Will be spending 10 days in England in mid-June, including a trip to the factory, and need car rental advice. Went to one site - www.europcar.com - and although their rental prices are OK the add-ons are not. Example: compact car rental fee is about $250 but the insurance is $500! And GPS device rental is $200! Help!

 

Hi, I am in England and am a little surprised by what you are saying about add ons. Usually, it is a single price except for the sat nav of course. Are you flying into one of the main airports? If so, check out the airport website itself and it will probably tell you what rental car companies work on that airport then shop around. In any case the following companies are big in the UK:
Avis
National
Europcar
Hertz
Enterprise
Budget
Thrifty

These are all big reliable UK companies.
Dave

 

Thanks; will follow your suggestion. Since my original post I did further checking and it appears that when a broker gets involved between the customer and the vendor the cost of the add-ons increases dramatically. There is tremendous variation depending on the site you use, even when the ultimate source of the car is the same. And yes I have found some 'all-inclusive' packages which are not unreasonable. Further suggestions welcome; thanks.

 

I've rented plenty of times in England. Lately I've just gone to Hertz, because I'm in their #1 Gold club which makes life easier. I never take their insurance, my credit cars covers that. In the UK, the car will be covered by insurance, you're just paying off the deductible. It'll usually be only £1000 or so. I never get the Nav, my iPhone covers that.

I just checked the Hertz website, they give prices from about $250. There are plenty of others around, I've had good luck with Sixt before they can do a car for £133 (about $225).

If you want something more exciting, I've rented MINIs in the UK, but they're a bit expensive. (Like CoolCars4Hire for £65 a day.)

 

Two hundred bucks to rent a navi device? For that or less you can buy one that is loaded with maps for almost all of Europe, including the U.K. That's what I did. It works brilliantly. Just be sure that if you decide to acquire one, you get one that does NOT warn you of speed cameras or radar. In some places, if the traffic cops find this stuff, they will impound your device AND your car. The one I bought, a TomTom, does advise of speed limits, a service I find invaluable. Equally invaluable is the fact that now my wife can concentrate on enjoying the trip, rather than on navigating from our Michelin map book.

 

If youv'e never drove on left side. Tools to help. Turn Left stay left, turn right get left .
And most cars are manual, even rentals , pattern is the same but using your left hand makes it different, especially 2-3 shift, at first I would shift 2-1 and face plant myself

 

I'm pretty sure that doesn't apply to the UK. The official reason the speed cameras are there is to slow people down. So the UK gov officially doesn't mind you being warned of the speed cameras, you're likely to slow down, which serves the official purpose of the cameras.

 

This is correct and they are perfectly legal in the UK.

 

The other thing I would like to mention - and I think this is important - involves being really careful when you're making a turn at an intersection. We Americans - and most everyone else - tend, I think, to follow our habits. Do that in the UK and you will turn into an oncoming lane, with the serious risk of a head-on collision. Here we drive on the right side of the road and turn, whether it's left or right, onto the right side of the road. There, they drive on the left and turn onto the left side of the road.

This is also the reason a fair number of visiting pedestrians are killed in UK cities - they step out into traffic having looked for oncoming traffic in the wrong direction.

 

I am going to London & surrounds in the middle of Sept. and was wondering about renting a Mini Cooper whilst I'm there. Any one have any info about where to go or who to call? Online search wasn't too helpful.

 

Most americans can't negotiate a CCW roundabout, its more fun watching them try a CW roundabout!!

 

Yep, I almost bought the farm doing just that when I was in London. Freaky scary..

 

Like I mentioned previously, CoolCars does MINIs. We rented from them once, the other company we've rented from no longer has MINIs.

 

Read the biography of Winston Churchill- happened to him (but in reverse). Visited Bernard Barauch in NYC. Crossed the street, looked the wrong way, BAM!

 

I rented a Skoda Rapid from National at Heathrow and just used Google maps on my RAZR HD. Worked like a charm. You gotta drive a manual while there. Was a blast!

 

Actually the most dangerous time when 'switching sides' is when you get home - when away, you concentrate but when you get home, you relax and drive off on the wrong side as that is now your new habit. I used to live in a British port town and you used to take your life in your hands when driving past the ferry terminal coming from France.

It's the little things that I find catch people out - British drivers do not give way to pedestrians when turning at junctions (like they theoretically should) so if you do that when the following driver isn't expecting it...... Also in Britain you need to learn to look at the road surface for signage - at minor junctions, the only indication about who has priority may be the dotted white lines painted across one of the roads (yeah, when it snows, all hell breaks loose).

Really minor roads can be a nightmare too as if it's really only one car wide, it's hard to remember to swerve the right way (or preferably the left way) when meeting another vehicle.

But overall switching sides is surprisingly easy.

 

Could always opt to rent an Aston Martin DB9? Unless you prefer the DB5?

http://www.sixt.co.uk/aston-martin-car-hire/

Machine guns extra. But could not resist. Would love to drive one over there.

 

That's exactly what I was looking for! Thank you Btwyx!

 

At least at the ferry ports there are lots of signs telling you which side of the road to drive on.

My worst incidents of driving on the wrong side of the road were when I was stil living in the UK, and visted the US. A few days after getting home I'd find a street with no cars on (cars give you a big clue about which side of the road is the right one) and promptly turn on to the wrong side of the road. Once I worked out what was wrong when I had a car coming straight for me, another time my passengers started shouting at me. There was also the time I was extremely jet lagged and tired and leaving the rental car office, I come to a roundabout and can't work out what's wrong with it.