Another car hire thread......

[ken]

Personally I have found there is not always a clear winner on who is cheapest for hire, and its purely supply and demand i.e. whoever has loads of unused stock will off load cheaply.

However, as mentioned above its generally it is cheaper using one of the 'unbranded' re-seller agents (e.g. easy car or autoeurope who re-package stock from the big boys) rather than book direct with the rental companies. For example, just got back from CVO and paid £209 for 17 days (Skoda Fabia with A/C), so much cheaper than the direct Guerin price.

However, to save time messing around on various websites try these guys:

http://compare.carrentals.co.uk/

Its one of those 'screen scrapers' type sites that will search over 50 suppliers (including main re-sellers) in a couple of clicks.

[EMM]

Friends who got an " unbeatable " price from Easycar found it had gone up bu 300euros when they actually tried to book it a few days later.

[ken]

Yes I have also found the prices to fluctuate from day to day even with same company. Its to do with their pricing strategy and software the rental companies use (very similar to budget airlines and based % of stock used).

I dithered a few months ago and cost me (admitedly only about E30) but E300 seems excessive so presume easycars supplier just did not need the business that desperately a few days later. Think you just have to take the plunge and book it if theres a good deal there.

[Rampage]

A few years ago some friends of ours were touring Europe and came to visit us in Carvoeiro from Seville. They had rung around car hire companies whilst there and enquired if there were any cars that had been dropped off after one way trips from Portugal and needed returning. Sure enough there was a car that needed returning to Faro. They hired it for a very nominal sum and then just had to pay petrol to get it to Faro. On the way back they did the same thing. It might be worth doing some telephoning when you arrive in Seville and see if the same thing is possible. If you draw a blank then you can fall back on the bus option.

[Victor Laszlo]

Hi,
You might want to also have a look at link below:

http://www.insurance4carhire.com/

Makes carhire deals, that don't mention overall insurance cost "actually" very good.

(Sorry for mentioning before on this forum but it is a great deal as annual cost of cover is around 50 quid for Europe !)

Best regards

Ray