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Going to the Pyrenees this summer, flying to Toulouse and we need to hire a car. My opinion of hire car firms is that they're all robbing bar stewards so looking to hear of your experiences and tips. TIA
which airline are you flying with, worth checking tie ups with car rental firms?
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/flights-and-holidays/car-hire
So, I just had a browse and the prices compared to when we rented from Toulouse pre-pandemic are just 😮
I generally used easycar or another broker rather than direct. But it seems even the smallest car is going to set you back £40+ a day. (We rented a lovely Polo for two weeks for around £20/day back in 2019! Back then, our cheapest price came with booking car rental with our flights through EasyJet, so go figure.
Other way to save you cash is to take out an annual policy for car rental abroad so as not to pay the rental company’s crazy excess insurance.
Other than that, IME, going super el-cheapo means they’ll try to claw the money back at the end. And anyway, you’re in mainland France rather than a med/Greek island holiday resort/Canary Isles so the super dodgy cowboy companies find it harder to operate.
Finally, a former client of mine said that when they visited their place in SW France, they didn’t bother with airport hire but instead got a cab/train/bus to the nearest LeClerc supermarket and rented there for a few weeks…claimed it saved them a fortune…but that’s totally unverified.
We were given a hire car from one of the big companies (Hertz I think?) when our car went pop at Euro Disney last summer. Picked it up from the local town, drove it for a few days, then when it became clear our car was not going to be ready in time the chap at the rental place gave me another to drive to the airport where we dropped it off. Apart from getting stung for some fuel we didn't use it was a pain free experience which was welcome as everything else was a nightmare! The staff at both ends were helpful and professional.
Hired the smallest thing I could get from Poitiers -fiat 500 cost 800euro for 10 days.
Arrived and got an upgrade to a Toyota chr hybrid for my 10 days.
Worked out well. That was sixt.
After a few bad experiences with rentadents shocking service or scammage I generally stick to the big names these days even if it's a premium.
If you can get to Utile or Carrefour they do rentals locally which are cheaper than airports and you might be able to do point to point, not sure if it's cheaper though unless you can manage without a car for the time you're there.
New car shortages are causing the high prices, we've taken to driving as its cheaper for anything longer than 5 days but unless you're in the south of England it's a ballache
Lecler are really cheap. And they are OK with uk driving licence.
We would like/need a car whilst on holiday. Just checked the Leclerc option but they only had one car available and it wasn't much cheaper than the ones from the airport. Not desperate for the cheapest option, happy to pay a bit more for a firm that's easy to deal with.
I'm currently on holiday near the Pyrenees having picked up a rental car at Toulouse airport.
Yes, it's bloody expensive and choice of cars wasn't great. And I got dinged an extra EUR 400 for car upgrade (bike box wasn't gonna fit in a compact car), extra driver cost and extra coverage for Spain (I'd already factored in the latter two items) There are only the major rental companies plus "Goldcar" (mine is from Avis)
I noticed the other day that my car doesn't have a spare wheel. It wasn't something I checked when I picked up the car so hopefully it won't be a problem.
I'll update this post at the end of the rental period if there's anything good/bad to report when I drop the car off...
Do you definitely need a car as small vans are often cheaper (£15 a day in the UK from Eurpocar).
I got ripped of by Goldcar at Bordeaux airport so now avoid them, but I expect the other airport ones are all similar. Might be worth having a look at money saving expert website.
Some of them require a credit card rather than a debit card for the deposit.
Three of us going so I don't think a van would be cheaper, we'll be travelling pretty light too so a smallish car will be fine.
Vlad most cars don't have a spare these days. Wouldn't sweat it.
trail_rat
Free Member
Vlad most cars don’t have a spare these days. Wouldn’t sweat it.
Hopefully! Weirdly, there is a jack and wrench in the spare wheel well though....
Not sure what I'll do should I puncture...guess I'd have to call breakdown recovery and pay for tyre to be repaired/replaced.