What's the best holiday hire car you've had?

What's the best holiday hire car you've had?

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Discussion

ChasW

2,135 posts

201 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Just been to Italy. There were five of us meeting up at Pisa and I had massively underestimated the amount of luggage we all had. I had booked a Volvo estate which would have been woefully inadequate. Fortunately Hertz had none available an offered me a Nissan X Trail instead. This saved me from acute embarrassment and extra expense. I did not like the car at all but it swallowed all our stuff so it counts as the best.

soxboy

6,060 posts

218 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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No photos and nothing too exciting, but ones that stand out include a Golf Plus Tdi that I hired in Stuttgart for my cousin's wedding. It went surprisingly well round the Ring, and through guilt I even washed it before handing it back.

In terms of value, just been to Mallorca and booked a 'Golf or equivalent' through OK (via doyouspain), 59 euros for the week and got a brand new Audi A3 S-Line Sportback DSG with much needed satnav.

On a previous trip to Ibiza I booked a 'Tiguan or equivalent' through Bravo and got a Landwind. Now even with my years of car geekdom I'd never heard of it either and not even the badge gave it away. It was horrendous but did the job as a bus for the week. God forbid what would have happened if I'd crashed it as I think it performed worse than a Metro on the NCAP tests.

VF7

3,116 posts

214 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Cupramax said:
VF7 said:
Just came back from Mallorca and had this beauty for a week:



Best (hire) car one could wish for those great roads in the north of Mallorca!!!
Vanrell by any chance?
Nope, Europcar.
I had to look up what Vanrell is... Thought I have never heard of that place until I discovered it's a car rental... biggrin

Since it is part of their "Fun Car" an "Luxurious" car range it was quite expensive at £550 a week...

Kedlestone

333 posts

122 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Blackbird425 said:
How much did that cost?? Unlimited mileage?
£500 roughly for a 2 day hire, Thursday lunch collect and Saturday lunch drop off. I got some discount with them being a regular customer. Mileage is usually capped at 500 miles a week, they say to discuss with them if it's many more. I did slightly over but they didn't mind, didn't mind that I did it over 3 days either.

DamnKraut

456 posts

98 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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sjabrown said:
WOW. Deja vu!! The reg on that wasn't BBJ 839 was it?

Had same in NZ (Quality-rent-a-car in ChCh), brakes failed on one which then ended through a fence and I rolled the replacement.
Nah, mine had a different reg. Seems like the Bluebird and the Sunny are the standard crap boxes they bring in from Japanese car auctions where they buy them by the dozen.

What I did like about the car was its simplicity. It could take a beating (and regularly did that with idiot drivers like me I'd guess) but still roll on.
Once the windscreen had given up on the Bluebird they gave me an even crappier Sunny while stopping over in ChCh.

That Sunny had literally no paint left on it, so I think kicking it over a gravel road at 60mph (which sounded like the car was under small arms fire) was a good idea for a paint job makeover biglaugh


paulguitar

23,104 posts

112 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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I rented this in Maui a few years ago. I had only intended getting something cheap, but couldn't help myself when I saw this. It was brilliant between lights but did not feel very happy on corners.



Warmfuzzies

3,961 posts

252 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Shnozz said:
Warmfuzzies said:
C7 Corvette. Two weeks in May this year, Orlando destination. $728 all in. Superb.

Edited by Warmfuzzies on Sunday 26th June 18:09
Who was that hired through?
Avis, booked a flight and car hire through BA, always go for a family car in the original booking and upgrade at the desk on arrival

hewison

6 posts

200 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Back in 2008, honeymoon transport around California was a Shelby Mustang GT-H (Hertz special). Unfortunately automatic, but at least it was the 4.6l V8!




e46m3c

874 posts

154 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Had this for a couple of weeks in California. Ordered the mustang vert, but they ran out and they were so busy they let me take th 5.0 V8 for no charge. Sweet! Does burnouts well smile






Cupramax

10,469 posts

251 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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VF7 said:
Nope, Europcar.
I had to look up what Vanrell is... Thought I have never heard of that place until I discovered it's a car rental... biggrin

Since it is part of their "Fun Car" an "Luxurious" car range it was quite expensive at £550 a week...
Bloody hell thats expensive! i only thought it might be Vanrell as they have some interesting cars on their fleet so assumed it might be from them ( can you tell ive spent too much time over there biggrin). Most of the hire places on Majorca only have boring dross. Will have a nose at Europcar before i make a choice for this years pilgrimage to the lovely island.

BrightonEd

76 posts

160 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Interesting that a lot of these posts are cars from the USofA. Here's one we had when doing an East coast road trip in Feb/March. Wanted a Camaro, but ended up with this beast. And in the cold & dark on freeways with huge trucks, this was far more suitable. The 6.0 litre V8 was comical too. And all the Yanks loved the 'Brits with the 'Burban'...


soxboy

6,060 posts

218 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Cupramax said:
Bloody hell thats expensive! i only thought it might be Vanrell as they have some interesting cars on their fleet so assumed it might be from them ( can you tell ive spent too much time over there biggrin). Most of the hire places on Majorca only have boring dross. Will have a nose at Europcar before i make a choice for this years pilgrimage to the lovely island.
As I mentioned above we got a decent new Audi A3 for €59 in Mallorca, during half term too. Got it through OK via doyouspain.

There was some interesting other stuff there including Audi cabriolet, Range Rovers and Alfa 4c. Friends who live over there always use them.

I must admit I would rather spend money on the accommodation rather than the car, hence never splashing out!

jayemm89

4,001 posts

129 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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An easy one for me, I spent a week in LA with this beauty. What. A. Car. Made me a Vette guy.


Jakg

3,451 posts

167 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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fieldy_72 said:
In my experience in the UK thrifty by far have the best fleet spec wise, almost all of their BMWs are M Sport and Mercedes AMG line, and they have quite a few M3, M4, M5 and M6 on fleet, even a few i8's and different spec F Types!
I saw an F30 3-series yesterday with LED headlights - I thought it was an unusual option and I was even more surprised to see it was on a 320d XDrive, and that it was a Thrifty hire car!

Blackbird425

Original Poster:

1,884 posts

104 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Jakg said:
I saw an F30 3-series yesterday with LED headlights - I thought it was an unusual option and I was even more surprised to see it was on a 320d XDrive, and that it was a Thrifty hire car!
The 318d I started this thread with has LED headlights. Standard spec in "Europe" maybe?

je777

341 posts

103 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Aygo.

I'm a lucky man.

jke11y

3,181 posts

236 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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Blackbird425 said:
Jakg said:
I saw an F30 3-series yesterday with LED headlights - I thought it was an unusual option and I was even more surprised to see it was on a 320d XDrive, and that it was a Thrifty hire car!
The 318d I started this thread with has LED headlights. Standard spec in "Europe" maybe?
They'll be sold off via BMW dealers once they've done 6-12k miles, so maybe BMW option the cars so to help with resale. We had an ex-avis 120d M sport bought via a dealer, was a great car.

thesyn

540 posts

180 months

Wednesday 29th June 2016
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2015 Lincoln Navigator.

Really impressed on US roads.

Diamond Dave

20 posts

198 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
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Had this for a couple of days in Mallorca back in March - perfect for the mountain roads there ........ and its not the first time this actual car has appeared in this forum!!!!
Seriously though if you've not driven the mountain roads in Mallorca you should, they are just wonderful. The only problem is the plethora of cyclists but if you make an early start in the day there's fewer of them to bother you.

dickieboy28

30 posts

146 months

Thursday 30th June 2016
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15 years ago, myself and four uni mates did a month long trip around Spain and southern France. The cheapest/largest car we could get was a Peugeot Partner 1.9 D (naturally aspirated). It was so crap it ended up being brilliant! Drove it everywhere flat out, held it at vmax on the motorway for hour after hour (about 155kph), hit the limiter in almost every gear. It was a general rule to give it full revs and dump the clutch when setting off, surroundings permitting. It went flat out over speed bumps, up dirt roads in southern Spain, effectively abused for nearly 3,500 miles......and never missed a beat! It felt a French car of old, shocking built quality and no equipment but with rock solid and simple running gear. Im still odly fond of them today. Photo attached of the very car. For context a friend was trying to 'entertain' a Dutch girl in the back, hence us rocking the car about. Young and most certainly dumb we were