Car rentals - WTF

[Skeptisk]

I’m planning to visit the U.K. for the first time in three years. Was looking at flights and car rental. Almost £300 for an Aygo for two days. WTAF has happened? Unless me memory has gone completely screwy didn’t we use to pay £50 a day for the smallest cars not that many years ago?

Are there any lower priced rentals?

[gsr121]

If you are flying into London Heathrow, you could try Penney Car Hire. It will involve Uber/taxi/train journey (you choose), they are located in a railway station car park in Virginia Water which isn’t too far from Heathrow. I have used them a couple of times and they are very professional and from I saw cars are less than 1 year old in the main.

http://www.pennycarhire.co.uk/

[Bobton125]

Try looking at more comparison sites? Or Turo
Could also look at taking out your own excess insurance if the insurance is bumping up the price too much

[Zippee]

Hire companies sold off a lot of their fleets during the lockdowns.
Then the sheer lack of new car supply and subsequent cheap fleet deals means they have a major shortage of cars and those they have will cost a lot more.

Edited by Zippee on Tuesday 9th August 21:56

[Mark83]

Currently without a car and I was shocked when I looked to hire a car from a local Europcar for three days to get us to and from a wedding.

Fiat 500 - £350
3 Series estate - £1200

Train there and back - £39

[rcspeirs]

The rental companies got rid of much of their inventory during the height of the pandemic. When they tried to restock we were into the supply chain chaos. Rental companies are struggling (really struggling) to get cars from anyone and are having to pay much higher prices for stock than they ever did. Perfect storm which is why the rates you see are so scary

[georgeyboy12345]

Welcome back to rip-off Britain, courtesy of the Conservative Party!

[anonymous-user]

No need to pay that, use one of the comparison sites, just Google car rental comparison.

Direct prices are awful.

[croyde]

Not just Britain, try hiring in Europe, it's fekin crazy.

I wanted a tiny car out of Malaga, the town not airport, a few weeks ago.

£800 for 6 days, and that was the cheapest quote.

I'm in Kefalonia end of August. Guy I normally rent from wanted €300 for a Fiesta for a week, sounds cheap these days but, the same car was €120 in 2020 at the same time of year.

[PomBstard]

Not just Europe - a 7-seater in Cairns back in April was 3x the price I paid 3 years ago.

As for Heathrow - there was a thread on here about that a few weeks ago. I ended up paying about GBP2600 for a Skoda Superb TDI for three weeks, which was just about as insulting as it gets!

As others have mentioned, unless you need to collect from LHR, get a taxi to an off-airport supplier.

Edit

Here ya go…

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Edited by PomBstard on Tuesday 9th August 23:15

[Old Merc]

I use www.rentalcars.com it gets the price right down, as with all companies make sure you get Full insurance. Just checked them, pick up a Fiat 500 at H/Row £106.13 for THREE days including FULL insurance excess cover.
https://www.rentalcars.com/search-results?location...

[GreatGranny]

£3500 meet and greet Heathrow September for 3 days

[Old Merc]

That can’t be right, must be a spoof site, or a scam?

[thainy77]

My family recently travelled back to the UK for a couple of months, we ended up using www.zestcarrental.com who are essentially a broker, the car they had was from Europcar but it was approximately 40% cheaper than going direct with them. They were much cheaper than any of the comparison sites.

Edited by thainy77 on Wednesday 10th August 17:48

[parabolica]

Same situation a month ago - ended up renting a van (one of those merc, car-based vans) as the quote for that was about 25% of the cost for the cheapest car. Ended up working well; was actually really decent to drive!

[James6112]

Had similar in the past
Get the best : cheapest transfer from the airport (rip off prices)
Book hire car @ 50% less from base o

[Poisson96]

It's taken 2.5 days to source me a hire van to replace my broken company one. Used to be able to do it same day, and it broke almost immediately grumble.

[Olivergt]

I've just done a quote for 5th 12th September, so 5 days from Hertz pick up at Heathrow, and I can get an Astra for £355.

Not sure if this link will work, but here you go

https://www.hertz.ie/rentacar/reservation/?id=4639...

[Dog Star]

parabolica said:

Same situation a month ago - ended up renting a van (one of those merc, car-based vans) as the quote for that was about 25% of the cost for the cheapest car. Ended up working well; was actually really decent to drive!

That’s a great tip.

[Granadier]

Not much use if you need pick-up from an airport, but I'll put in a plug for Kendall Cars, who I've used for some years. Branches in South West London and Surrey, prices from £28.51 per day... though they say availability is tight for August. They also do vans, and the vehicle can be dropped back to them overnight,which can be handy.
https://www.kendallcars.com/car-rental