Car Rental in Ireland and England

[artnbarb]

I've checked the AutoEurope site for an estimate of prices for next summer. We'll be renting for 2 weeks in Ireland, picking up and dropping off at Dublin airport, then renting for 4 weeks in England, picking up at Leeds airport and dropping off at either London Gatwick or Heathrow.

What I'm seeing for the 2 weeks in Ireland, for an automatic with zero/refundable deductible is just under $900, and for the 4 weeks in England, $1500. Does this sound about right, or are these prices high because they haven't loaded next year's rates in yet? I realize that with AE I can check and re-check the rates and that they'll adjust if the price goes down, but what I'm really trying to do is get some idea of our major expenses for this trip.

 

[Pauline]

I usually work it out by price per day. For example, this year we paid £33/day in Switzerland but last year it was £22. And earlier this year in Italy it was £23/day.

When I looked at prices for Switzerland last December it was £25/day and I assumed it would go down so did not book. When I looked again a couple of months later it was much higher. I finally booked when it went down a bit but it never returned to those lower levels from December.

I no longer understand car rental prices.

Don't forget the second driver fee which they tell you. It is a per day amount but tops out. For this trip it was CHF14/day to a max of CHF140. Making it a very expensive car rental, considering that we did not eve use one tank of gas in the 3 weeks. Oh well.

To compare I would see the rate for a booking in October this year, to compare.

 

[veronicafrance]

I usually work it out by price per day. For example, this year we paid £33/day in Switzerland but last year it was £22. And earlier this year in Italy it was £23/day.

When I looked at prices for Switzerland last December it was £25/day and I assumed it would go down so did not book. When I looked again a couple of months later it was much higher. I finally booked when it went down a bit but it never returned to those lower levels from December.

I no longer understand car rental prices.

Wouldn't that likely be to do with exchange rates, at least in part? The pound is not exactly booming against the euro and the CHF.

 

[Rome Addict]

Get the gun out of my back!!! Ouch!! The worst I spent was $985 for the month (including full CDW) for 10 days England then 10 days Ireland then 12 days England. Yeah those prices are pretty much nosebleed high based on my experience this summer.

Try Hertz executive rental. 28 days for $236. That was for a Fiat 500 but a mid size was only $302. Since I knew we were going to be putting serious miles on and UK gas is between 1.12 and 1.18 pounds per liter i went for the mileage savings. I actually spent more in gas than car rental. Priceline has some smoking deals too.

The other thing is in London it may be worth your while to check out all 3 airports. The inter airport transportation is cheap and sometimes Gatwick or Heathrow or Hampstead (?) will be significantly cheaper.

 

[artnbarb]

Right now the prices I'm seeing on AE, again, for an automatic with zero deductible, are about $60/day. I guess I'll have to keep monitoring prices to see if that's high, or has become the new normal. Living in the U.S. where cars can be had for $25/day (or less), I'm having a hard time accepting these prices.

 

[Mom83]

Art barb...have you look at Sixt? We rent from them when visiting our families in Wales and Oxford and have always been pleased. We rent from Heathrow.

 

[artnbarb]

We always book through Auto Europe, and Sixt IS one of their suppliers. @Pauline , am I correct that by clicking on the link to AE on your site, you get a small return?

 

[Pauline]

We always book through Auto Europe, and Sixt IS one of their suppliers. @Pauline , am I correct that by clicking on the link to AE on your site, you get a small return?

I get a commission if you use my link. But I have found you get a better price clicking thru from their newsletters. If you do that and end up phoning them you can tell them you want it registered as a SlowEurope booking. I tried that a couple of times.

 

[Mom83]

Last summer, for some reason we got a better rate directly from Sixt than we did from AE when renting out of Heathrow. We have always used AE when renting cars in Italy and France, but had a bad experience with Maggiore through AE on our last visit through FCO. Originally, AE confirmed we were renting through either Hertz or Avis (cannot remember which one), but right before our trip we were switched to Maggiore. The wait for our car was close to 2 hours...left a bad taste in our mouth for that company. So my husband decided to rent directly through Avis for our FCO rental the end of this month. Fingers crossed!
My husband always rents through AE online...I wonder if he would have better luck if he called. Knowing him, that will probably never happen though.

 

[Ian Sutton]

Petrol (aka gas) prices do vary significantly, even between petrol stations a few hundred yards apart. Motorways and out of the way country locations seem to vie for the most expensive, whilst the supermarket owned petrol stations are often the cheapest. I'm sure there are apps / websites out there that track the local prices, but in the absence of that, do look out for a local (large) supermarket with petrol pumps, and because all petrol stations are obliged to display the prices before entering, comparisons are easy.

p.s. Some offer free use of air pumps for tyres, whilst others charge a nominal but increasing fee (50p to £1). We tend to do ours before any long journey, or every so often when refuelling.

 

[tearendt]

For what is worth we rented a small car last May through AE for 12 days from Dublin ring road returning at Shannon Airport for about $460..... manual with the zero deductible full insurance. When we arrived at the Hertz pick up location we asked about an automatic and the agent gave us one for $15 more per day. This turned out to be much cheaper than the AE quoted price for an automatic. I think the on-site agents have some wiggle room with additional costs.

 

[Rome Addict]

For what is worth we rented a small car last May through AE for 12 days from Dublin ring road returning at Shannon Airport for about $460..... manual with the zero deductible full insurance. When we arrived at the Hertz pick up location we asked about an automatic and the agent gave us one for $15 more per day. This turned out to be much cheaper than the AE quoted price for an automatic. I think the on-site agents have some wiggle room with additional costs.

That is close to what we paid full size 10 days in city center Dublin.