Self drive luxury minibus hire - does it exist?

[QuartzDad]

Mum lives in Reading. Dad wanted his ashes scattered in Edinburgh. Flying isn't an option, train not great either.

There will be 12 or 13 of us going up to Scotland for a week. 17 seat Transit minibuses are readily available but not that comfortable. I'm trying to find something similar to this for self-drive:



I'm old so have a D1 entitlement. Anywhere in the Midlands or South as a pickup point would be fine.

Anyone know of any available?

[cts1975]

Hi
You are not likely to be able to hire a self drive luxury/exec. The one in your pic is an EVM built vehicle. We have 3 of these.
Transit 16/17 seat standard minibuses cost about £40k ish.
I new Merc exec bespoke build is £90k+ hence they don't end up with hire companies.
You should easily be able to hire 2 x 8 Ford Tourneos if you use one of the nationals. They are nice inside and drive well.
A late transit will have aircon and comfortable seats the probelm is the majority of the hire vehicles go on long term hires so you may struggle.
Ian

[QuartzDad]

Thanks Ian, much appreciated. Will look at Tourneos, two might be a plan.

[Chucklehead]

lots of hire companies have 15/17 seat buses, they just don't rent them out to the public because they are terrified of the liability (amongst other things), so they only go on rent to companies that also insure them.

As above, you're far more likely to do better with 2x 8 or possibly 9 seat options from the majors.

[cts1975]

How about 2 x 8/9 seat tourneos from one of the nationals (they will be newer from a bigger rental company) and a set of 2 way radios/walkie talkies to keep everybody in touch whilst you are driving in convoy?
The other issue with a 16/17 seat is parking and height restrictions on public parking.