I need a car just for a few weeks - what's best?

Herzlos

Eliza wrote: »

Middle aged, endless no claims bonus, need car for work, shopping, taxi costs £15 one way to work/nearest town - but only 4 days a week so still pretty expensive. My car having long term work done. Thanks for any ideas.

No chance of a courtesy car / rental from wherever is doing the work?

What long term work is it? Must be a pretty major rebuild if it's going to be off the road for weeks.

kwmlondon

I've wondered about this.

How about asking around your friends? Anyone have a car they don't use much? You could offer to pay for a service/full tank of fuel for them in exchange. Could be handy for a family with two cars who don't use them both all the time.

Otherwise check out gumtree and craigslits - I've seen cheap long-term car hire advertised. Usually older cars but with breakdown cover you'll be fine.

Are you near a car club? In London we've got zipcar that are just brilliant for short occasional trips, but you need to return them to the place you picked them up from.

Try one of the rental comparison sites and see if you can get any deals.

Foxy-Stoat_3

I hired a Corsa for £95 a week from a budget car rentals place while I was between cars, I don't think that is expensive.

londonpi

There a quite a few companies that will rent monthly, Thrifty, Hertz ect. Smaller companies as well. Price is usually around the £300 mark.

Alternative would be zip car or similar, not sure what the costs are for that.

kwmlondon

londonpi wrote: »

There a quite a few companies that will rent monthly, Thrifty, Hertz ect. Smaller companies as well. Price is usually around the £300 mark.

Alternative would be zip car or similar, not sure what the costs are for that.

Zip's great if you need a car for a specific time e.g. go shopping, pick up people from airport, visit friend overnight. But you pay by the hour so it's expensive if you want to drive to work and drive back and have it during the day (they do cheap overnight deals). Mind you, if you could book a car near work you could get it overnight and take it home every evening and bring it back in the morning. Still gonna be expensive though.

agrinnall

kwmlondon wrote: »

Zip's great if you need a car for a specific time e.g. go shopping, pick up people from airport, visit friend overnight. But you pay by the hour so it's expensive if you want to drive to work and drive back and have it during the day (they do cheap overnight deals). Mind you, if you could book a car near work you could get it overnight and take it home every evening and bring it back in the morning. Still gonna be expensive though.

This was my reason for asking the OP for more detail of use, as I was going to suggest this type of hire if the usage pattern fitted, but it really doesn't so other alternatives are likely to be cheaper.

jimjames

Herzlos wrote: »

No chance of a courtesy car / rental from wherever is doing the work?

What long term work is it? Must be a pretty major rebuild if it's going to be off the road for weeks.

Not necessarily major. My Passat was off the road for nearly 3 weeks having tailgate rust sorted as they were waiting for parts. In that case VW did supply a courtesy car for the whole time.

rdr

Get a bike, it'll do you good and 20 miles is a nice distance.