Avant Car Croatia Reviews 

This company is total humbug! When picking up our rental car at Split airport we were asked for a huge deposit. However they couldn't accept Amex, Mastercard debit or cash. To avoid the huge deposit we had to - surprise - buy an extra insurance. At the end we had to pay more than twice the price we had originally already pre-paid.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS - or it will cost you.

Sadly, if you are like me you probably did not choose this hire company yourself. We booked a hire car through Easyjet who are responsible for selecting Avantcar.

Easyjet took a commission to route me to a criminal rental car company. The alarm bells rang on arrival in Split as when collecting the car Avantcar said is €50 to take the car from Split to an Island (we stayed on Brac). We had no choice but pay. It got worse at drop off as Avantcar made false claims that I had scratched the underside of the front bumper. For these tiny scrathes the cost was £603. I refused to pay and told them to call the police, Avantcar refused to call the police and charged my credit card anyway. On return to the UK the and researching Avantcar it is routinely defrauding customers.

The review before this one seem to refer tot he same scratches. I was driving a Suzuki S-Cross with reg ending KJ. Anyone else been charged for scratches to the same car?

I rented a vehicle with Avant Car in Zagreb in August 2025. Unfortunately, my experience was far from satisfactory:

1. I received a parking fine (DDPK) in Zagreb, which I accepted as my mistake. However, Avant Car charged me an additional €25 “administration fee” on top of the official fine, even though all communication was automated and no extra service was really provided.

2. More importantly, when crossing into Slovenia, I paid extra for cross-border insurance coverage, but Avant Car never informed me about the mandatory road vignette/toll sticker required to drive there. As a result, I was fined by Slovenian authorities. Their customer service later replied that it was “entirely my oversight” and refused any responsibility.

This shows a lack of transparency and poor customer care. A professional rental company should at least warn customers about mandatory national requirements (such as vignettes) when offering cross-border rentals.

Because of this, I will not rent from Avant Car again and cannot recommend them to other travelers.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. They are bunch of scammers. They gave me a new car and when I returned it back they found a little scratch on it. I am sure they masked it before and the guy immediately went to the door. This happend because I took insurance online with Rentalcars insurance. Their price are low, and then they try to sell u their ensurance but if you dont take it you get scammed. Then they charged me 490 euro, when I protested the intimidated me and came stand nose to nose and one guy behind me. On Ryanair they had a score of 8.4 but on trustpilot you can see how many people they tricked.

Dont rent here! First of all: super slow at handover! They litterally talk for 30 min for each costumer in line… waited 1,5 hour with two small kids after a long flight… They make up exstra charges for the places that you want to go too… say that its some kind of tax. Was not legit when I checked with local people. You also have to clean the car inside and outside before end of holiday. Otherwise they charge 25 euro. Stay away!!

Warning about Avantcar – Avoid being scammed

We recently rented a car from Avantcar and had a very bad experience that we want to share so others don’t get tricked the same way.

When we returned the car, the company suddenly claimed we had caused two damages. Luckily, we had filmed the car both at pickup and at drop-off.
• Damage 1: They first tried to charge us, but after we showed video proof from when we picked up the car, they admitted we were not responsible.
• Damage 2: Despite having clear video evidence showing the car was undamaged when we returned it and left the keys in the designated spot at Split Airport, Avantcar still refused to accept it and kept the charge.

We followed their instructions exactly, filmed everything carefully, and still they claimed we were responsible for a damage that was not there when we returned the car.

This feels like a clear attempt to make customers pay for damages they did not cause. We are continuing the case with the Consumer Protection Agency in Croatia, but we want to warn others in advance.

Our advice: If you are considering renting from Avantcar, think twice. If you do, make sure to document everything with photos and videos, or better yet – choose another company.

The company is set up to make additional profit from unrecorded minor damage. They claimed to caused 4 minor scratches approx 4cm long to the underside of the front bumper and duly charged 590 euro plus 100 euro handling fee. When asked to when could they provide photographic evidence of the repair they could not advise just that it would be at the end of the season. So if further damage occurs in the interim to the same part of the car the hirer will be charged as well. We booked via Easyjet and would ask Easyjet to avoid partnering with this hire company immediately.

PLEASE BE WARY OF THIS COMPANY.
We hired a car from Split airport from Avant Car. ( Booked through a third party agent ). Luckily we took out comprehensive insurance. (With Zurich - they were incredible)

The car was new( I believe we were the second or third people to hire it) Car was lovely. We were taken outside to check the car over and this was done hastily. N.B .. please look over any hire cars with a fine tooth comb and picture ANY marks on them. We learnt the hard way.

We took great care of this car, as if it was our own.

We washed it fuelled it and cleaned the interior before returning it to the airport.

On our return- they mention a minuscule scratch on a wheel hub ( plastic)
It wasn’t even noticeable. We then had a lengthy ‘discussion’ about how they are going to charge us for this.
They wouldn’t let us leave without signing a form admitting we had done the damage.Without signing they will not give you the paperwork to make an insurance claim - which you need to proceed. We have no recollection of any incidents.
The guy says whether we sign the form or not he is still charging us for the ‘damage’. (They have your credit card details on the hire agreement)
He looks up the charges on a document and then tells us it will be €1200 !!
When questioned why it would be such an exorbitant amount he says ‘ We have to factor in the time it will take for the parts to be ordered, the vehicle to be off the road, staff time etc etc’. This I could understand if the car was rendered useless - but this was a tiny scratch on a plastic hub cap.
It has no bearing on the use of the car.

We were advised to sign the paperwork “if we wanted to claim our money back “ .. obviously we can’t stay and argue our case as we have a flight to catch.
Luckily our insurance company ( Zurich U.K) paid out for this the next day. But what a total scam. It put such a downer on an amazing holiday.

We wondered how they could make money by renting brand new cars so reasonably- and worked out that this is how !! BEWARE !!!

Absolute scammers
I was supposed to return the car 7am Sunday, I woke up that day to find that the front number plate is missing.
When I went to their place to return the car they claimed it is not covered by the insurance(although I had the highest premium insurance that they offered).
And I had to pay 360 euros for that as I had a flight to catch.

I also believe that they stole the plates themselves because it was removed in a professional way(and they have gps in all of their cars of course so it is easy to track their own cars), where some screws were put back in place after removing the number plate, so there is no way someone stole it and there is no way it fell by accident.

And of course they did it the night before returning the car so that I have no time to report it to the police or take any action.

Totally not recommended and try to avoid them by all means.

My experience with this car hire company was dire. Despite booking a larger car (they always say a particular car or similar model) we were given a much smaller model which really struggled to get our cases into. When we raised these concerns we were told well it is this or nothing! They were argumentative and the customer service is very poor from the beginning. I understand that they don’t want any damage to their car when you return it but they spent about 20 minutes checking and tried to suggest some interior damage had been caused by me which had not been. Obviously you can’t take photos of every inch when you pick it up but I always video the car anyway but hadn’t thought to do the inside as well. I would urge you to be very careful with who you book your rental car from at Split airport.
Also it wasn’t full of petrol despite suggesting it was.

They give you vehicules in bad shape (MG instead of reserved T-Roc that is really a bad car) and when you tell them something is strange with the car they tell you to go anyway. After that something break and they charge you 2000€ (mre than the reservation on card). Even with the proof they told you to go they just don't reply and keep the money. No other choice than a Mastercard contestation that takes time. Not expensive when reserving but at the desk they push you to take an expensive insurance that doesn't even cover mechanical issue. And once they have your CC number they can take whatever they want on the card whithout your autorization...

Beware of this company, they try to keep a good reputation hiding in a 5-Star hotel and then they have also a location at the airport. They hide their fees and overcharged saying we did a little scratch on the rear bumper and charged us 700 EURO!! Avoid them at all cost they are not fair

This second rate company uses high pressure sales tactics to sell VERY expensive extra insurance. Twice the cost of the actual rental only made clear at the desk when it is too late to book another option. If you dont take it, their list of costs for various repairs is eye watering. READ these reviews and take note. Pay a few extra dollars and go with a reputable company. Also an extra 25 Euro for washing a car after three days. Mindblowing.

Avoid this car rental company at all costs. We had an extremely poor experience with this company and have been charged over 900 Euros for two very small, arguably unidentifiable, scratches one of which was underneath the front bumper.

Edit - the company has replied stating that necessary checks were not completed. This is a false statement. We have videos and pictures of both the inside and outside of the car. We meticulously asked the representative if the checks she had gone over with us were satisfactory. At no point, we we advised or shown any damage drawings of underneath the car which is completely ridiculous.

We also received a legal notice from this company asking us to remove a previously written review 😂 this company does not respond to any communication regarding damage reports and repair costs.

Me and my partner rented a hire car from Avant Car at Dubrovnik airport for 5 days. We selected the VW Polo or similar and got a nearly brand new Skoda which was a similar size, spotless and easy to drive. We picked the full protection so we only had to pay a smaller deposit which helped our situation. We also had no problem with taking the vehicle across the border to Montenegro as we chose the cross border fee. The staff were very helpful with explaining everything and the drop off was also very straightforward. I was rather skeptical because of the low reviews on here but we never had a problem with the process. I got my full deposit back as well.

Absolute joke of a scratch policy. Charged 490 euros for the smallest of scratches they didn't even see on the first look round the car, and are too small to show up in the video I took when picking up the car. Scratches so small they're never going to fix and will just pocket the money for.

Last minute rental at Avant Car Dubrovnik airport on same day of arrival (via third party rental site) due to family illness.
Quick and efficient staff, who were professional and polite.
No hard sell (we just said we had separate annual excess, so we just paid the normal deposit on the credit card) and the car rented was almost brand new. The staff also advised us to check side skirt/bumpers and take videos of car (we do this as standard, but have never been told to do this by the rental company).
We have hired well over 50 cars around the world (have only had 1 car hire issue from all our rentals) and Avant Car staff at Dubrovnik showed how it should be done.

**** BEWARE **** of charges for damage. A scratch on a rear bumper that already had significant scratches and dings on collection .... cost €925 !!!... apparently a 'standard charge for a scratch'. A grossly exaggerated and unfair charge. In my opinion, they are unlikely to repair it .... this is just about making money.

Do not use. Fraudsters

Great experience, 0 problems,everything was top.