stut

Yup, the first time I had to drive on the right, I was given the keys to an old Peugeot 205 at Zaventem, and told to follow the red Renault. It took all of 5 minutes to get used to it; the arcane mix of driving rules in Belgium, slightly longer.

Must have been 19 or so.

dddc

Have you tried Avis via the British Airways website? If not members of the Executive Club, join and you get the benefit of 2nd driver free.

I've been booking short rentals via it and it's been cheaper on the BA website than the Avis one on about 80% of occasions. Worth a try.

farci

For a selection of rates try one of the consolidators like Holiday Autos

Danielle McMullen

We always use Avis and have never had any problems

A318neo

Very helpful if you know how to drive a manual transmission. I reserved an automatic but got a manual and a discount, which I was ok with. They said I could wait about 2 hours for an automatic.

Badenoch

I had somewhat the reverse happen at the Enterprise outlet at LHR. They asked me to give up my manual Toyota because they had a customer who refused an automatic. When I balked they offered my choice of luxury vehicles on their lot at the same rate. I took the BMW.

Alsacienne

As an infrequent car hirer compared to many of you I would offer my observations.

1. Book directly with the car hire company, rather than a third party website or middle man. That way, if there's a problem you can deal directly with the company concerned. You may find it more expensive to start with, but there's all sorts of extras that might apply to the headline price .... additional drivers, fuel surcharges, limited mileage and perhaps being off-airport with a long wait from leaving the terminal to driving away.

2. Read the small print before you book. All of it. Yes it takes time but you'll know what you're getting and what you're not.

3. Make sure your credit card can handle any excess required at the time of hiring. It's probably quite a large sum ... over £1000!

4. Make sure you bring the right credit card.

5. Make sure you bring all the documents required ...with UK driving licences bring both the plastic and the paper parts.

6. If you are late, please let the rental desk know as soon as possible or you may lose your reservation. It helps to put your flight number on the reservation to safeguard your hire!

7. Read the damage report on your vehicle before you leave the rental car park. Check over the report against the actual car. If there is a discrepancy, GO BACK to the rental desk and report it. Do not drive away without the damage report being amended. Take photos (preferably with a date and time) on your phone to show all damage that was on the car before you took it away. This will be invaluable if you find an unscrupulous agent trying to make you pay for damage caused during your rental on its return which was there before you started .... it has been known.

8. I have had trouble with AVIS (on several occasions) refusing to let me have the car keys until I have paid an upgraded insurance policy. Do you walk away having had money already taken from your account to pay for the hire or do you simply give them more? That decision is even harder if you are tired, jet-lagged or have a spouse and kids in tow. (Or business colleagues!)

9. I have been dissatisfied with Green Motion - cheap cars, long delays in processing the hire at the counter, shuttle from the terminal to the hire counter (in the Hilton at Stansted at the time) being only paid for the outward trip ... pay yourself on your return ... and unprofessional attitude. Never again. I think I am not alone in having problems with this agency.

10. Please take the time needed to process getting your car, and be careful if you are not used to driving on the right. A post-it note on your dashboard might help, and also the conversion of speed km to miles if you aren't used to UK speed limits. But it's often on the second day or later that you turn out of a junction onto the 'wrong' side of the road. Keep your vigilance up!!

Apologies if I'm teaching my granny to suck eggs ... just want you to return your hire cars unscathed and yourselves too!

Scots_Al

There hasn’t been a paper part to the U.K. license in years!

stut

Agree. While I view most car hire as having an element of scam to it, some of the smaller, cheaper outfits have all sorts of extra scams, like mandatory fuel purchase or cleaning fees.

No paper part any more, but you may need a DVLA check code. Some local companies may need proof of address outwith your driving licence.

This is where it really pays to know what you're signing up to. Third party insurance is a legal requirement in the UK, and proof of it needs to be shown. While rates booked in Europe include it by default, rates booked elsewhere (esp North America) may not. Now, some agencies may try and bamboozle people into taking an excess reduction policy as a result (the Heathrow branches seen to be bad for this) but don't let yourself be fooled. In that case, I'd be on the phone to head office.

Green Motion is an insurance broker with a sideline in cars. Always question why the rate is as ridiculously cheap as it is. The remote location isn't even half of it! They're at the Novotel at STN now - shuttle every half hour that you have to pay for.

If you rent a car in the UK, of course, the speedo will be in miles as will the limits. If you're taking it abroad, almost all UK cars have speedos which also display in km/h. You may also need headlight deflectors, a GB sticker, warning triangles, hi-vis and a breathalyser kit.

NickB

Extra charges such as additional drivers, fuel-policy related payments, mileage limitations, etc... will equally be payable whether you book directly with the car hire company or via a third party so there is strictly no benefit to booking with the car hire company on that front. One thing on which booking via a third party may well be different is in cancellation policies but do not assume that, just because you book directly with the car hire company, there won't be cancellation charges. Pay in advance rates often have a cancellation charge even when booked direct. Always check these as well as always checking inclusions and exclusions.

Personally, I often book via a third party agent (autoeurope, rentalcars, ebookers, etc...) as they can have substantially cheaper rates, sometimes by as much as 30% to 40% compared to booking direct and I have never experienced any additional issues compared to booking direct. All in all, I guess that I must book around half of my car rentals with a third party and about half with the car rental company itself. What I also do even when booking via a third party, however, is also check the terms of rental on the underlying car hire company to double-check what the fees will be for things I am likely to use (eg: extra driver, cross-border fee, etc...) as well as any restrictions that might affect my use of the car. Ultimately, even if you book via a third party, the contract with the car hire company will embody the same substantial terms as booking direct so it is sensible to double-check, not least because third party websites may not contain as much information on extra fees and terms of rentals as the car hire company itself.

antichef

I disagree. I still have one and have lived in the UK and had a UK licence for nearly 50 years. The gov.uk website says:

Differences between NI and GB licences

Changes made to the format of Great Britain driving licences effective from 8 June 2015 have no effect on licences from the Driver and Vehicle Agency (DVA) in Northern Ireland (NI). NI licences are still made up of two parts, a plastic photocard and paper part which is known as the paper counterpart.
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles...riving-licence