Recommended Car Hire - Worldwide

[JEZ.S320L]

I recently had cause to hire a car whilst I was in Madrid.

Local National car hire companies were SO expensive (Avis, Hertz etc) UNTIL I came across this UK-based car hire website:

http://www.autoescape.co.uk/

They provided a first class service and obtained for me, a new E-class with unlimited mileage via AVIS.

Locally, AVIS wanted the same money for a Clio, as I got the E-class for..!! How does THAT work.??

 

[Glenn Smith]

Avis and Hertz are always very expensive, we went to Spain earlier in the year and hired a Focus estate for 10days at £135, full insurance with no excess (good job as i needed it)we used economycarhire.com.

 

[clk1]

Car hire

I recently had cause to hire a car whilst I was in Madrid.

Local National car hire companies were SO expensive (Avis, Hertz etc) UNTIL I came across this UK-based car hire website:

http://www.autoescape.co.uk/

They provided a first class service and obtained for me, a new E-class with unlimited mileage via AVIS.

Locally, AVIS wanted the same money for a Clio, as I got the E-class for..!! How does THAT work.??

Thanks for that Jez just being on line get a nice 4 door for hol in orlando in Feb for 211 pounds less then the tour op can do it for so thanks again

 

[johnmc]

Hmm,
Not convinced. They were double the price I paid last time to Thrifty for a 7 seater.

Prices are not great. They were slightly more expensive than Alamo for my last car hire in the USA. Argus car rental is another broker worth a look. It's always worth trying a couple of these. Another broker I've used in the past is Transhire in the UK. I hire cars all of the world for work and pleasure, and there is no magic formula for the prices. But, as always there's a catch. Who will rescue you if the car breaks down or you get a puncture? The service for that varies hugely. I've had a couple of breakdowns in the USA. One was with Hertz. Had a new car and on my way in 35mins. The other was with Budget. Took two days to sort it out, ended up dumping the car at a hotel for them to collect and took off in another car, from Hertz.

http://www.argusrentals.com/

These companies are basically brokers for excess cars, just like some broker for excess seats on flights. You'll find that the price and who they send you too for the car will vary.

John

 

[Rory]

These companies are basically brokers for excess cars, just like some broker for excess seats on flights. You'll find that the price and who they send you too for the car will vary.

I don't think that's quite correct - they're really just the same as travel agents, making a car hire booking for you. One thing they generally did was to include all the insurances necessary, which if you booked direct with a US car hire company until a few years ago all had to be paid separately.

However the US companies have organised themselves now and often have UK based operations that will quote fully inclusive rates. With the weakness of the $ at the moment, those UK sites can be pretty competitive.

The more corporate focussed companies in the US, like Hertz and Avis, often have rates that look ridiculous, but that's because their prices are structured to give corporate customers big discounts.

For holidays in the US, we generally use http://www.usrentacar.co.uk . Their rates are generally there or thereabouts and you can choose upfront which company you rent from with them. We've used Dollar most times in the last few years and never had any probs. I've seen a lot of complaints about Alamo this year insisting people buy breakdown cover even though the booking was made on a fully inclusive basis.

 

[Eric Tilley]

Going to Spain a lot in recent years the highlight has been seeing what car we end up getting. We have been booking the smallest automatic that the companies (Hertz Avis) have on the schedule. But so far we have ended up with Chrysler Grand Voyager, Chrysler C300 .Merc. C class Merc. E class , all at no extra .
Their rationale is that the Spanish do not drive automatics so they don`t have many , the thought does not seem to have dawned as to why they can never meet the demand. This is at Alicante Airport.

 

[angus falconer]

Going to Spain a lot in recent years the highlight has been seeing what car we end up getting. We have been booking the smallest automatic that the companies (Hertz Avis) have on the schedule. But so far we have ended up with Chrysler Grand Voyager, Chrysler C300 .Merc. C class Merc. E class , all at no extra .
Their rationale is that the Spanish do not drive automatics so they don`t have many , the thought does not seem to have dawned as to why they can never meet the demand. This is at Alicante Airport.

That's a great tip - will try in next time I'm on holiday

 

[johnmc]

Hi
Eric's tip is pretty good, rub is that you better like the small automatic that you booked, because someone has to get it. If you're ever in Florida it's worth a bash booking the basic hopeless car that they have. Worked three times for me, they didn't have one and the free upgrade was very nice. But, times four a five I got the noddy car.

I'm just back from another 7 weeks of worldwide travel. Most interesting car this time was a Ford Edge SUV in California. Nice car! Would be good here with a decent diesel.

Off to Asia soon, will get some wheels for a blast around China. I wonder what German car it will be almost an exact copy of!

John

 

[Ben Lovejoy]

At Hahn airport in Germany I always booked a Smart because it was dirt-cheap and I happened to know that they only have five there. I'd varying got Audis, Puntos, etc ... until last time! 600ccs of throbbing power. Still managed to get a speeding ticket, mind ...