A few weeks ago I asked for help finding a car hire for the 5 weeks of my next visit...(thanks everyone) H.J. pointed me to EasyRentaCar.com and in fact they worked out to be the best deal 5 weeks for 7 quid a day and 75 miles a day... Since the car will be parked for about 2 weeks while I am on a narrow boat the 2600 miles I get with the rental should be fine... I just need to decide to accept the charge/fine for removing the door decals ... I realy don't fancy being a rolling advert like a taxi for 5 weeks...
My question is how many cig lighter sockets does an A class have? I need to charge my DV camcorder, my cellphone and my iPaq pocket PC and my GPS... So I need to know if I need to bring a 3 or 4 outlet extender to plug them all in. if it has an outlet for the back seat it is one less thing to pack... I looked at M-benz uk web site but I could not find the info
~Randolph
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Maybe some other Backroomer will comment on charging three or four batteries from a single cigar lighter outlet. Randolph should also know he has to check the A Class with a fine tooth comb and sign a damage form before he takes it away. If he then damages it in any way the charges are fairly steep, as they have to be in order for Stelios to be able offer the basic rental at such low rates.
HJ
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Charging all these gadgets from one or two sockets is not advisable.
We see many overloaded cigar lighter sockets and many blown fuses when Mrs X uses her in car hoover for the first time!
There might be something available commercially to do this job - I guess it wouldn't take much to make something yourself and wire it directly to the vehicle battery, suitably fused, of course.
I don't know where and how easy it is to access the A Classs battery - is it under the floor?
Rgds
David
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Thanks for the Info/warning HJ:
I am used to the fine tooth comb check out/check in (in many cases the check in is even more important as a case for normal wear and tear can be made esp on a long hire like this one And I like it when the hire car has a few defects in the finish on pickup as it is one less thing to worry about ) ever since a firm attempted to hit me up for a 'missing spare tyre' a few years ago...
The CC I use for the rental provides full cover for any damage or 'loss of use'(another hire firm scam) but it is a bit of a pain in the neck to do the paperwork.
I have not been able to find a photo of their cars on the net and so I do not know how large the door decal is... from the info on the web site is looks to be a 100 quid charge for removing them though...
David,
As far as the drain on my multi adapter the total is Max 2 amps on the pda and camcorder charger and .25 on the Cell phone the GPS does not charge and has a tiny drain so total load would be well under 5 amps... and I think lighters draw more than that...do they not?
Why are we stuck with this antiquated way of getting 12 volt power for our toys in cars?... these plugs are large and sometimes slip out... only 20% of folks still smoke and new standard for 12 volt plugs would be welcome. I have thought of making a plug bock that would fit neatly in the lighter hole with mini Power plug sockets and then on the other side just chop off the lighter plugs on al the gear and fit small plugs... one problem is that many on the large plugs are fused so a fuse fo the right rating would either need to be in each small plug increasing it's bulk or the adapter would need to be fused (perhaps for each outlet to provide the diferent sizes)
"He who dies with the most toys wins"
~Randolph
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The Way They Charge for damage seems diferent with a detailed menu of charges... Looks like HJ is spot on again... perhaps a polaroid with signed snaps will be needed to prove prior damage...
~R
start quote:
Damage
Your car should be returned to easyRentacar in substantially the same condition as it was at the start of the Rental Period, subject to fair wear and tear. Damage to cars will be assessed by a member of our Service Team during the Inspection process and categorised as follows:
Broken, shattered or cracked rear light cluster.
Removal of stickers (both doors).
Damaged (includes bulges, cut in side wall), punctured or missing tyre.
Missing spare steel wheel.
Broken, shattered, cracked or missing side window/glass.
Broken, shattered, cracked or missing wing mirror or wing mirror housing.
Cigarette burns
Dent less then 10 cm in diameter which can be seen from 2 meters away and does not break the paint
Excessive soiling (that needs professional cleaning)
Single scratch that breaks the paint and is greater than 5 cm in length.
Category 1
Any dent which breaks the paint
Broken, shattered or cracked wind screen or rear screen
Dent greater than 10cm in diameter which can be seen from 2 meters away.
Broken, shattered or cracked front head lamp.
Missing alloy wheel.
Missing or broken radio/facia.
Wheel hub damaged by use of incorrect wheel nuts.
Multiple instances of Category 1 damage
Category 2
Area of impact to one panel.
Multiple instances of Category 2 damage.
Category 3
Areas of impact to more than one panel.
Category 4
The above damage categories do not cover the following situations that may occur whilst the car is on rent:
Lost or damaged car keys
Wrong fuel type added
In these cases, the customer will be liable for the full cost involved in rectifying the situation.
The maximum damage charge is dependant on the level of the Insurance excess selected by the customer.
Charges for Damage
Damage will be charged as follows, up to the amount of your insurance excess:
Country Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4
France £75.00 £150.00 £250.00 £500.00
Netherlands £75.00 £150.00 £250.00 £500.00
Spain £75.00 £150.00 £250.00 £500.00
Switzerland £75.00 £150.00 £250.00 £500.00
United Kingdom £75.00 £150.00 £250.00 £500.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If the subsequent cost of repair/replacement, plus our administration expenses, is less than the amount you are charged, a refund will be made.
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Hi
Maplin.co.uk sell a car 12 cigar socket doubler for £7.99.
Listed for some reason within the in-car entertainment section.
HTH
Martin
ps
Like many I have heard some interesting stories about the charges applied when hapless drivers bring back their A class to the Easy depot. I think it even made it as a topic to the BBC consumer Watchdog series .
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Agreed. With a list like that I would be careful, very careful. Windscreen damage seems a bit much. Not like it's your fault is it.
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www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog/reports/transport/wweasyren...l
found it thanks... and a photo of the door decals... ugh... not sure from the damage list if it is a £75.00 or £150.00 charge to remove them... ("Removal of stickers (both doors).... Cat. one £75.00") touch unclear if that is £75.00 a door or for both
Seems like a lot for a pair of £5.00 decals (if that) I bet a nice sideline could be set up where a EasyRentaCar.com worker sold decals under the table for say £10 the pair to those who did not like them... whip them off on getting the car and replace them befor you take it back
I will pick up one of these before I go I think for the 12v power At $10 it is cheaper and provides an extra socket over the Maplins one
www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG...4
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Why don't you consider a different rental firm with a better selection of vehicles eg Budget, Avis, Hertz etc?
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Fair question:
2 main reasons first is cost... the next cheapest deal I could put together was about 200 more with budget and it entailed getting to and from Chester from Chirk on either side of the narrow boat hire the killer was the one day rental at the end about £75.00 for the one day rental + the one way rentals charges on each rental)
if this was one of my normal trips I would not even consider EasyRentaCar.com as the 75 miles a day + 20 pence for each extra mile would kill the deal... I put about 3000 miles on a rover 45 in 3 weeks last year but since it will be parked for 16 days while I am on the boat I should do ok with the miles allowed.
The other is I like to hire cars that we do not see in the US (and they have to be cars that my 6'3" 17 stone frame fit into) and the A class size wise fits my needs as I drive mostly on back roads I do not need a motorway barge... the B routes and the unclassified roads take me to the england I enjoy made up of small vilages and country pubs that provide a B&B service My favorite Guide book is the CAMRA "Room at the Inn" by Jill Adam ISBN 1- 85249-150-7 £6.99
www.camra.org.uk/products/products_mem_books.htm
As to the problems with being charged for damage Well I am a careful driver, I have the time to do a careful check out and check in of the car, My credit card company Provides me with full coverage on cars I hire with the card (Citi Bank Drivers Edge Plat Master card) so the main risk is one of paperwork needed to be filled out... out of pocket risk is small but I could not in good conscience stick them for a charge arising out of my removal of the door decals.
~R
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easy rentacar have a very bad reputation for charging for "damage" that other hire car companies would consider normal wear and tear...
especially the most minor of scratches etc
also returning the car to them and not getting them to sign acceptance that the car is ok is a dangerous thing to do, since many cases of mysterious damage occuring after drop off - but before the car is checked - have been reported over here...
i'd rather use a normal hire car company and not have these worries/hassles
try www.holidayautos.co.uk and similar
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Well as there are no refunds with Easyrentacar.com I could not change it for this trip if I wanted to...
though perhaps if I had gotten all these warnings when HJ first recomended them to me I might have done something else... I guess at about 4000 miles a year and up to 8 weeks a year in the UK I am getting close to the point where a bangernomics car would make more sense for me than hireing... but I would need to also find a safe place to keep it near gatwick and it would need to be able to live with up to 7 months of non use at a stretch... nothing comes to mind...
One person sent me an email saying I should just buy a used car when I get in for say 5000 drive it 5 weeks and sell it when I go... unless I could set it all up in advance with some sort of set buy back price that would seem to be fraught with a lot of pos. problems but perhaps it is worth looking into for future trips... can a non resident on a 90 day visitors entry stamp even buy a car without a uk address? what about Insurance in that case? I have feeling it would get quite messy quite quickly...
Cheers
~R
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buying a car isnt a problem, you are supposed to have a uk address through which you are contactable but if for instance you are permanently resident at a hotel you can use that address
insurance is the real problem
actually for a really long stay it may be worth hiring a car elsewhere in europe and bringing it back in via ferry... its quite common for people in belgium to hire cars in holland (cos they are cheaper) if they need them for a long time... would need to arrange with hire car company to have it insured etc for this... major problem would be steering wheel would be on wrong side... i suppose you could adopt this trick with a hire car from southern irelend
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When I first read this I had to smile at the concept of needing GPS to navigate a canal boat, given that a canal is rarely more than 20 feet wide, is traversed at about 4 mph and has junctions about every 50 miles. :-)
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That is a picture... No the Gps is for the back road navigating... When I was young and dumb I would glance at a map as I drove... Now in addition toi having gotten a bit of wisdom I do not have the eyes to do that even if I wanted to... the GPS makes it easy to find those out of the way pubs as Camra is kind enough tp provide OS grid ref for them in the Good Beer Guide... Thinking on it though It could also be used to find pubs within say a mile or so of the cut as you sail along!
~R
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