Have car rental prices gone mad ?

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twofor1

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I will be renting a car in Spain, Nissan Juke or similar. With the cancellation option, an additional driver and full no excess insurance, it will cost €550 for 5 days which is more than I expected.

Out of curiosity I looked online in Dublin for a similar car with the same extras for the same dates and prices here are over €1,500 for the 5 days, some don’t have any availability.

I know everything is up in price recently but is €1,500 not mad money for a standard car for 5 days ?
 
Car hire companies charge high prices for the extras. Try to manage with one driver and don't take the cancellation option. Take out the cover for the excess with an insurance company rather than with the car hire company.
 
Yep, it’s supply and demand big time, there are a lot less cars available for rent, everywhere. They sold a huge amount of their stock during the pandemic, and have not been able to restock quick enough.
 
I think it's better, perhaps not in Ireland. But rented in France and Portugal in the past 6 months. Higher than it used to be but more reasonable. Book in advance on sites with free cancellation.
 
Much of the demand for car hire, especially in tourist off-season is from people needing car rentals when their own car is in the garage or has been crashed. Last year, I was without a car for a week as our mechanic was awaiting delivery of a spare part, and there was no problem getting one for the weekend if I'd wanted it, but I'd almost need a mortgage to get one Monday to Friday as they were being snapped up by people desperate to commute to work.
 
At a time, week day demand was more linked to business trip than the above issue, at least in continental Europe. Ireland prices were always comparatively high. And for that kind of demand, a couple of days, price was indeed much higher proportionally. I don't know if that business is back after COVID but I would imagine so.
 
The last time I rented a car (2021) there was a weird pricing feature where it was cheaper to hire two VW Golfs for a week than something like a VW Tiguan for the same period.

Recent supply issues aside, car rental has always been structurally more expensive in Ireland than elsewhere. I guess a few factors: small market size, high cost of cars, and insurance.
 
LosLobos said:
Any update here on this almost a year later?
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Last year the car at the airport with the cancellation option, additional driver and full no excess insurance was €550 in Spain and €1500 in Dublin.

I just tried similar dates with a similar car with the same extras from the same rental companies, a small drop to €500 in Spain and a substantial drop to €650 in Dublin.
 
twofor1 said:
I will be renting a car in Spain, Nissan Juke or similar. With the cancellation option, an additional driver and full no excess insurance, it will cost €550 for 5 days which is more than I expected.

Out of curiosity I looked online in Dublin for a similar car with the same extras for the same dates and prices here are over €1,500 for the 5 days, some don’t have any availability.

I know everything is up in price recently but is €1,500 not mad money for a standard car for 5 days ?
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Ohhh. Rented Lexus SUV for ten days in Toronto last November 420 euro
 
We're renting a large car in Germany for just over €600 for 15 days in the summer. The same car here is quoting over €1100!
 
We’re in Spain at the moment where we rent an Opel Corsa for 33 days for €603.00 which includes full insurance so no need to buy excess insurance before we came. It was a deal that was run during January/February (through Ryanair). There are some conditions e.g. one named driver, strict collection and return dates. Little chance of a free upgrade though.

It’s years since we rented a car here because of a particular kind of “scam” which I wrote about in a previous thread. But, news on the ground is rental prices will reduce to attract people to rent cars because depots full of cars bring in no revenue.

We hope to spend more time of next winter in Spain and we’re considering bringing our own car then.
 
In general terms, car rentals have become cheaper in the past 25 years and had become incredibly reasonable before covid. It is not a sector where there had been price inflation. If I look at the prices I was used to, there would have been about €280 for a week (and that was before the euro in 1998), you can now find it at a similar price or cheaper in the same country for a similar car.
 
twofor1 said:
I will be renting a car in Spain, Nissan Juke or similar. With the cancellation option, an additional driver and full no excess insurance, it will cost €550 for 5 days which is more than I expected.

Out of curiosity I looked online in Dublin for a similar car with the same extras for the same dates and prices here are over €1,500 for the 5 days, some don’t have any availability.

I know everything is up in price recently but is €1,500 not mad money for a standard car for 5 days ?
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Are you renting with the rental agencies directly? Hertz, AVIS, etc?

We often use 3rd party booking services / providers & get better value.
Have you looked at renting via RyanAir website for example?

Or Skyscanner app (a google product).
 
I find the closer to your date of rental, the cheaper the rental will be.

I am tracking an 8 day rental in Spain at the end of April. Currently about €180 for Wednesday to Wednesday.

If I put in next Wednesday to the following Wednesday, the price is ~ €60.

In January I had a mid- range car in Spain for 8 days which cost the grand total of €28.
 
Personally I use platform like holidayauto or auto Europe. I rent with Avis, hertz, Europcar and other big names..or their subsidiaries like Thrifty... I know better their policies and so am more confortable using them than the local companies.
 
callybags said:
I am tracking an 8 day rental in Spain at the end of April. Currently about €180 for Wednesday to Wednesday.

If I put in next Wednesday to the following Wednesday, the price is ~ €60.

In January I had a mid- range car in Spain for 8 days which cost the grand total of €28.
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More likely proximity to summer.

Spain is not a year-round destination and prices are very low in the winter. I have a friend in Spain whose car died in November so he just rented for a few months and didn't buy a new car until spring.
 
Ceist Beag said:
We're renting a large car in Germany for just over €600 for 15 days in the summer. The same car here is quoting over €1100!
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Prices go up in a supply constrained market. Wow! Maybe there's be more cars available if we capped the prices the people renting them were allowed to charge.
 
LS400 said:
Yep, it’s supply and demand big time, there are a lot less cars available for rent, everywhere. They sold a huge amount of their stock during the pandemic, and have not been able to restock quick enough.
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They are still advertising sales of 2nd hand cars
 
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