Cheap UK car hire

pjsmiffy

Hi I want to hire a car for a weekend in August (to goto a wedding in) and was wondering if anyone had any tips to keep the price down.

I know about using a price comparison site to get the CDW covered at a lower price than the rental company's price but wanted other tips.

I have read the holiday car hire guide.

Any tips?

forgotmyname

Dont crash it. That will keep the price down.

The CDW maybe cheaper elsewhere but will they accept it? If you do damage it will it be a hassle free process for them to claim or will the excessive bill send your CDW company saying no way thats too much we are not paying that.

Get the smallest model you require and dont think ahh an extra £ i can upgrade to something flashy.

Try local companies and not just the mainstream ones. Although a small firm may not have a spare vehicle at the time you require.

You dont state any requirements other than August Weekend. Probably a busy time for them. I hired a van in April and just enquired about a 16 seater minibus. They said you need to book well in advance and that they had some free days but mid July to early September was fully booked already.

pjsmiffy

Sorry I should of given more info.

As its for a wedding I wanted to hire a more showy car than my rather old and tired people carrier. Think I may have to even press it into service driving the bride about. (not really what you can do with a C1)

I have a clean UK licence (full manual) that I will have held for 20 years by the time I want the car.

It is a good point checking the hire company will accept a 3rd party CDW insurance policy and the insurance company will be ok with the hire company.

I think I only even discussed CDW as I have heard of rental companies closely inspecting cars returned without CDW to make extra money from the customer.

I know that if I was in a Spanish tourist destination I could hire a fairly nice car for quite cheap if I booked well ahead.

pjsmiffy

forgotmyname wrote: »

Dont crash it. That will keep the price down.

Always a good policy.

forgotmyname

At least you have transport if it goes pear shaped. I wanted to hire a transit luton with the extended rear to move someone 400 miles each way.

Booked way in advance. Turned up about 4am and its nowhere to be seen. Seems its 90 miles away and they are not sure if its on its way back yet.
They had to sort me a 7.5 ton lorry instead. I dont think he expected me to check it over properly and i spotted the inner rear tyres were flat.

I dread to think of what would have happened if i had not checked it. 400 miles with approx 300 of that on the motorway.
They had to get me another one from another company.