About Tempest Car Hire
Tempest Car Hire was founded in 1986, and according to their website, the company was designed specifically to offer low cost car rental options. In 1991, Tempest became part of the Imperial Holdings Group, a group of companies that all focus on vehicles and logistics. Tempest Car Rental has a fleet of approximately 3,000 vehicles available to rent, and has branches across South Africa. The company is a member of SAVRALA, the South African Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association. The current Managing Director of Tempest Car Hire is Leslie Matthews.
Where is Tempest Car Rental Located?
You can find the head offices of Tempest Car Hire at 16 Ernest Oppenheimer Avenue, Bruma 2026. Additionally, there are around 30 branches of Tempest nation-wide.
Which Services Do Tempest Car Hire Provide?
Obviously, Tempest rent vehicles, they offer daily, weekly and long term rental options. The company also provides an airport pick up and drop off service which means clients don;t need to take their own vehicles to the main airports in South Africa.
Renting a Vehicle with Tempest
Tempest Car Hire offer a range of budget vehicles to rent, and a range of other rental options as well. If you choose to rent your vehicle from Tempest, you will be offered the following:
- A choice of eight different classes of vehicles, including budget cars, people carriers and vans;
- The ability to choose where you will pick up and drop off your vehicle (you do not have to leave the car in the same location as you picked it up from);
- The ability to add extra insurance to your rental agreement, which will lower the amount that you are liable for in case of an accident;
- Free child seat rental;
- GPS rental for R79 per day;
- The ability to add an extra driver onto your rental agreement for R220 per rental;
- You can add tyre and glass insurance for R25 per day;
- Your chosen vehicle can be delivered to your home address or picked up for an extra fee;
- You may take your vehicle out of South Africa to Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique or Zimbabwe for a one time fee of R1100, or to Lesotho or Swaziland with prior agreement from Tempest.
You should also be aware that Tempest does charge an extra fee of R150 per day for younger drivers, meaning those who are under 21.
How Are Tempest Car Hire’s Customer Reviews?
Hellopeter, the website that allows customers to write reviews of service providers, has 125 reports about Tempest Car Hire from the last twelve months. Of these reports, 113 are negative – this is of course not very encouraging. On the other hand, rental companies usually have a fair amount of complaints, and 125 reports overall doesn’t seem that high. Additionally, the main criticisms for Tempest was about their customer service and about deposits not being refunded. It is easy to avoid this by paying close attention to the paperwork you sign which also lists existing faults and damage to a vehicle – be sure to take pictures with your mobile phone of these and to mark them on the paperwork before driving away.
How User Friendly is the Tempest Car Rental Website?
The Tempest Car Rental website was very simple to use indeed. They offer an easy three step process to rent a car, as well as plenty of information about their vehicles and optional extras. We especially liked the useful symbols that Tempest showed for each vehicle, telling customers how many passengers a car could hold, how much luggage, average fuel consumption and even whether or not a car has air conditioning. If we had to change one small thing on the Tempest website it would be that the section explaining insurance options was a little complicated and was in very small print. It might be useful for customers if this important information was explained in simpler language. However, in general we were very satisfied with the user experience on the Tempest site.
Tempest Car Hire in Conclusion
Tempest Car Hire is a budget car rental company, with a large fleet of vehicles and many branches around South Africa. They offer plenty of rental options, including free child seats. Consumer reviews don’t look great on first view, but by following proper procedure and thoroughly checking a vehicle before renting you should be able to avoid problems with your deposit- a complaint that quite a few customers had. You will want to check out several rental companies before making a final decision, however. Rental car prices can vary quite a bit, and it’s always best to do your research so that you now you’re getting the right price. A good starting point would be to read some of our other helpful reviews about other car rental companies such as Hertz Car Hire or Europcar!
Main subject: Tempest Car Hire
