Michael E.
Rented a car for one week to explore the island. We had a Renault Clio 4-door with 0.9l petrol Turbo engine, which was totally fine (engine wise and space to store all the luggage). For those of you who are unfamiliar with renting cars, don´t let them fool you with extra assurances, upgrades to bigger cars, side assist, GPS or whatsoever. I do find it always very annoying that they want to sell you additional stuff for questionable reasons, e.g. the engine is too weak to climb the peaks of Madeira. The car was easily doing it to the highest point Pico Ruivo and all other mountains and roads! As always, make sure to take photos when picking it up and when giving it back.