trousers Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 Anyone here in the car rental trade or knows someone that is...? I'm looking to hire an MPV (e.g Ford Galaxy) for two weeks in August to drive from the UK to Italy and back. Best price I can get online is £1,155 at http://www.rentalcars.com Anyone know of anywhere cheaper? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dark Sotonic Mills Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 Do what my daughter did. Buy an oldish one for about a grand. Do the holiday and then sell it on your return. She made a profit of £200 with a Peugeot 806. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saintbletch Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 Do what my daughter did. Buy an oldish one for about a grand. Do the holiday and then sell it on your return. She made a profit of £200 with a Peugeot 806. Not a bad suggestion but make sure you have International AA cover or similar. Although I can imagine that piling the loved ones into a tin box that you bought for less than a grand would take some internal justification. I did the same journey years ago when I took the wife and kids to Jesolo near Venice in northern Italy. I drove down in a wonderful 3.0 Alfa 166 which I'd owned from new but at the time of the journey was probably worth about £1155. The car was great, never missed a beat and it was back in the days of company funded petrol cards which was even better. It was a really great drive and it gave us a chance to see eastern France and stop when the fancy took us. The tunnels through the alps were straight out of a James Bond film. Breathtaking scenery. You'd turn round a bend and have to pull over to take some more photographs. Italian traffic regulations do take some getting used to mind (give way ON roundabouts), as does the accepted practice of driving 0.8m from the car in front's rear bumper on the autostrada when you want to pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheaf Saint Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 The only advice I can offer you is to avoid Europcar like the plague. When I hired a car with them in France a couple of years ago they cancelled my reservation without notice and then refused to reimburse me for the accomofation costs I incurred as a result. They took about 6 weeks to respond to my complaint and couldn't have been any more disniterested and unhelpful when they finally did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dark Sotonic Mills Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 The only advice I can offer you is to avoid Europcar like the plague. When I hired a car with them in France a couple of years ago they cancelled my reservation without notice and then refused to reimburse me for the accommodation costs I incurred as a result. They took about 6 weeks to respond to my complaint and couldn't have been any more disinterested and unhelpful when they finally did. I agree with you about Europcar. I hired one from them in Malta and it broke down after 4 days. It had refused to start the previous day and they had come over and jump started it. Seems the alternator was buggered. However, the replacement car was a complete dog. At least two classes smaller and covered in rust. The windows didn't even open and there was no aircon. Needless to say there was no refund either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buctootim Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 (edited) Another option is to drive your car to the UK ferry terminal, park up in a local side road, travel across as foot passengers and pick up a hire car in France. This means you save maybe 1 days car rental, the cost of the ferry for the car (£200 total?) and also end up with a left hand drive car for European roads. You also avoid a lot of the fees that UK hire companies load on when you take their car abroad - continental operators are much more relaxed in my experience. Depending on how much stuff you are lugging this might work well for you. This place is cheap http://www.car-rental-hire.co.uk/bookuk1.htm - have never used them mind and thet use Europcar vehicles. £610 for a Peugeot 5008 or Vauxhall Zafira (5 seats plus two kids seats) or £990 for a Ford Galaxy. Other than that join the CSMA for £25 http://www.csmaclub.co.uk/index.php?pn and get 10% off all carr hire at Holiday autos worldwide (a good cheap rental company) and big discounts off Britannia breakdown (also very good). Edited 13 April, 2012 by buctootim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chin Strain Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 Not a bad suggestion but make sure you have International AA cover or similar. Although I can imagine that piling the loved ones into a tin box that you bought for less than a grand would take some internal justification. I did the same journey years ago when I took the wife and kids to Jesolo near Venice in northern Italy. I drove down in a wonderful 3.0 Alfa 166 which I'd owned from new but at the time of the journey was probably worth about £1155. The car was great, never missed a beat and it was back in the days of company funded petrol cards which was even better. It was a really great drive and it gave us a chance to see eastern France and stop when the fancy took us. The tunnels through the alps were straight out of a James Bond film. Breathtaking scenery. You'd turn round a bend and have to pull over to take some more photographs. Italian traffic regulations do take some getting used to mind (give way ON roundabouts), as does the accepted practice of driving 0.8m from the car in front's rear bumper on the autostrada when you want to pass. I did that drive in the summer of 2010 - cracking. Some of the tunnels in Switzerland were staggering...10kms+ in length. Some good engine noise through those, even in a diesel A5! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dune Posted 13 April, 2012 Share Posted 13 April, 2012 Do what my daughter did. Buy an oldish one for about a grand. Do the holiday and then sell it on your return. She made a profit of £200 with a Peugeot 806. She paid for it? FFS she should have just promised to pay and then not bothered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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