Search for car hire in the Canary Islands long enough and you’ll eventually land on both names within minutes of each other — Cicar and Cabrera Medina, sometimes showing near-identical prices, sometimes with a genuine gap between them, and websites that look suspiciously alike once you compare them side by side. It’s not a coincidence, and it’s not a scam either. It’s one company operating under two brand names, and understanding why changes how you should actually shop between them.
The Short History Behind Two Names
The company began in 1967 as Autos Cabrera Medina, founded by Mamerto Cabrera Medina in Lanzarote with a fleet of six cars. In 1989, as the business expanded beyond Lanzarote to the rest of the Canary Islands, it did so under a new name — CICAR, short for Canary Islands Car — while the original Cabrera Medina brand continued operating alongside it. Both brands have sat under the same corporate group ever since, now running a combined fleet of around 15,000 vehicles across all seven islands.
In practice, that means the choice between them isn’t a choice between two competitors — it’s a choice between two storefronts for the same business, each with its own website, its own branding, and occasionally its own pricing.
What This Actually Means for Your Booking
| Cicar | Cabrera Medina | |
|---|---|---|
| Parent company | Same group | Same group |
| Insurance and excess terms | Identical policy | Identical policy |
| Fleet | Shared | Shared |
| Website language options | Broader | More limited — Spanish is the default audience |
| Tenerife coverage | Airports, main resorts, Santa Cruz | Also present — South Airport, Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje, Santa Cruz cruise port |
| Pricing | Can differ from Cabrera Medina | Can differ from Cicar |
The insurance terms matter most here, since it’s the detail that tends to worry people renting through a less internationally recognised name. Because both brands sit under the same operational structure, the zero-excess cover and service standards that apply to a Cicar booking apply the same way to a Cabrera Medina one — you’re not trading down on protection by choosing the less familiar name.
Where This Question Actually Comes From
This isn’t a question people invent out of nowhere — it comes up repeatedly on travel forums for a specific, understandable reason: the two websites genuinely look alike, share a very similar layout, and even reference each other in ways that make first-time visitors suspicious rather than reassured. That instinct — “these look too similar to be unrelated” — turns out to be exactly right, just not in the scam-adjacent way it might first appear. The similarity is a byproduct of shared corporate ownership and shared back-end systems, not evidence of anything to be wary of.
It’s also worth knowing that Spanish-speaking locals and long-term Canary Islands visitors tend to reach for the Cabrera Medina name specifically, partly out of habit from the brand’s longer history in Lanzarote, while shorter-term international visitors are more likely to land on Cicar first through English-language search results. Neither pattern reflects a difference in the underlying service — it’s simply which brand each audience became familiar with first.
Is Cabrera Medina Actually in Tenerife?
Yes, and this is worth confirming directly, because a fair amount of the confusion floating around forums comes from Cabrera Medina’s stronger historical presence in Lanzarote, where the company started. On Tenerife specifically, Cabrera Medina operates from Tenerife South Airport (via an off-site office rather than a counter inside the terminal itself — worth knowing if you’re timing a pickup), plus locations in Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje, and at the Santa Cruz cruise port. It’s a smaller footprint on the island than Cicar’s, but a real one rather than a Lanzarote-only brand that happens to show up in Tenerife search results by mistake.
Why the Prices Aren’t Always the Same
If both brands share a fleet and identical insurance terms, the obvious question is why the price at checkout doesn’t always match. In practice, a few things drive the gap:
- Different demand patterns. Cabrera Medina’s Spanish-speaking customer base skews differently from Cicar’s more internationally mixed one, and pricing can respond to that independently across the two booking systems.
- Separate promotional cycles. Each brand runs its own discounts and seasonal offers, which don’t always align.
- Location-specific availability. With a smaller Tenerife footprint, Cabrera Medina’s pricing at a given office can move more with local demand than Cicar’s broader network.
The practical upshot, echoed consistently across forum discussions from renters who’ve used both: it’s worth checking prices on both sites for the same dates and vehicle category before booking, since there’s no cost to comparing when the underlying product — the actual car, the actual insurance — is the same either way.
How This Differs From the Autoreisen Confusion
This is worth addressing directly, because the two get mixed up online with some regularity. Cabrera Medina and Cicar are the same company; Autoreisen is not — it’s a genuinely separate, independently operated business, despite occasionally appearing in the same breath in casual comparisons. Our Cicar vs Autoreisen comparison covers that specific decision in detail, and it’s a meaningfully different question from the one this article answers: Cicar-vs-Autoreisen is a genuine choice between two separate companies, while Cicar-vs-Cabrera-Medina is closer to choosing which door of the same shop to walk through.
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A Note on How We Cover This
Our own hands-on experience with this group has been under the Cicar name specifically — that’s the brand we’ve booked and reviewed directly, and it’s why our Cicar deposit and insurance guide speaks from first-hand testing. Because Cabrera Medina operates under the same corporate structure with the same insurance terms, the practical details in that guide should carry over accurately — but we haven’t independently tested a Cabrera Medina booking specifically, so treat this article as accurate on the corporate relationship and general terms, while confirming any Cabrera Medina-specific detail (like your exact pickup location on Tenerife) directly before booking.
Should You Book Cabrera Medina or Cicar?
Given they’re the same company, the decision comes down to three practical things rather than trust or insurance coverage:
- Price — check both for your exact dates, since the gap (in either direction) is sometimes real.
- Language and website familiarity — if you’d rather book through an interface clearly built for international, English-speaking visitors, Cicar’s site tends to be the more comfortable choice.
- Pickup location — confirm which brand actually has an office at your specific arrival point on Tenerife, since Cabrera Medina’s island footprint is smaller than Cicar’s.
For a full side-by-side against the rest of the market, our complete Tenerife car hire company comparison covers where this group sits relative to Autoreisen, Sanasty, and the wider field.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Cabrera Medina and Cicar really the same company?
Yes. Cabrera Medina was founded in 1967 in Lanzarote; Cicar (Canary Islands Car) was created in 1989 as the same group expanded across the rest of the Canary Islands. Both brands have operated under the same corporate structure ever since, sharing a fleet and insurance terms.
Does Cabrera Medina have offices on Tenerife?
Yes — Tenerife South Airport (via an off-site office), Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje, and the Santa Cruz cruise port are among its Tenerife locations, though its footprint on the island is smaller than Cicar’s.
Is the insurance the same whether I book with Cicar or Cabrera Medina?
Yes, since both operate under the same corporate group with shared policy terms. The specific coverage details are the same regardless of which brand’s website you book through.
Why is Cabrera Medina sometimes cheaper than Cicar, or vice versa?
The two brands run separate booking systems, promotions, and pricing that respond independently to demand, even though the underlying fleet and insurance are shared. It’s worth comparing both for your specific dates rather than assuming either is consistently cheaper.
Is Autoreisen also part of the same group as Cicar and Cabrera Medina?
No. This is a common point of confusion, but Autoreisen is a separate, independently operated company, unrelated to the Cicar/Cabrera Medina group.
Which one should I book for a Tenerife rental?
Either is a reasonable choice given they’re the same underlying company — compare prices for your exact dates, check which has a pickup point that suits your arrival, and go with whichever website you find easier to book through.
Does it matter which brand I book with for customer service if something goes wrong?
Not meaningfully. Since both operate under the same corporate structure with shared systems, the practical process for resolving an issue — a deposit query, a damage dispute, a booking amendment — follows the same underlying policies either way. Our guide to disputing a charge in Tenerife applies equally regardless of which brand’s name is on your paperwork.
The Bottom Line
Cabrera Medina and Cicar aren’t rival companies competing for your booking — they’re the same business trading under two names, a structure that goes back to how the company expanded across the Canary Islands in 1989. That means the insurance and service standards you’d expect from one apply equally to the other; the only genuine decision left is which brand’s price and pickup location work better for your specific trip.
