Fast Car > Reviews > What was fast about it?

Author's product rating:   

Available selection	Good
Customer Service	Unhelpful
Vehicle Quality	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Good value, choice of cars, convenient locations
Disadvantages:	Cheaper cars a bit tatty, very slow service

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I recently spent a couple of weeks in Abu Dhabi and, although taxis were cheap, I decided to rent a car to give us a bit more independence. The big boys are there - Avis, Hertz etc. There are also dozens of small car rental companies, who I have never heard of; I've rented from small companies before, without any problems, but for something like a car, with a baby in the back, I need to feel confident that the car is in good condition and is well maintained. So I decided to go for a larger, better known company.

Fast Car is one of the two larger car hire companies in the United Arab Emirates and, as well as car hire, they also provide taxis and chauffeur-driven cars. They have offices at Dubai and Abu Dhabi airports, and several office in downtown locations.

Car Rental - Booking
I booked by telephone. At the time that I booked they were very busy and did not have a lot of cars available. I was looking for something like a Toyota Camry but they didn't have any available, so they agreed to give me a 4x4, Pajero, for the price of a Camry, in other words a four-group upgrade. I wasn't going to refuse.

I was only going to be able to pick up the car in the evening, so they confirmed the location of their office on the Abu Dhabi corniche. As everything was arranged in advance, I rolled up expecting to be there just five minutes. Boy, was I wrong.

Car Rental - collection
When I got to the counter of the Fast Car office on the Abu Dhabi Corniche, there were about five staff on duty behind the counter serving about three people. A couple of them made eye contact when I walked in; I think one might have pointed me towards a grubby sofa next to a coffee table where there were three magazines, all at least two months out of date.

After a couple of minutes one of the gents beckoned me over and, urgently, asked how he could help. I told him that I had a car booked and I wanted to collect it. He asked my name, looked through a rack of ready-to-go rental forms, then asked me, even more urgently, if I was sure it was booked.

I gave him the name of the "manager" who had made the booking and he made a phone call. While he was doing this, another customer interrupted him and started asking about their reservation. I was in the process of saying words to the effect of, "Oi, wait your turn" when another chap behind the counter jumped in front of me and said, "Hello sir, can I help, do you have a reservation?" And so we started again.

The upshot of it all was that, after nearly half an hour, I walked away with a car. Well, not quite, I couldn't walk away with the car, but I had the car keys, and the car was delivered to the layby just outside for me to drove away.

After a few days I exchanged the car for a different model. This process was remarkably similar, also took over twenty five minutes while they couldn't find any record of what I had arranged by phone. This time, though, I drove the car away from the small, sandy area of wasteland next to the office.

In summary - pleasant, polite enough, once the ball is rolling it works well enough, but rather disorganised and, if anyone says "I'll make sure the staff know, pick it up from the Corniche office", Beware!!!

Car Rental - The Car
Arguably this is of course the most important part of any car rental - the vehicle itself. The mid-sized car that I took was a Toyota Camry which was nice. As expected, the interior was spacious and comfortable. It was neither the most recent nor the most deluxe model but it was the right size, it was clean and in good condition. The spare tyre was firm, the first aid kit was intact and the car worked without any hitches whatsoever. The car came with full remote central locking and electric windows front and back. The air conditioning was powerful and effective

After a few days I traded the car in for a smaller and more inexpensive one. I got a Nissan Sunny which was, to be frank, well past its best. It was old, the bronze colour looked faded - I don't know if that is possible or if it was just the colour itself - and both front doors were extensively scratched around the key holes. That gave me a clue, soon confirmed, that there was nothing remote or electronic about the car - each door had to be individually, manually locked and the windows had to be wound up and down. At least there was no starting handle to plug in the front, but that could have been somewhere. There was no sign of any manuals or first aid kit but there was a spare tyre and, although a bit slow, the air conditioning did work.

Car Rental - Return
This actually went better than expected. After the slow and difficult exchanging of the car, I was expecting a tortuous return and was concerned as we had a morning flight to catch. Time was short so I phoned ahead the evening before and was taken by surprise when they said that they would come and pick the car up. I explained that I would be leaving the hotel at 8am; no problem, I was told to the leave the key with the hotel reception and they would pick it up around 9am. We agreed the amount that I would be charged on my credit card for the rental, and that was it.

So did it work? Remarkably, yes. I left my key at reception, in an envelope labelled "Fast Car" and that was the last I heard. I checked my credit card statement and yes, it was billed the correct amount. So, I guess that is what matters!

Car Rental - The Cars and Prices
The pricing is fairly simple. They have daily rates and weekly rates. They can also offer longer-term rates for a month on request.
The regular cars are offered in categories from Group A being 1.3 litre Toyota Echo, Nissan Sunny, Mitsubisi Lancer or Peugot 206, manual, or Group B being the same cars but automatic.
Group C gives engine sizes 1.5 or 1.6 litre Honda Civic, Peugot 307 and group D or above gives 2 litre engines. Groups H and above bring you luxury cars, Lexus ES300, Mercedes 240 or BMW 520. Group J is a selection of four wheel drives, then above that you get into minibuses and people carriers.

The smallest cars come at Dhs160 per day plus Dhs30 for insurances for group A manual, or Dhs180 per day plus Dhs40 insurance for automatic. (approximately USD50 total for the group A or USD60 for the automatics). A Two litre car will set you back Dhs300 inclusive (USD80) and a four wheel drive will relieve you of Dhs620 (USD165 per day). The weekly rates offer substantial reductions and the monthly rates even more so.

There are also luxury or performance cars available. A BMW 7-series or a Mercedes 350L will leave you Dhs2020 (USD550) per day poorer. A 45 seater bus costs a little less.

Fast Car do award Middle East Air miles on car rentals.

Taxi Service
Fast Car also offer a taxi/minicab service within the city and to/from the airport and betwen Abu Dhabi and other Emirates. They have desks at both Abu Dhabi and Dubai airport and a transfer between the two costs Dirhams250 at present. Their desk at Dubai can be a bit slow - the last time I arrived I asked the dopey-looking chap for a car to Abu Dhabi. He looked at me confused and asked, "A car?" Yes, what else would I want at Fast Car, chicken and chips?

Summary
Overall Fast Car offers an excellent range of cars for hire at reasonable prices. There are cheaper companies available but, considering the back up and reliability, Fast Car value is hard to beat. Sadly the efficiency of the people is not so hard to beat. If they could get that part of the act together, they could be a top UAE company. Maybe one day…..