Car hire in Ireland

purple_rose

I'm looking at a car hire for a few weeks. What is the cheapest company to go with? Do they have hidden costs when renting a car and would i need insurance.

CiniO

I usually used that crowd: http://www.rentalcars.com
They are a broker, and most likely will get you a best deal with one of the rental companies.

Small car off season can be really cheap.
F.e. I rented a Seat Mii for 3 week last year in January for €105. Rental was from Hertz.
That price had no hidden fees, and included insurance (but with high excess of €1300).

During holiday season prices might be way higher.

What you need to watch out for is fuel policy. You always get car with full tank, and it's nearly always the cheapest option to return it with full tank, no matter what the guy in rental desk is going to be telling you.

They will be trying to sell you full insurance (with no excess) but that's expensive. You might talk about around €20 per day in few weeks rental you're talking about, might be good couple hundred extra. If you take it, you don't need to worry if you crash or damage the car (however there are usually still some exceptions).
If you don't take it, they will ask you to leave a deposit in a form of pre-auth on your credit card. Usually in the range of €1200 - €2500 depending on car size/value.
You will loose it, if you do damage to the car.

If you're worried about loosing deposit, instead of buying full insurance with the rental company, you might purchase it from third party - there are car hire excess policies in Ireland, and you can buy them as cheap as €3 per day. IMO makes more sense than paying for same thing to rental company, but remember in that case you still need to leave a deposit with rental company, if you damage the car this will be taken off you, and car hire excess policy will refund you.

ironclaw

purple_rose wrote: »

I'm looking at a car hire for a few weeks. What is the cheapest company to go with? Do they have hidden costs when renting a car and would i need insurance.

For the love of all that is holy avoid Hertz Ireland. I rented with them for years abroad, all the way up the tiers, but Hertz Ireland is a franchise and they operate like utter cowboys. The car I got was faulty not only with the stop go system but it had a failing ABS module, they didn't want to know. They had a guy ring me at 11pm at night to try fix it over the phone Lastly, when I dropped it, back they whacked on the same bill again in extras and options which I never agreed to. Like I said, I pick up a car every second week, first time this has ever happened to me and its happened to a few colleagues of mine subsequently but only with Hertz Ireland.

Take a quick look at the various sites for their feedback e.g. Google Reviews, and it would appear they are making a business screwing tourists. Hertz, the wider organisation, is wonderful. Hertz Ireland is best avoided IMO.

grogi

CiniO wrote: »

I usually used that crowd: http://www.rentalcars.com

I use Ryanair... They have free car if you find it somewhere else cheaper..

It's painfully to get enforced, but apparently they eventually honour it if you're persistent enough.

ironclaw wrote: »

Take a quick look at the various sites for their feedback e.g. Google Reviews, and it would appear they are making a business screwing tourists. Hertz, the wider organisation, is wonderful. Hertz Ireland is best avoided IMO.

Sadly, but I must agree. I got a van from them one time... Not only once it started raining I pulled immediately to buy new wiper blades, they did charge me some extras... I got it back in the end, but I would not touch them again...

paulmac131

I just rented a car for the week, I go all around the car and make sure there isn't a mark/damage, I even pay an additional payment, equivalent to the actual rental cost, for extra insurance, only to be told when I returned the car, cleaned & with extra fuel than when I received it, that there is a scratch on the rubber of the tyre, looked tiny, superficial, like someone tried to cut a 1cm cut in the tyre. Not damaged at all. Guy was very friendly, reminding me I had paid the extra insurance and it's no big deal. But when I was about to leave they said that they were taking a £100 payment to cover the cost of fixing the tyre. Apparently the extra insurance Only covers the car, the body work, interior, crashes, vehicle being stolen, & tons more stuff, basically EVERYTHING you can think of, EXCEPT the tyres. Am I missing something, is this normal, I can include a picture, I have no idea how it happened, the saleswoman and I at the time of rental only did a walk around of the car & bodywork. We never even looked at tyres, had they asked me to pay for "tyre insurance" I would have. I know how these things can add up. Am I wrong to feel a bit let down & over charged, or is it my fault for not doing more homework prior to renting. If I rent again, I feel like I must take pictures of literally every part of the car.

Apologies for ranting. I appreciate any feedback. Thank you

LIGHTNING

Please dont drag up 5 year old threads. Start a new one