Do any SFN members have experience of car rental in the UK? After years of driving across France to get tto the UK in my own car I have now decided to go the cheap flight/car rental at airport route. Two experiences so far have left me dismayed at the operating practices of what are supposedly reputable International car rental companies - wildly expensive extras such as SATNav, excess insurance (which doesn't cover everything anyway) etc. Are all companies in the car rental field afflicted with underhand operations or are there any honest operators there now?
Bit late on this one as i have just returned from the UK, hired a car from Rentalcars.com at East Mildands airport £80 +£24 excess damage cover for one week turned out to be Hertz car hire or at least their desk, I had booked the smallest cheapest car a small Kia ended up with a Ford C Max brand new 5 miles on the clock far cheaper than any others i found
I tend to start with at holidayautos.co.uk and see what prices I can get. Last time at Stansted, Green Motion was their cheapest option but they are offsite so you have to get the shuttle to the Hilton hotel (on arrival it's free but return trip costs £3) . Last year when I needed 2 named drivers, Enterprise was the cheapest as everyone else charged for a 2nd named driver.
I normally buy separate excess insurance ( last time it was £9 for 4 days) and I take my own GPS.
Have been in the habit of using Hertz lately; used to use Avis. Neither of them tried to sell me anything except the top up insurance. Wouldn't have wanted a satnav at any price.
We use Avis and Europcar on a regular basis - price is normally the determining factor between the 2 - not really had any problems with them. We don't take the top up insurance as it's covered on a separate policy and we have sat nav on our phones.
Often its cheaper to book your car hire at same time as flight - certainly Easyjet Europcar we have found to be competitive.
Also might be worth looking at taking out a car hire excess insurance policy then you won't need to pay the hire car companies top ups.
shop around! there are lots of comparison sites - go car hire ?
we've always good experiences in the UK and Ireland
and take your own sat nav!
We always take our car, so can't help you there.
Just a gentle reminder that to rent you need a valid licence, either French or UK with photo not less than 10 years old.