Funchal Drive Reviews 

The car itself was great and almost brand new. We initially booked a manual car but asked if we could upgrade to an automatic. The man at the office told us the upgrade would cost an additional €84, which we agreed to.

However, when the woman came to deliver the car, we were suddenly told the additional cost was €114. She called the office to check and was told that €114 had supposedly been communicated from the beginning. This was disappointing, as there were two of us present when the €84 price was clearly agreed upon.

The €30 difference itself isn't a huge issue, but changing the agreed price afterwards and then claiming that a different amount had been communicated from the start didn't feel very fair.

Other than that, we were very happy with the car itself.

Everything was fine, friendly staff!

I dislike being charged an additional 30€ fee for collecting the car after 7pm without any prior notice. I understand the reason, but feel like I was not given proper notice.

Initial price was competitive and pickup to offsite location was timely enough. Some hidden charges not highlighted beforehand soured the experience for me e.g. tourist tax (ok, unavoidable but would be good to have known in advance), cleaning fee (this is a new one for me in all my years renting and was either €12 upfront or €25 on return at their discretion, even if you kept it clean), plus €35 to drop-off at the airport directly to the cheapest parking area, as we were on an early flight. All of this put a bad taste in the mouth. The car was fine.

⭐ Very disappointing experience – be careful about additional charges

I booked a rental car in Madeira for around €370. However, by the time I returned the vehicle, the total cost had increased to approximately €870.

The main issue was the additional insurance. I was told that I had to take this insurance because my bank card was a debit card rather than a credit card. I was made to understand that I had no choice if I wanted to rent the car, so I had to accept the additional cost.

In my opinion, this should have been made completely clear before the rental. Customers should know exactly what they will have to pay before collecting the vehicle, especially when the additional cost is several hundred euros.

On top of this, when I returned the car, I was charged €35 for a transfer to the airport, even though the airport is less than 2 km away. I found this charge excessive for such a short distance.

I am not leaving this review because of the car itself, but because of the way the additional charges were handled and communicated.

My advice to future customers: carefully check the conditions regarding debit/credit cards, insurance and airport transfers before booking, and make sure you know the final price before accepting the rental.

Unfortunately, based on my experience, I cannot recommend this rental company.

The personnel was rather grumpy and uninterested. And the car that I got was old and half-broken, with defects that they said they could not solve.
At picking-up the car, the battery of the remote control/keys was as-good-as empty, warning about this is the car's display.
Furthermore, in the car's display error-messages about problems with the airbag, and the tire pressure. These could not be removed or resetted.
None of the buttons on the steering wheel was working, and not even the claxon.
They said this was 'normal' for this brand/type of car, and they cannot fix this.
This gave me a rather unsafe feeling.

The car was ok, but i have to pay for recovery the car after the official time(8 pm). Our pane was late (they know the flight nuber so they know of the late) but we landed before 8 pm and we could not find the transfer waiting for us, We phoned them at 20:04 (4 min later the official time; just the time to understand that no one was waiting for us) and no one answer. Finaly we were collected around 20:40 and they asked us aditional 35 euros because we were in late!

Was told the car would be at the terminal and it wasn’t. Had to get a shuttle to collect. Shuttle arrived over an hour after it was due. Be aware if cleaning expense and fee for collecting out of hours. Don’t use.

I rented cars a lot during my life.
Never payed for car-rental cleaning. This one, was a first time.
Never payed for a turist tax on car-rental. This was a first time.
The car-jack was missing.
I returned the car in perfect order and one week later, I’m still waiting for the €1.400,00 deposit to be cancelled.
It doesn't have the nicest employees.
Less than one month ago I rented a car in Canary Islands. Full satisfaction with Cicar: not expensive, easy, no complications, no surprises, no extra hidden expenses.
Suggestion: learn with them.

nice service: picking up at the airport en bringing us back. Car was good and everybody was very helpful

when we arrived at the airport the bus came to bring us to the office .de car was ready . it was a very new car a white panda whit hybrid en very friendly people. she help us very good .all week long we have ride the entire island to see beautifull places all over. the car drove very smoothly.
thanks for the good service . . we will come back again.

I am giving Funchal Drive a poor rating because I was required to purchase an additional insurance policy for €262.50 despite presenting a valid Mastercard credit card.

The official explanation given to me was that the Mastercard I presented was not issued by a traditional physical bank. However, this is not a reasonable justification in my case. My Mastercard was issued in Germany through MLP and is fully subject to the German banking and deposit protection system. There is therefore no relevant difference in terms of security or reliability between my Mastercard and a credit card issued directly by a traditional bank.

I have been using this Mastercard for several decades and have always had very positive experiences with it. I have successfully used it in all kinds of situations and countries without any problems. This is the first time in my entire life that I have encountered such a situation.

I was therefore effectively forced on site to purchase an additional insurance policy, even though there was no reasonable basis for doing so. I consider this to be highly questionable and unacceptable business practice.

Furthermore, I had already purchased all the necessary insurance coverage through CHECK24, including coverage for potential damage to the rental vehicle. I was fully covered for any damage and had no excess to pay. There was therefore no apparent reason whatsoever to require me to pay an additional €262.50.

I expect Funchal Drive to review this matter critically and thoroughly and to reimburse me the full amount of €262.50 that I was charged additionally.

In my view, there was absolutely no reasonable basis for questioning the security or reliability of the Mastercard I presented. I therefore ask Funchal Drive to reconsider this matter, correct this unacceptable business practice and refund the full amount of €262.50.

Service was great and costs were transparent and fair.

My experience with this company was very disappointing. When I picked up the car, I was told that because I did not have a credit card in my own name, I was required to purchase an additional insurance package, which cost an extra €177.

The shuttlebus took to long to pick us up. When I arrived at the airport and contacten you it took more than a half hour to pick up

Easy renting, great car, nice staff. We really enjoyed it. Thank you

All went according to plan. Car was good en delivery and pick up service was very appreciated.

Fast checkout and responsive company. Close to the airport. Car was clean and ready to go!!

Got picked up by the airport and brought to the garage, the car was fine just the airconditioning wasn't working. 2 Days later we changed the car for another one and all was fine. The last star could be earned when the gastank would have been full and had to be brought back full. Now it was 1/2 a tank, which is impossible to do right.