Car hire for occasional use

Navi48

Hi Everyone

Just bought an electric van for work in and around London.  It doesn't have much range on it.  About 130miles but will do pretty much all my journeys.  I have an old banger of a car, but insurance will cost me £600 for the year + £200 road tax + £45 MOT + maintenance etc i.e. £1000 / yr

I'd like to get rid of it but I will definitely need something with longer range from time to time.

Just wondering apart from the usual car hire places like Sixt or Avis, are there any better options.  

I guess my yearly usage might be say 2 or 3 round trips to Devon (3 days and 400mile round trip each time)

One trip to france say Bordeaux and back for a 10 day holiday, 1500miles

Occasional trip to Brighton and back (160miles round trip)

I don't need a large car.  But am wondering by the time I've hired a car for that many days I might be nearing the £1000 it costs me to keep my car on the road.  

People tell me stories of hiring cars for £30 / day, but whenever I hire one for holidays it's north of £80 so it's debatable if it's cheaper.

Just wanted some opinions


Thanks

Grumpy_chap

Do any of the hire options you have considered allow the car to be taken abroad?

Are there any car clubs near you?

Goudy

Car clubs can be expensive for whole or multiple days hire.
I am a member of a few and they are ok for a couple of hours, more than that and then it's cheaper to rent for whole days elsewhere.

Also, as already mentioned most hirers won't let you take them out of the country and if they do, there's usually an extra "continental" charge.
I had an account with Avis and know they stopped their continental cover last summer, so you can't take their cars abroad anymore.

It is possible to hire on cheap daily rates but it all depends on where you are and when.
When there are lots of suppliers in one area, like an airport and demand is low you can bag some cheap deals.

These days if I need a rental close to home for more than a few days I use a local indie company and they usually do me a deal.
Not had the need to take one of theirs abroad yet.

Herzlos

Car clubs are great for a few hours but horrible for longer than that.

Rental prices will generally go down the further in advance you book, especially if you can be flexible i.e. do you actually need a car or will a small van do?

The car supply issue with Covid and Brexit have pushed prices up a bit, you probably won't be able to rent a Corsa for £15/day in the near future, like you could in 2019.

I tend to use a search engine like Expedia to take the cheapest option at the time.

MX5huggy

Don’t dismiss taking the EV there’s chargers popping up everywhere I’ve done London to Pembrokeshire in a 150 mile range EV. Bit a planing and relax about time and you can do it. 

Ditzy_Mitzy

I think that you've answered your own question, in that the old banger will almost certainly be a cheaper proposition than hiring cars numerous times a year.  The £40 a day hire deals are, as you say, often talked about but rarely encountered in the wild.  Once you've added insurance excess waivers and the like, costs will rapidly mount.  

Herzlos

Ditzy_Mitzy said:

I think that you've answered your own question, in that the old banger will almost certainly be a cheaper proposition than hiring cars numerous times a year.  The £40 a day hire deals are, as you say, often talked about but rarely encountered in the wild.  Once you've added insurance excess waivers and the like, costs will rapidly mount.  

But he's only factoring in about £155 a year for maintenance and will doing long trips in said banger at whatever fuel economy said banger gets. One big failure cost could him a lot more than £155, and given enough distance he may save enough on fuel to cover the hire costs.

He's talking about maybe 22 days away outside of his EV range (160 mile return to Brighton should be fine), which means that assuming his £1000/year for the banger is accurate he'd need to hire for £45/day before you factor in any fuel savings.
I'm seeing rentals from about £50/day so the fuel saving may or may not help.


Of course, we're not considering how convenient it is getting to the rental place, but given he's in London it's probably not that bad.