I'm looking to rent for 6 days in October. Avis gave me a great rate of 100 quid last April for the same duration, but this time they want almost 200?! The other big companies are asking similar prices. Have car hire prices risen everywhere? Is the recession being blamed? Anyone else also noticed price hikes?
The best deal I can find is to fly into France instead of Spain and get a prepaid week for 155 quid. Spain always used to be cheaper than France??!
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I used this site to hire a Dodge Journey (no, I had no idea either!) for 10 days this summer at a cost of £173 which I thought was quite reasonable.
Let us know if it come up cheaper?
www.kayak.co.uk/cars
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There is a shortage of hire cars in Europe as companies haven't increased fleets for the summer due to fewer visitor numbers, hence higher prices or no availability. You could wait and haggle when you arrive or try economycarhire.co.uk.
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Crown Auriga were seriously cheap 5 years ago. I got an out of season 3 day rental for under £50. Maybe not such good prices now.
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This problem is unique to this holiday season, as very few people booked their cars in advance, the Hire companies, ordered fewer new cars in, at the beginning of the year, and as many car plants are on shutdown or short time working, it has not been possible to add more vehicles to the fleet.
In Mallorca recently it was reported that NO vehicles were available except 1 van, and they wanted ? 500 / day to rent this.
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There was a small piece on Radio4 Today this morning.
Apparently the rental companies expected much lower demand this year, ordered less cars on that basis. But there has been a surge in late bookings.
It was stated that most resorts are already sold out for the rest of August.
Presumably availability will be OK by October, when the season dies down. But if the rental companies are shifting everything they've got, they've no incentive to cut their rates at the moment.
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There is a very serious shortage of hire cars here on the Costa del Sol.
There have been instances of families arriving at Malaga & Gibraltar airports to collect pre-booked (and in some cases, deposit paid) cars only to be turned away as there are no cars available.
There are two factors working here, (or three, if you consider the total lack of customer service in all parts of Spanish retail life).
Firstly, car hire companies de-fleeted very considerably to save money, at the end of last season in the expectation that they could purchase again this year if the demand was there.
Secondly, as in the UK the banks here have almost stopped lending, so hire outfits wishing to acquire cars have not been able to raise the necessary finance to do so.
Result:- Chaos!
As an aside, some companies are making hay while the sun shines if they DO have cars available. A Norwegian family staying in our urbanisation was quoted 1000 euros for two weeks hire of a mid range saloon (Mondeo/Passat size).
They refused, friends picked them up from the airport, once here they tried again with the same result. They paid up, but I bet they won't come to southern Spain again.
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Can confirm the same problem at Alicante airport - with a twist.
"...friends picked them up from the airport..."
Local police are allegedly employing ANPR equipment and if the "friend's" number plate appears too often at the airport they are charged with running an illegal taxi service - cue large fine.
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Interesting insight.
Curiously, to buck the trend, I have got a great rate on a 3-day/weekend hire in the UK for early October: 19.50/day for a Mondeo, which seems good value to me?
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I have a car booked through www.hispacar.com no idea who they are so will be a leap of faith, but needed7 seats and the choices were few and far between. paying 680 euros for 3 weeks. Apparently will be citroen C4 grand picasso.
We actualy considered getting two cars rather than a seven seater at one point as it was proving difficult to find one.
They are a broker and have told me that car will be supplied by National Atesa ????
Edited by mikeyb on 14/08/2009 at 11:28
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We were in Menorca at the tail end of June and had pre-booked a hire for ten days costing 170E. In the event the car turned out to be a C4 hatchback.
Just before we went I checked a few broker sites for the period and could find nothing. When we were there people we spoke to said that there was no chance of getting a car just by asking except at silly prices: £150 for three days, for example.
As has been said, companies couldn't borrow the money to buy the fleets. We've been there in October and seen hundreds of hire cars lined up at the docks waiting to go back to the mainland but it won't be like that this year, I guess.
Once the school holidays are over it should be easier.
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The BBC have commented on this as well - maybe a similar thing was said on the Radio 4 piece I guess.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8200087.stm
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>>You could wait and haggle when you arrive
At which point, by all accounts, you will be offered the choice of pogo stick or space hopper.
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I flew in and out of Madrid in early July, and had booked what was advertised as a Peugeot 308SW or similar with Hertz. I was a little disappointed when we were handed a slightly tatty Astra estate, with 60,000km on the clock, as we had paid a top-dollar price. I did notice on collection that the car park seemed very empty for a car hire compound. I was not aware of this shortage issue and now, on reflection, I'm grateful we got anything at all!
Off to Belgrade in October and will need a hire car, but I doubt that companies there are affected in the same way as it's not really a "holiday" destination. I imagine demand is pretty constant.
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It's significantly a supply thing though Alanovich. Car hire companies are funded with huge amounts of debt - often 100% debt on the vehicles on the basis that they are sold off for more than they cost. No debt availability = no cars.
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Maybe, but I usually use either a local company or a local franchise operating under one of the big names in Belgrade. The economy there doesn't rely so heavily on debt as it does not have a tradition of doing so, therefore I expect that by sticking local I won't have a problem. Time will tell though and I'll get my skates on and get booking.
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Well in Spain I would reccomend you either big names companies or some local ones, always depending on the area you are hiring the car. In Catalonia where Im always travelling are more trustfull, in Andalusia local companies are not very good.
Links deleted. Looks like another pathetic attempt at free advertising.
Edited by Avant on 22/02/2017 at 18:12
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I hope you realise that your answering a thread from 8 years ago Jeremy Manson.
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