Car Rental for UK trip

[chillifontain]

Hi,

I'm planning to go back to the UK on 22nd Dec. My house is in Leicester so I would like to rent a car for 23rd till 27th Dec. I would love to rent till the 3rd of Jan, 2006 but it seems it's quite expensive. I would like to pick it up from the Heathrow Airport.
Is it cheaper to book through the travel agent in HK? Any good car rental company that you would recommend?

Cheers,
Fontain

[jaykay]

I just got back from UK last week. I booked through Sixt on their website. Cheapest cars, no milage limitations and rather than the standard Ford Fiesta or Corsa they had Smart ForFours which are actually good. Pick up and drop off at Heathrow.

[Sazzy]

If you go on to the Heathrow Airport website - there is a car hire link. Click on that. Generally car hire is cheaper if you book on line. We have used Budget before and no problems. Sometimes, if you call them directly, they usually do you a better deal.

[chillifontain]

Thanks for your useful information.

[chillifontain]

Hey,

I just checked Budget and Sixt website to have a look. Budget is a lot cheaper (70 pounds)!! And you can also pay online right away. Just for your reference.

Fontain

[jaykay]

Always depends on time of year, etc. Was other way round when I was there, and because was an odd number of days (17, not the standard 7 or 14), the costs varied enormously!

[chillifontain]

Really? Thanks for your advice anyway

[Nutta!]

Easycar? (crap cust, oh sorry, no customer service, awful website, but dirt cheap if booked well in advance, not sure if they have a heathrow site though)
Europcar? (they do a lowest like for like price guarantee and have fantastic cust service).

[PDLM]

It also depends when you make the reservation. In my experience you get the best prices if it is more than a month ahead. If you try to change it after that then it gets expensive.

I have tended towards using Avis since they seem to be the most reliable and they give good quality cars. But I am looking for something better than basic - for example, last time I was there I got a Volvo S60 Auto for a week for GBP290 all in - Dollar/Budget claimed cheaper prices but couldn't confirm availability - the advantage of going with Hertz or Avis is that there is lots of choice on the day if you don't like the specific vehicle they come up with.

It also helps sometimes on the online booking engines if you can plausibly claim UK residency I find. The CX Diamond discount code sometimes helps too.

[Dodgy One]

Budget have a deal for weekly rental. But it's a tiny car.

Easycar are good if you're not planning to drive too far as they limit mileage. Their pickup point is away from LHR so you'd have to get transport/taxi there.

www.whizzcarrental.com has free one way drop and is reasonable.