Hire cars

Hiring a car is an interesting business. Most hirings nowadays will start with an online reservation. At this time you have to select the type of car you want and also any accessories such as booster seats and SatNav.

Usually a price is given for a car per day. The total price given is reasonable. Sounds too good to be true, and of course it generally is. You can't choose the car that you are going to drive when booking online. You get an idea about the type of car, for example in my recent booking I was told to expect a Vauxhall Corsa or similar, but in my experience what you actually receive bears no resemblance.

When I rocked up at the hire car office I was told that the car I was receiving was a bit bigger than I requested. Instead of the Corsa I had been allocated a Nissan Qashqai; just slightly bigger!!! It also had SatNav built in. This would have cost £70 extra, I'm glad I didn't waste my money requesting it.

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So before the price is negotiated the insurance question occurs. The car is insured obviously but the excess to be paid is £750. That sounds an awful lot of money and if I'm going to damage a car it is likely to be one that I haven't driven before. Of course the extra insurance adds 75% to the rental price. The only goid thing about that is why would I care about any bumps that might happen upon the vehicle?

Then there is the extra charge per day for a second driver, this is also a considerable extra cost which in my eyes is slightly extortionate.

Finally the car comes with a full tank of petrol which is automatically charged to my account, £89!! Apparently if I return the car with a full tank then I can get this money back. Damn right I will be doing that.

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