Renting a car in Ukraine
I was at the airport in Ukraine and inquired about the process of renting a car in Ukraine. With very poor local language, I did find one of the three auto rental places spoke a little English. They require a credit card or a cash deposit. Right out of the gate, I would avoid using my credit card due to the fact that it seems the chances of it being compromised is quite high. This can turn into an inconvenience and an added expense of courier a new card to yourself.
We looked online and found a number of rental car companies willing to offer us nice autos and pick up drop off service; you pay for it, of course. So the standard cash deposit is 600-800 USD. The daily rate with two hundred kilometers per day works out between 65.00-80.00 USD. The services we have used are friendly and professional. The first rental we took worked out fine, but when we returned it, they proceeded to charge us to wash it. It has light road dirt as it rained, and we were on pavement all the time. I was in shock, and to me, it was not dirty.
Another thing that we learned is the roads are so bad it is best to rent any auto that is higher off the ground, like a small SUV. We did just that, and ten hours before we were to pick up the auto rental company called and explained the SUV was not available, we proceeded with another car. Well, this has happened every time we have rented. It's like everyone wants the SUV as the holes in the roads can cause you to hit bottom on standard cars. Also, it is common to park on the sidewalk here in Odesa, the sidewalks are very large, from the curb to the building it can be 8 meters or 30 feet, so lots of space, that said an SUV jumps up on the curb fine, but a normal car can hit the low plastic and cause damage.
(What is the sunglasses sign mean anyway?)
We also learned the fee they want to charge to wash the car is about twenty times more than the fee for doing it yourself. When your in Ukraine and want to rent a car, have some cash and go for it. You can use your credit card. All the cars are newer, and all have some issues, so expect that, I understand they buy them in the USA, bring them over and drive them for a while and sell them off, so as not to get stuck with the worn-out auto.