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Hire Car Advice


PageyUK

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Hi,

 

 

I'm looking to hire a car to drive to Spain in from Somerset. I will be traveling to the Circuit de Catalunya (approx 1,000 miles). Ferry, etc is booked. Here are the requirements:

  • Must be an estate or bigger
  • Big enough for 4x people + Camping gear
  • Diesel or Petrol
  • Auto or manual
  • Must be less than £500

 

Has anyone done this before or similar? I've looked on hire company websites but there are so many options and worrying things I've read about excess's and extra payments. Is my criteria realistic? Can you recommend companies to use, things to look out for, etc.

 

Obviously the 350Z would be perfect for this, apart from it only has 2x seats and a boot only big enough for a box of matches!

 

Thanks

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It's god advice. A mate bought an XKR to tour down to Italy and back, did just short of 6k miles, sold it for 500 sheets less than he paid when he got back. Winning, if you've got the 20k to drop in the first place :lol:

 

I've just rented an X3 for two weeks in Denmark, £835 :scare:

 

If you do rent from the UK, I rented on and off for a few years with Enterprise and they were cheap and decent service in my experience. Watch out for excess waivers though, they don't push them aggressively but they are fiercely priced (e.g. £1k excess) to scare you into them. They did me a Diesel Estate Passat, it was a superb mile cruncher and super relaxing to drive, if a little bit of a boner killer.

Edited by SuperStu
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I checked Enterprise, they specifically exclude driving outside of the UK & Ireland on their website. Of course, they may well be more accommodating if you ring them, but that's all I could see on there for now.

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Hi, the reason for hiring a car is my friends BMW compact isn't reliable. And spending £500 on a car to do a 1,000 mile trip each way isn't likely to last. The last thing I want is a shitter of a car to ruin the trip or make me late. It's going to have to be an estate hire car. It seems going in to the local branches is going to be my only option!

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I checked Enterprise, they specifically exclude driving outside of the UK & Ireland on their website. Of course, they may well be more accommodating if you ring them, but that's all I could see on there for now.

 

Well that sucks :(

 

Never seen this product before but it sounds interesting. Palm off your excess to a third party for less than the rental company charge. I might use this for Road Trip Scando as it's waaaaaaay cheaper then their own excess waiver - £50 worldwide for a year!

 

http://www.insurance4carhire.com

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I checked Enterprise, they specifically exclude driving outside of the UK & Ireland on their website. Of course, they may well be more accommodating if you ring them, but that's all I could see on there for now.

 

Well that sucks :(

 

Never seen this product before but it sounds interesting. Palm off your excess to a third party for less than the rental company charge. I might use this for Road Trip Scando as it's waaaaaaay cheaper then their own excess waiver - £50 worldwide for a year!

 

http://www.insurance4carhire.com

 

Yea, read about that excess stuff, I think I'll aim to get that elsewhere tbh as the hire company try to sting you with that.

 

Spend £500 fixing the BMW?

 

Nah, its a BMW Compact, £50,000 wouldn't improve it!

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You don't have to make it wonderful, just reliable ;)

 

What's wrong with it?

 

It's a rotten, battered old shed. In the last couple of months both engine mounts failed and a ball joint gave way! I'm not risking driving that, breaking down and ruining the trip. I doubt it will be big enough anyway due to the amount of camping gear, etc plus 4 people. 2 of the people going are girls and we all know how minimal they pack!

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I've hired many times from goldcar in Spain. never had any troubles, real cheap. And i never take out any excess cover, just the basic hire.

All of em will bleed you dry for excess though.

I take out icarhireinsurance for excess cover. couple £ a day.

Only experience with them is that I got a flat in Scotland and I made the executive decision to change it on the spot(although that's not allowed in the t&c's but I was in highlands and wasn't prepared to wait around for the RAC man) and the hirer - think it was Europcar hit me for +£100 for my troubles.

icarhireinsurance came to the party and reimbursed with a standard paperwork application.

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