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Renting a car in Spain, and the excess that is the whole game
Car rental in Spain is cheap, competitive and full of a single trap, and knowing the vocabulary is most of the defence. The trap is la franquicia — the excess. A headline price covers a policy with a substantial excess, often several hundred euros, which means any damage up to that figure is yours. The desk will then offer un suplemento or seguro a todo riesgo sin franquicia which removes it, frequently for more per day than the car itself. The alternatives are to buy separate excess insurance from a third party beforehand, which is much cheaper and means you pay the rental company and reclaim afterwards, or to check whether your credit card or travel policy already covers it. Deciding at the desk under pressure is how people end up paying twice. Two other habits worth having. Photograph the car before you leave — all four sides, the wheels, the windscreen and the fuel gauge — with the date visible, and do the same on return; un arañazo that was already there is a common dispute and photographs end it. And check the fuel policy: lleno-lleno, full to full, is the fair one, and any arrangement where you prepay for a tank and return it empty is worse value than it looks. On the road itself, three practical points. Spanish motorways are excellent, and some are tolled — autopista, marked AP, usually has a toll, autovía, marked A, usually does not. Speed limits are enforced by camera and fines arrive by post, including to foreign addresses. And in a city, do not try to park on the street: the blue and green zones are resident-priority and time-limited, and an underground parking garage, un parking, is worth the money. Finally el parte amistoso, which is worth understanding before you need it. If two cars collide, the drivers fill in a single joint form — a declaración amistosa de accidente — with a sketch, the circumstances ticked off in boxes, and both signatures. Both insurers work from the same document. It is not an admission of fault and it is expected rather than optional, and every Spanish glovebox has one in it.