Car hire in London

konstantinovs

I live in London (Greenwich) and am looking to hire a car locally. I'm planning on driving down to Lulworth Cove for two days over a weekend and was wondering if there were any tips on where to get good, cheap hire cars.

I've seen Streetcar/Zipcar, but these require a yearly subscription as far as I can see. This isn't really worth it for me as I really don't have the need to drive much these days (this will be the first time in 4 years!).

Apologies if this has been asked before, all my searches came up with rental locations at airports which is not what I'm after. Would prefer something a bit more local.

Thanks!

benjus

I live in the Greenwich area as well. I have a car now, but for some time relied on Zipcar, Hertz On Demand and ordinary car hire. I'd forget about car clubs - even Hertz On Demand which has no annual fee - because they work out very expensive for driving longer distances.

City Airport is pretty easy to get to on the DLR... I wouldn't rule out airport locations as they are often more convenient than town locations - for one thing, town locations are often only open office hours, and maybe Saturday morning, while airport locations are typically open 7 days a week, and 24 hours a day for the larger airports.

Alternatively, there are a couple of car hire chains in Lewisham. I think one of them is National, which has a weekend special - might be worth a look. http://www.nationalcar.co.uk/Hotdeals/630/uk/zluk_ukcarhire3for2

Then there are independent places like http://www.acevanhireuk.com/page/car_hire - can't comment on these, I'm afraid.

Doshwaster

Whenever I've needed to hire a car in the country I've always used a local independent company as you tend you get better prices and service, even if their vehicles are a little older than the big firms.

konstantinovs

benjus wrote: »

I live in the Greenwich area as well. I have a car now, but for some time relied on Zipcar, Hertz On Demand and ordinary car hire. I'd forget about car clubs - even Hertz On Demand which has no annual fee - because they work out very expensive for driving longer distances.

City Airport is pretty easy to get to on the DLR... I wouldn't rule out airport locations as they are often more convenient than town locations - for one thing, town locations are often only open office hours, and maybe Saturday morning, while airport locations are typically open 7 days a week, and 24 hours a day for the larger airports.

Alternatively, there are a couple of car hire chains in Lewisham. I think one of them is National, which has a weekend special - might be worth a look. http://www.nationalcar.co.uk/Hotdeals/630/uk/zluk_ukcarhire3for2

Then there are independent places like http://www.acevanhireuk.com/page/car_hire - can't comment on these, I'm afraid.

You're right, I always forget that I'm near to City airport, that should fit the bill nicely, especially as all these car hire comparison sites only seem to include airports . I'm also going to be returning the car on Sunday so that's also more convenient. Thanks!

Doshwaster wrote: »

Whenever I've needed to hire a car in the country I've always used a local independent company as you tend you get better prices and service, even if their vehicles are a little older than the big firms.

That'd be a good idea except I need to collect the car from London to drive out to the country. Thanks though.

Obviously_the_best

Budget from London City would probably do just fine.

richardw

Sometimes with national if you pick a time near closing time for pick up you get an overnight rate, worth a little play around with times to see if the rate changes.