We assess the six biggest car rental companies in Australia – Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, SIXT and Thrifty – to determine how easy it is to hire a car and understand the car rental contract.

Our car hire buying guide outlines how to rent a car in Australia and everything you need to know about these services.

Our hands-on test follows the same steps you would if you were renting a vehicle online.

We assess:

• overall ease of use before, during and after the booking process
• the level of detail in the contract, the amount of information provided, and whether it’s delivered in language that’s easy for the average consumer to understand
• the level of detail provided in the contract, to see if the collision damage waiver or loss damage waiver specifies what is and isn’t covered. 

We look at what’s covered for the basic cover included in the rental price by all six companies.

You may notice we haven’t recommended any of these companies. Our scoring is primarily based on the ease of renting a car and understanding the rental contract. No rental car companies performed well on this basis. 

Car rental companies have been investigated for anti-consumer practices by the ACCC and ongoing negative feedback from consumers suggests there is still a long way to go. However, people continue to use them, so we’ve assessed their performance and usability on the grounds that many of our members will likely rent a vehicle sometime in the near future.