Bit of a moan really....4 days car rental, with a half decent company in Cyprus, €140. Plus a few € more for full insurance. I’ve tried all the normal sources...DYS, online comparisons etc.
Back street rentals €100 for 4 days.
Comparing dates, like for like, renting from Alicante is half that price, as expected.
Pre Covid, and playing the system, I used to pay €25/40 for two weeks with my own CDW policy through DYS. The ‘good old days ‘....last time I visited Cyprus was with the first Mrs LL back in the 20th Century.
I’m only here for 10 days, got a mountain of books, the sea is an 8 minute stroll for early morning and evening dips, and I don’t know if I CBA to pay €140 to drive around in the heat.
And ....Lidl is a 10 minute walk, although their prices, for identical products which I buy in Spain, are far more expensive here, most likely because many of the customers in Spain are ‘locals’ as opposed to tourists here. Fair enough.
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You want to try Italy.
I was looking for a car for 16 days in Rome... £1200 for a Panda was the best I could get.
Though s*d it, and going to drive down instead
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That's not bad for Cyprus, I've seen €100 for a weekend for a 10-15 year old bangers over there.
It's not ever been like spain where you can hire cars for a 2 euros a day, not that I've seen anyway.
Cars, in general, are expensive in Cyprus.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Wed 29 Jun 22 at 12:44
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OK.
For some reason I thought car hire would be cheap in Cyprus...years ago weren’t car pre reg in Cyprus before being sold in the U.K ?
In the area I’m staying one mode of transport for the ‘younger tourist’ appears to be rented quad bikes and funny 4 seater buggy type things.
Buses are cheap enough...€5 for a day, although they won’t take me off the beaten track.
I’m still mulling over whether to get a rental or not....
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Car rental prices....44 days end September from Alicante. My normal modus operandi is 3 x 2 week rentals, or 2 x 3 week rentals which are normally slightly more expensive but saves some hassle returning and collecting.
DYS, my normal go to broker, are quoting silly rental prices at the moment, and I prefer to stick with a handful of operators whom I’ve used previously.
I may end up biting the bullet and booking a non refundable directly with a car hire company I’ve used previously ...two 3 week rental periods. I can’t get an online quote for the full duration of the trip so awaiting a response.
Oh for the good old days of €40/70 for two weeks, with my own CDW policy.
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I know. I have a week in Portugal on 26 Sep booked through DYS for €124 then the remaining nearly 5 weeks are €452. Next year is much worse, so much so that I'm thinking about taking my own car, which would overall cost about the same depending on route and my appetite for long hours driving, or doing without - mostly easy enough but fewer days out when there.
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Planning to spend 6 weeks pre Xmas in Andalusia and have decided to take own car.
Cost is fairly neutral vs flying and hiring. Avoids changing car as rentals over 4 weeks usually carry a huge premium (last year had Ibiza + C3 + Corsa). Also no constraints on luggage (which may or may not be a good thing).
The really cheap deals in the past are mainly down to oversupply and limited demand - Covid related? Now hire companies have increased demand and few cars due to supply problems.
Assume a hire company buys a (very discounted) car for (say) £12k which depreciates by (say) £2k pa and rents for 40 weeks.
This is £50 pw just to cover depreciation. By they time admin, insurance, servicing, etc have been added I suspect that ~£100 is their base cost. They may offset a bit with CDW, child seats and other overpriced extras.
£2-5 a day is not a sustainable deal.
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Off to the apartment in Alicante first week in November. Booked an on airport rental, auto, 9 days for 250 quid. Pre covid it would have cost me 75 quid.
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EU580 for 4 weeks on La Palma in Feb/Match. Zero excess insurance. Not too bad.
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My mate is off to cyprus for an autumn week with friends(not family). I put him onto DYS which was cheap. He thought too cheap, too good to be true, and spent 5x the amount with a "reputable company".
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I always use DYS unless I can borrow a friends car....they’ve always proved cheaper than other online brokers, and rental deals offered by airlines.
FWIW I’ve recently registered with Record go and OK Mobility. Their booking direct deals seem very competitive given today’s prices....I never pay top wack for their fully comp insurance, but Record go have €263 27/09 > 18/10 and OK €234 18/10 > 09/11. Full to full fuel, and free cancellation with the former. My own £40 annual CDW insurance policy.
Still €497 for 44 days. Strewth. 3x what I used to pay pre Covid.
Hope that helps anyone anticipating overseas car rental.
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I try to book mine well in advance and the booking I have for Sept/Oct/Nov this year is about half the cost of booking it now. I suppose I got lucky, in advance of the price hikes.
Record Go don't do Faro and OK Mobility was dearer than what I have booked (thru DYS) for next March and Sept, but I will keep them as a possibility for the future.
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As a rule I always book with a local company who has a good reputation. I find a good source for finding such information is the appropriate Tripadvisor forum for the area. Plenty of advice as who to use and perhaps more importantly who not to use.
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Plenty of free impartial advice on the local FB page for where I stay.
Invariably it’s the same 5 companies....who give an excellent service with full insurance, but charge €1500+ for the period I want (45 days). That’s almost the same as I pay for my normal accommodation, which is a great place to stay and includes electric.
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Ive given up on trying to get a dirt cheap rental.....bitten the bullet and paid a non refundable €242 to OK Mobility for 21 days starting late September. A further 23 days until November, when demand should be less, are currently €285.
As that is also non refundable I’m taking a chance and hope the price drops toward the winter months.
In mid May 2022 I paid €166 to OK for 17 days....brand new 208 GT as mentioned previously. That car was the catalyst for dumping the Focus and buying something more interesting...fingers crossed I get the same later this month. At the moment it’s a Fiat 500 or similar. Had one for 3 weeks previously. We didn’t get along.
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I know previous years have had great deals.
But let’s face it, £80 for a weeks car rental is still great value.
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80 euros.
Todays Revolut exchange rate dropped to €1.149. Atrocious.
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Sods Law booked a 208 direct with OK 17/10 > 09/11 . 24 days @ €269 two days ago.
Price has just dropped to €213. Drat.
I’ll send them a cheeky email and politely request the 208 GT I had in May.
Nothing ventured nothing gained.
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Oh dear oh dear....another horrible Citroen C3 rental car for the next 20 days. To be fair, OKMobility did say ‘Fiat 500 or similar’, but I have a deep dislike of the C3 for hooning around mountain roads in the Marina Alta.
I’ve had them previously...awful gear change like stirring porridge, overlight steering and it’s a diesel. And the screen thing is in double Dutch. I’ll try to change that ASAP.
At least it has Apple Car Play, so I dropped a pin on google maps on my friends property location in the middle of nowhere where I had to collect the apartment key, put in co ordinates and my iPhone took me there no problemo. It cruises ok at 140kph on the autopista, actually feels reasonably settled slightly faster ( naughty LL) .where I was still left eating other locals dust, and the mpg should be reasonable.
Fingers crossed that when I return it in 3 weeks I get another 208 GT auto with flappy paddles for the following 24 days.
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Earlier this month in Naples/Amalfi coast our ‘Peugeot 208 or similar’ was a Jeep Renegade diesel manual which wasn’t too bad. Apple Car Play makes or breaks a hire car these days - luckily this had it. Strange driving position: in what is not a very big car you have a large flat bonnet sticking out the front which gives a big car feel. The worst bit was the massive A-pillar. Bigger than many cars’ C-pilars!
Driving in Naples was … fun! Managed to get the car back in one piece, which was more than our taxi driver managed one evening.
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Totally agree on the Apple/Android car play if venturing off piste....I drop pins on my destination ( often a friends house out in the campo )...put in the coordinates and follow directions.
Reduces the stress levels when out in the countryside, dirt tracks everywhere
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Voice of sensibility - if you're "having fun" on dirt tracks remember your insurance may not cover you. Even a puncture could cost a few bob (thought that may be true anywhere)
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Nooooo.
24 days with another C3 diesel. This one seems even more lethargic than the one I just returned to OK Mobility.
I suppose I was initially upgraded from a 500, but had booked a 208 ( or similar) hoping for a 208 GT I had in May.
Seems my car rental luck has run out
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All hire cars are quite fast aren’t they?
;-)
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Dats wot I always thought.
The illusion is well & truly shattered with this POS.
I thought there may be driving modes and it was set in manyana. Sadly not.
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Two friends also booked direct with OKMobility as prices were cheaper than using the broker DYS.
They’ve both now changed rental vehicles after 21 days.....pal 1, who previously had a new Corsa was upgraded to an A1 5 door auto ( on French plates !)
Pal 2, who paid for the cheapest Fiat 500 or similar, initially had a new Seat Leon, and has been upgraded again to a new Seat Arona FR.
Lucky
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Anyone thinking of car hire this month, rates have dropped. A lot.
Friend flies out this Friday and is paying £90 for 30 days.
I booked a flight this evening, also departing this Friday....€51 car hire for ten days with OK. My airport parking at LBA is more than that.
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Once again I found a cheap rental ay DYS for my mate who goes to malta foa week at the start of Feb. €1.50 a day.
Once again he booked something much more expensive (£55 for the week) because he thinks there must be something wrong with it.
Anyway I'll have a look for my 6 weeks in Portugal at end Feb, also the Sept one. I'm already on fairly keen pricing for both but thanks for the heads up.
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smokie...I know you hire a lot overseas, as do I, and previously I’ve almost always used specific rental companies via DYS.
I registered with OK ( previously OK Mobility) and after getting better deals, and ( little value) loyalty points than DYS, they are my first point of contact. Friends, on my recommendation, do likewise, with very favourable results. And some excellent free upgrades. Unlike myself.
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Well prices have dropped for the near future (I've saved over €200 on the March booking) but the Sept ones are still sky high - much higher than any previous year - €1700 for a Yaris for 42 days. I suppose once it gets closer they will drop too.
I'll check with OK tomorrow for March and Sept but because you have to wait for their prices you don't have the same ability to change dates to see the impact. E.g. March was €220 for the entire period but it was easy to do 8 alternatives, swapping the car part way through (which is normally quite a bit cheaper, as much of my time falls in teh low season).
Again, thanks for the heads up - I do check it every few weeks, last check was Dec 12th and there is a big change since then.
EDIT I just realised you can mess with dates on OK for rentals of less than a month. They don't have a great range of cars, closest to my needs is the Golf is €12 a day for the first month but I can get a Fiesta for only €6 a day for the whole period. So DYS appears much better for me. We can get by on a Fiesta but I prefer a bit bigger, normally aim for an Ibiza or thereabouts. SWMBO has a Yaris and it's enough for the two of us.
Last edited by: smokie on Wed 4 Jan 23 at 00:40
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Rates in mainland Spain at this time of year are very low. I guess it’s all supply and demand,. Hire fleets are large to meet summer demand when rates soar and few want to hire in winter.
In winter sun destinations like the Canaries and Cyprus January and February are peak season with corresponding high rental prices. Have a Panda booked for four weeks in Feb/March on the island of La Palma for EUR 428 with no excess which I think is quite reasonable
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Undoubtedly it is worth making cancellable bookings and checking back every so often though - I usually make a booking as soon as we've sorted our dates but check every so often whether the prices have dropped.
I originally booked the one for March (Portugal rather than Spain, but not much difference) in Jan 2021 for €465, rebooked in Dec for €392 then rebooked last night for €220. The first two bookings included changing car (and hirer) part way through (so add fuel cost and time) but the latest booking is from start to end.
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We hired a 7-seat VW Caddy last week on Rhodes which made an interesting comparison to my Berlingo XL. Just 350kms on the clock, and a 4-cylinder petrol complete with 2-cylinder shut down on the over-run, which you really wouldn’t have been aware of were it not for the information on the dashboard when it was in use. Very smooth.
For a number of reasons I came away preferring my Berlingo, not least of which was the daft touch-screen controls which require unnecessary menu option selection just to change the temperature or adjust fan speed. Daft.
One thing I did notice on Rhodes was the ability of the locals/car hirers to get around in small cars, with hardly an SUV in sight. Refreshing! Although I did wonder what they will do when manufacturers give up on the small car segment?
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>> a 4-cylinder petrol complete with
>> 2-cylinder shut down on the over-run, which you really wouldn’t have been aware of were
>> it not for the information on the dashboard when it was in use. Very smooth.
Are you sure you mean 2-cylinder shut down on the over-run? Most modern cars shut down all cylinders on the over-run (accelerator lift-off).
Do you mean the engine reverted to 2 cylinders on light throttle?
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>> Are you sure you mean 2-cylinder shut down on the over-run? Most modern cars shut
>> down all cylinders on the over-run (accelerator lift-off).
>> Do you mean the engine reverted to 2 cylinders on light throttle?
>>
No, it was just on the over-run when coasting. A message came up on the dash, the precise wording of which escapes me, but it was something like "running on 2 cylinders". The lightest touch of the throttle and the sign would go off. But without the message, I would have been none the wiser!
I assume the car had the ubiquitous VW 1.5 4-cylinder petrol engine.
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They all cut off the fuel on overrun. Maybe it parks the valves.
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Summer car hire - PR
