that would happen in a small car.

https://pattayarentacar.com/

Beware of really cheap deals with someone's mate as the insurance might not cover you properly.

I have used them on occasion when I've needed a car & the service is impeccable.

 

[thoengthaied]

My thoughts are that it would be better to rent from a national company like Hertz. They have branches all over Thailand and you never know when you're going to need them in an emergency. If you rent locally how good is their service in a case such as this?

[SidJames]

6 hours ago, thoengthaied said:

My thoughts are that it would be better to rent from a national company like Hertz. They have branches all over Thailand and you never know when you're going to need them in an emergency. If you rent locally how good is their service in a case such as this?

Hertz/avis etc are franchised & each office is Thai run from top to bottom.

I broke down once with the company that I recommended about 40 clicks out of town at night & they drove down with a new vehicle & took the old one away.

[thoengthaied]

16 hours ago, SidJames said:

Hertz/avis etc are franchised & each office is Thai run from top to bottom.

I broke down once with the company that I recommended about 40 clicks out of town at night & they drove down with a new vehicle & took the old one away.

They are probably a very good company, but the OP is going on a 12 day trip. It would probably take him  far further away than 40km.

[Will B Good]

Probably not the best way to do it, but I have rented cars a couple of times that just have a notice in the window.....'for rent'......risky, but cheap. Probably fortunate I had no problems.

[SidJames]

4 hours ago, thoengthaied said:

They are probably a very good company, but the OP is going on a 12 day trip. It would probably take him  far further away than 40km.

If I was in the back end of Issan & had a breakdown then I would rather have a crew that that had traded for at least 15 years with the same staff that would go that extra mile rather that a local franchisee where the staff have no skin in the game.

I have also hired cars & driven to Udon Thani & back on a few occasion, I don't anymore as we fly & I hire locally because I can't do that kind of hard driving anymore.

Either way these international companies only have offices in a few of the major cities & there is no local version of triple A, the AA or RAC over here as far as I know.

I'm only answering the OP's question which was 'Good car rental in Pattaya'

 

[HauptmannUK]

I have a long term rental car at the moment. Its from 'Thrifty' - which is Hertz in reality. The documentation is all Hertz. The price was lower than I could get from any of the independents in Pattaya and the car is in 'new' condition.

We had a flat tyre one evening in rural Isaan. Called the Hertz 24 hour helpline and it turns out that Hertz have a contract with B Quik.  BQuik were out to us and tyre replaced at no cost to us.

The normal excess is ฿10000 reserved on your credit card. I have UK insurance that covers this excess.

 

[jacko45k]

20 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Probably not the best way to do it, but I have rented cars a couple of times that just have a notice in the window.....'for rent'......risky, but cheap. Probably fortunate I had no problems.

Yeah, I have picked up a couple from what used to be the area of Excite disco. Good price, but obviously not fully insured for rental. If I get into an incident I was supposed to claim he was my brother in law, plus there was a deductible that matched the cash deposit. 

[Will B Good]

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Yeah, I have picked up a couple from what used to be the area of Excite disco. Good price, but obviously not fully insured for rental. If I get into an incident I was supposed to claim he was my brother in law, plus there was a deductible that matched the cash deposit. 

Yes.....we only hired them for a few days, a week a most.......never felt totally relaxed about it....555

[PJ71]

15 hours ago, HauptmannUK said:

I have a long term rental car at the moment. Its from 'Thrifty' - which is Hertz in reality. The documentation is all Hertz. The price was lower than I could get from any of the independents in Pattaya and the car is in 'new' condition.

We had a flat tyre one evening in rural Isaan. Called the Hertz 24 hour helpline and it turns out that Hertz have a contract with B Quik.  BQuik were out to us and tyre replaced at no cost to us.

The normal excess is ฿10000 reserved on your credit card. I have UK insurance that covers this excess.

 

You could n't change the flat with the spare yourself or there was no spare?

[JackGats]

1 hour ago, PJ71 said:

You could n't change the flat with the spare yourself or there was no spare?

Are you supposed to do that yourself when you rent? I even thought the spare was just a dummy wheel to enable slow driving to the nearest service station.

[HauptmannUK]

1 hour ago, PJ71 said:

You could n't change the flat with the spare yourself or there was no spare?

I didn't explain in full. Yes there was a spare and I changed it to get us to our destination. But didn't want to continue driving the next day with no spare, hence the call to Hertz. BQuik came out early next morning and replaced the punctured tyre with a new one, spare back in the boot. They also checked the car over (oil, coolant etc) all tyre pressures and retorqued all wheel bolts. I was impressed with the service. No charge to me.

[moogradod]

My big recommendation: Thai Rent A Car (thairentacar.com).

 

We have several times rented a car from them for extended periods of time before we bought our own car. They are friendly and flexible and have good conditions and of course first class insurance. We even had some incident with another car once which was handled perfectly.

 

They are located near the roundabout in North Pattaya, but you can rent a car in another branch and give it back where you desire. We once did travel from Hua Hin to Pattaya this way and then kept the car in Pattaya for a while.

[PJ71]

6 hours ago, JackGats said:

Are you supposed to do that yourself when you rent? I even thought the spare was just a dummy wheel to enable slow driving to the nearest service station.

Would you rather just wait at the side of the road?

[PJ71]

6 hours ago, HauptmannUK said:

I didn't explain in full. Yes there was a spare and I changed it to get us to our destination. But didn't want to continue driving the next day with no spare, hence the call to Hertz. BQuik came out early next morning and replaced the punctured tyre with a new one, spare back in the boot. They also checked the car over (oil, coolant etc) all tyre pressures and retorqued all wheel bolts. I was impressed with the service. No charge to me.

Perfect outcome.

[JackGats]

8 hours ago, moogradod said:

My big recommendation: Thai Rent A Car (thairentacar.com).

 

We have several times rented a car from them for extended periods of time before we bought our own car. They are friendly and flexible and have good conditions and of course first class insurance. We even had some incident with another car once which was handled perfectly.

 

They are located near the roundabout in North Pattaya, but you can rent a car in another branch and give it back where you desire. We once did travel from Hua Hin to Pattaya this way and then kept the car in Pattaya for a while.

On their website they say nothing about a branch in Pattaya.

 

 

[moogradod]

1 hour ago, JackGats said:

On their website they say nothing about a branch in Pattaya.

Unfortunately you are right. Looks not too god. Maybe they consolidated with another company due to scaling effects in our hurt economy.

 

But they were a quite large company with branches in Hua Hin and Pattaya, I have rented there (Mitsubishi SUV and Almera) for many months. Maybe you just try to email [email protected] or have a look at the dolphin circus in Pattaya when you come across it. It should be visible from the outside, parking spaces are in the back near the hotel there (if they still exist)

[couchpotato]

1 hour ago, JackGats said:

On their website they say nothing about a branch in Pattaya.

 

 

Not the same company...The Pattaya company is local.