TopCar Reviews 1,643

What is it with Top Car's deposit scheme ever other car hire company take a pre authorisation credit card payment as a holding deposit for any damages.. no transactions take place unless there are damages to pay.
Top Car make a cash withdrawal from the credit card costing the customers non sterling transaction fees both on the deposit and then again on the returned payment.. their system stinks..it is an anti customer experience.. it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.. and ruins your holiday with a sting in the tail of unnecessary bank charges..
I'd advise potential customers to pass on hiring a car from Top Car (rip off company) not forthcoming on how they charge customers.. :'(

I have just handed back my car to TopCar La Palma and have unknowingly found out that instead of then placing a pre authorised payment on my credit card they took a cash payment of 900 euros costing me £44.00 in bank fees + interest .
All other car hire companies in Europe take the pre authorisation amount without taking the cash.
My advice is do not hire from TopCar their deposit system stinks of rip off the customer.

Arrived to collect the car and had no que which was ideally giving it was 10pm with two tired kids.. car was okay.. clean.. damage it already had was listed on the paper work they had given me paid the £1200 deposit and left.. upon retuning.. absolute chaos which I can only imagine was due to people collecting cars.. I was told by a lady to go inside as I was "returning" not collecting yet given abuse by the people waiting to collect yet they only had one member of staff serving which I thought was quite poor.. lady took the key and asked which bay the car was parked in and that my deposit would be back in my account within 24/48hr.. this was Saturday tea time mind but I was left quite worried that they never inspected the car and also took back the only paper work I had stating the damage it originally had.. anyway 4 days later its landed back in me account along with the charge for the foreign exchange fee .. which was brilliant after reading some of the reviews and scaring myself that I wasn't going to recieve it back or less than what I should of... anyway overall I had a brilliant first experience with TopCar!

The pickup process was fast and efficient. I signed off a €1,200 transaction on my credit card believing it to be an pre-authorisation, but the next day it appeared as a charge for which a 3% foreign exchange charge is applied. When refunded I assume a further 3% will be charged. This adds €72 to the rental bill. I may dispute it with Visa when I get back. This is what pre-authorisations are for so why didn’t Topcar use it?

I was handed the key and sent off to find the car. No handover. No inspection. No record of existing damage.

I took photos and video before driving away. There is minor kerb damage to three wheels, at least a dozen minor scratches and paint marks, a bad scrape on the drivers side sill, a small dent in the rear bumper, the internal boot shelf is missing its straps and has damage on one side. Nothing major, just standard wear and rear on a newish car with 38,400km on the clock. The engine is running rough but it’s drivable. Needs a good service.

I record these defects because they have €1,200 of my money and I don’t want to be falsely charged for pre existing, unrecorded damage. There may be other issues and damage on the car. I didn’t go underneath it, I’m not a car mechanic and I didn’t come on holiday to waste time worrying about this stuff.

My review rating may improve or worsen depending on whether I gat ALL of my deposit back and how quickly. That’s not a threat - it’s a fair appraisal of their service.

booking D012174232

Update: the whole €1200 deposit was returned within a few days, although minus £61 for credit card foreign exchange charges. Tip: use a card which charges 0% not 3%! Changed rating from 2 to 3 because basically they did everything they said they would and didn’t rip me off. However next time I’ll go with a company like Cicar where everything is covered by the rental company and its direct insurance without a high excess, deposit or secondary insurance of Topcar.

Had to wait for 1 hr & 45 mins to uplift car. large queue with 2 staff on desks. Shouldn't have had to wait such a long time - I was tenth in queue - it took a ridiculous time to process each customer. Result was I had to drive in the pitch black - which wasn't the intention and didn't get out for any dinner as it was too late when we arrived at our destination. Wouldn't use again !

Terrible terrible service and complete scam, i arrived at the kiosk to pay for my 74euro car, the lady behind the counter asked for my name and booking number along with my card, she without notifying charged my debit card £1200 saying it was a deposit, I immediatly complained and stated you cant do that, she apologised and issed a refund to my bank, I was charged commission from my bank meaning I only received £922 back. I brought this to the management's attention on return of the car and was assured it would be looked in to. I received a response basically saying not their problem. I also requested two car seats to be in the vehicle and instead was directed to a metal locker in the car park filled with filthy and mostly broken seats that you wouldn't put pets in. I hire cars all the time, its much better to go with a proper company like Enterprise and pay a few more quid than go through this ridiculous outfit. Disgusted.

Rented a car in Fuerteventura and had to wait 2.5 HOURS in the queue. Staff and processes completely inadequate. Wouldn’t allow us to cancel the reservation either so we had no choice but to queue with two small children. Awful start to the holiday.
Car is also much smaller than what we ordered and didn’t even fit our suitcases. Had to put the seats down. Never again. AVOID

Booked in advance on their own website, checked in using their own (pointless) on-line check in service, arrived at the airport to find a queue that took 2 hours to clear down, only to be told that the car i'd reserved, wasn't available and I had been given an 'upgrade' ??? Really??? A 2 year old Citroen C3, that was filthy and had two tyres that were reporting on-screen as underinflated, a fuel tank that was 3/8 full??? You don't understand that having customers drive around in crappy cars with your logo all over them isn't a 'good look'? Wow! After the last time I booked a convertible Mini, and was given some ten year old ex-employee car, I swore i'd never use Topcar ever again, but you resolved that and I was prepared to give benefit of doubt......but then to repeat the same trick in the same year again??
Adios Amigos!

My experience with Topcar has been generally positive. I have rented a car from them twice. The first time was in September 2024 and the second time in January 2025, and I hope it will be again in November 2025. The first time was a convertible, which had around 20,000 km, meaning it was basically a new car. The second time I asked for a Fiat 500, but they gave me a Toyota Aygo... I was honestly disappointed that they didn't give me the Fiat 500. The car was okay, they are very okay, especially since I had full insurance and didn't have to worry about anything. The company has not caused me any problems so far, and the cars have been good. I'm sure everyone has a different experience and everyone speaks from their own experience. My only disappointment was that I opted for a Fiat 500 and they gave me a "similar" car, but that doesn't mean the car wasn't okay. It was more of a personal preference. I'm still thinking about whether to use them again for my next vacation or not.

If you have paid for their zero excess super insurance then you should not have to be paying 200euro deposits that you will never really get back once you have paid fees to exchange money in both directions.

We booked a car for a week the service was good and the process of getting to the car was also quick but the car was a disappointment. We booked Citroen C4 or similar which we got a similar but the aircon in the car wasn't working there were a few electrical faults and the fuel tank wasn't full to the top. Driving in Tenerife without an aircon wasn't very pleasant and at the end I was asked to leave nearly the same fuel as I got the car which was hard to manage. Will be a lot easier if the car was full to the top and at the end just refill it to the top and drop the car instead of me sitting there and trying to calculate how much fuel to add for which at the end I overfilled the car and added extra fuel from what it was giving to me . Overall experience with the car would have been better and I would have better score if everything was in order for a 2023 model I expected more.

Hired a car from Fuertaventura airport . The queue was not the best probably took a hour or so to get served on a pre paid booking . The shock came when I was asked to pay €1200 up front , they took the money out of my account which was not ideal . The pick up process was smooth and the van we hired was perfect for what we needed . The van performed well for the week with no problems . When returning the van the lady gave it a good check over and was happy with its condition . This is where I got a bit uneasy - there was no receipt off the women to say she was happy with the condition so I was like in limbo for a week wondering when I was gonna get my €1200 back . The money was returned minus £20 , I’m guessing that’s due to exchange rate ect . Not too fussed about that as I was glad to get the big chunk back . All in all it was a good service but it could be great with a few tweaks . Would probably use topcar again when travelling to fueta

Car was good! Service was poor. Waited over an hour in the office before we were seen. Clearly understaffed, but no apology or recognition of wait time. Then we played a game of hunt the car in the car park… took us around 15 mins to find the car. Company seem to lack efficient systems.

Ending by paying 900€ fees because they give shitty cars.

I rent a car in early September and paid 1.200€ as a deposit. When I returned the car the girl who took it told me the refund would have been done the day after (everything was ok). After 18 days nothing has been refund. I wrote 2 emails to their customer care and they never replied. I called them twice and told me that they had a problem with the refund machine and that they have passed everything to the central office for a manual refund. They gave me no phone numbers to contact the central office but just a website link to write a message on a template.

Nothing to say about the car but their customer care service is less than one star. At least they could have replied to my email or write to apology for the delay but nothing!!!

Wrote the following complaint two weeks ago and have had no response, perhaps this review will encourage a response.

Booking ref: 97894953

Good Morning,

I write to you to make a formal complaint regarding the hire car we rented from your firm during our recent visit to Lanzarote, details of which are attached for your reference.

Three days into our trip, one of the wheels blew (popped) whilst travelling on the motorway, whilst my family was inside of the car including two young children. This made the car jolt and swerve into the opposite side of the road, luckily for us there was no oncoming traffic otherwise the outcome could have been a lot different.

I parked up in the emergency lay-by and rang your emergency contact number which kept giving me a generic reply that you could not be reached and that there was nobody available (see photo for call log) and I left two voicemails which were not replied to. During this time, my family were stood on the side of the road in the sweltering heat with my children very distressed.

I attempted to change to tyre to the spare tyre in the boot and to my despair, the tyre kit was missing a wheel nut key making it impossible for me to change the tyre.

We were stranded for three hours as I desperately tried to call you and there was NO answer.

In the end we were lucky enough that travellers stopped and assisted us with their own tyre repair kit which enabled me to drive back to the airport and drop the car back at your office. Your colleague at the airport was very apologetic and advised me to write this formal complaint.

You can see from the picture that the tyre is not road-legal. The tread is not legal and there is absolutely no way this should have been provided to me. I also have a video showing a close up of the tyre which is even more shocking.

When we picked the car up as it was late on Saturday night (16th) and dark and I just wanted to get to our holiday destination ASAP.

The whole experience made us not want to travel on our holiday again and spoilt it for us, causing us a great amount of stress and anxiety.

I thought I would give you the chance to put this right before I make it express my experience on review sites and take this any further.

To be clear, I am looking for a full refund of £302.81 + £31.01 transaction fee you changed me for the deposit (see attached photo confirmation) so a total refund of £333.82.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Mark Hutchinson

I returned the rental car on 22nd July full of fuel ect. And still haven't received the £200 deposit back that I had to pay because I paid on a visa card. I had full insurance with no excess to pay so there's no possible reason I shouldn't get it back. I have no response to the online form I filled put and no one ever answers the phone. Now having to go and open a case with my bank to get it back. Do not use topcar if you have to give them a deposit

I cannot believe how fantastic the lady behind the desk at FV airport was today - her name is Nathalia Victoria and she deserves a big shout out. I arrived at the airport today with a huge issue which was not top car's fault - far from it, Nathalia was so kind, so generous and I will always be grateful to her for the help she gave me today. Thank you so very much Nathalia

weeks of chasing for the deposit refund, still not received the deposit back.

Car was returned refuelled, clean, undamaged, on time - I was told the deposit was refunded but it has not arrived.

I will be back to Gran Canaria next year so I can settle the matter with Topcar then, but they should refund the deposit as we agreed when I rented the car.

Cars are dirty inside. Will not book there again although TopCar in Gran Canary I had 4 bookings which were all good.

So, first car we didnt accept because of condition: tyres were almost worn out. Car on the inside completely dirty with stains from water and sweat. Quite an old model with 45k mileage.

The car they gave us was better, but also dirty i side, so they cleaned it.
After 2 days the engine showed emergency program. So they changed again. And here this was quickly done.

But guess what: the third car we now have is disgustingly dirty inside.

So, all three cars dirty. Will not book there again.