Who will buy an Ora Funky Cat?
Discussion
ChocolateFrog said:
It's not that long ago that I hired a Punto in Italy for significantly less than £10 a day all in.
That's mental, I'd want it for the whole month.
Daily rental isn’t anything like as cheap as that here though, the cheapest airport rental is about £40/day (and £75 for the Cat) That's mental, I'd want it for the whole month.
TheDeuce said:
I got a car for €30 for 4 days in Malta recently! They tyres were sun cracked and we got a flat on day two.. which took an hour to sort. Still, what did I expect for less than a tenner a day..
That's decent. Malta is an ideal place for a rent-a-banger company. Would you mind posting the name of the company you hired from please? I'd like to put it in my list of possibles for my next trip.TheDeuce said:
I got a car for €30 for 4 days in Malta recently! They tyres were sun cracked and we got a flat on day two.. which took an hour to sort. Still, what did I expect for less than a tenner a day..
Last week in Greece I rented a car for a few days and I saw e-up's and fiat 500-e's but the cheapest were about €50 a day I think. It makes no sense as these are not expensive cars to buy and maintenance is virtually none existent. I do wonder if they're charging more because they can because of the novelty value? I think if I had never driven an EV I might be tempted to spend and extra £100 to have one for a few days and see what it's all about.
As I was driving over the mountains in the heat I was also reminded of how quickly internal combustion becomes gutless in those conditions - maybe next time I will plump for the EV if prices can come back down to near sane levels.
A lot of it is economics. If you look at Avis and Hertz results they're aren't larging it on the net profit front in the manner that might be expected given their pricing differential to the small, local wreck renters. The local operator has little debt servicing due to running old stock, fewer staff and often no big agency support costs for when employees decide to WFH and lower unit rental costs. Conversely, the likes of Avis are up to their eyeballs in debt on their stock, stock that's replaced rapidly so bears the absolute brunt of any cost of debt and cost of car increases, they pay too dollar for their prime real estate and have high wage costs. And as a result have much higher consumer expectations. When you rent a wreck, it doesn't bother you that the door mirrors are hanging off and one of the seats is loose but when you pay too whack at Hertz you fundamentally expect a new car in mint condition. Last week in Greece I rented a car for a few days and I saw e-up's and fiat 500-e's but the cheapest were about €50 a day I think. It makes no sense as these are not expensive cars to buy and maintenance is virtually none existent. I do wonder if they're charging more because they can because of the novelty value? I think if I had never driven an EV I might be tempted to spend and extra £100 to have one for a few days and see what it's all about.
As I was driving over the mountains in the heat I was also reminded of how quickly internal combustion becomes gutless in those conditions - maybe next time I will plump for the EV if prices can come back down to near sane levels.
Maybe we also need a 'who will buy the Ora Lightning Cat?', Looks like its going to be priced to compete with the Model 3, It certainly stands out, lots of styling cues from some familiar cars are quite clear.
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ora/360026/gwm-ora-u...
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ora/360026/gwm-ora-u...
DonkeyApple said:
TheDeuce said:
I got a car for €30 for 4 days in Malta recently! They tyres were sun cracked and we got a flat on day two.. which took an hour to sort. Still, what did I expect for less than a tenner a day..
Last week in Greece I rented a car for a few days and I saw e-up's and fiat 500-e's but the cheapest were about €50 a day I think. It makes no sense as these are not expensive cars to buy and maintenance is virtually none existent. I do wonder if they're charging more because they can because of the novelty value? I think if I had never driven an EV I might be tempted to spend and extra £100 to have one for a few days and see what it's all about.
As I was driving over the mountains in the heat I was also reminded of how quickly internal combustion becomes gutless in those conditions - maybe next time I will plump for the EV if prices can come back down to near sane levels.
A lot of it is economics. If you look at Avis and Hertz results they're aren't larging it on the net profit front in the manner that might be expected given their pricing differential to the small, local wreck renters. The local operator has little debt servicing due to running old stock, fewer staff and often no big agency support costs for when employees decide to WFH and lower unit rental costs. Conversely, the likes of Avis are up to their eyeballs in debt on their stock, stock that's replaced rapidly so bears the absolute brunt of any cost of debt and cost of car increases, they pay too dollar for their prime real estate and have high wage costs. And as a result have much higher consumer expectations. When you rent a wreck, it doesn't bother you that the door mirrors are hanging off and one of the seats is loose but when you pay too whack at Hertz you fundamentally expect a new car in mint condition. Last week in Greece I rented a car for a few days and I saw e-up's and fiat 500-e's but the cheapest were about €50 a day I think. It makes no sense as these are not expensive cars to buy and maintenance is virtually none existent. I do wonder if they're charging more because they can because of the novelty value? I think if I had never driven an EV I might be tempted to spend and extra £100 to have one for a few days and see what it's all about.
As I was driving over the mountains in the heat I was also reminded of how quickly internal combustion becomes gutless in those conditions - maybe next time I will plump for the EV if prices can come back down to near sane levels.
I choose to rent-a-wreck quite often, I work and travel overseas quite a bit and generally I want a car with a scratch or dent on every panel, saves me worrying about any new ones it might go back with...
DonkeyApple said:
No idea why the EVs are dearer. I wonder if it's a function of the early days of the market and most EVs made are higher spec, plus fleet discounts not as good? Do any of the main fleet manufacturers yet make EVs with manual seats and all the other base spec aspects?
hmmm... I don't think any more or less do than with modern ICE cars tbh. The Germans obviously insist on everything being an extra... But the rental companies are all french/italian/asian cars, which all tend to be sold with most kit as standard.We had a Fiat 500-e on hire for a couple of months when I was in between cars, and that was about as basic as any new car gets these days. It didn't have electric seats. I saw the same model in Greece for £50-60 a day vs £25 from the same vendor for a the petrol version
Silvanus said:
Maybe we also need a 'who will buy the Ora Lightning Cat?', Looks like its going to be priced to compete with the Model 3, It certainly stands out, lots of styling cues from some familiar cars are quite clear.
https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ora/360026/gwm-ora-u...
that's actually not that offensive - though it is a mishmash of styling stolen from other carshttps://www.autoexpress.co.uk/ora/360026/gwm-ora-u...
Silvanus said:
at first glance I really like this (especially the colour)Bannock said:
TheDeuce said:
I got a car for €30 for 4 days in Malta recently! They tyres were sun cracked and we got a flat on day two.. which took an hour to sort. Still, what did I expect for less than a tenner a day..
That's decent. Malta is an ideal place for a rent-a-banger company. Would you mind posting the name of the company you hired from please? I'd like to put it in my list of possibles for my next trip.
Yes, always rent a s
tter in Malta. I LOVE the place for work and leisure, but for whatever reason they simply can't drive over there, everyone seems to have their own ideas about right of way. The roundabouts generally work on the 'French system', whereby cars already on the roundabout give way to those looking to join. Except when it doesn't work like that.If you hear a car near you beep its horn it's because it's about to do something, could be anything really... Or that you've pissed them off somehow.
The roads are generally good but if you get a sprinkling of rain after a few hot days, they become like ICE.
You've probably driven there before and know all the above! Have a great trip
TheDeuce said:
https://www.abbycar.com/malta/luqa - they even picked us up and dropped us back at the airport for that ££
:
Thank you!:
TheDeuce said:
hmmm... I don't think any more or less do than with modern ICE cars tbh. The Germans obviously insist on everything being an extra... But the rental companies are all french/italian/asian cars, which all tend to be sold with most kit as standard.
We had a Fiat 500-e on hire for a couple of months when I was in between cars, and that was about as basic as any new car gets these days. It didn't have electric seats. I saw the same model in Greece for £50-60 a day vs £25 from the same vendor for a the petrol version
Is it not simply an easy way to allow customers to choose to spend more? Some customers are price driven, others want to feel like they have a premium option in whatever way. Historically via vehicle class but why wouldn’t it work in other ways. We had a Fiat 500-e on hire for a couple of months when I was in between cars, and that was about as basic as any new car gets these days. It didn't have electric seats. I saw the same model in Greece for £50-60 a day vs £25 from the same vendor for a the petrol version
Allows the companies to make more money from a self selecting customer subset to whom price isn’t the absolute factor and still make money from those where it is.
Dingu said:
TheDeuce said:
hmmm... I don't think any more or less do than with modern ICE cars tbh. The Germans obviously insist on everything being an extra... But the rental companies are all french/italian/asian cars, which all tend to be sold with most kit as standard.
We had a Fiat 500-e on hire for a couple of months when I was in between cars, and that was about as basic as any new car gets these days. It didn't have electric seats. I saw the same model in Greece for £50-60 a day vs £25 from the same vendor for a the petrol version
Is it not simply an easy way to allow customers to choose to spend more? Some customers are price driven, others want to feel like they have a premium option in whatever way. Historically via vehicle class but why wouldn’t it work in other ways. We had a Fiat 500-e on hire for a couple of months when I was in between cars, and that was about as basic as any new car gets these days. It didn't have electric seats. I saw the same model in Greece for £50-60 a day vs £25 from the same vendor for a the petrol version
Allows the companies to make more money from a self selecting customer subset to whom price isn’t the absolute factor and still make money from those where it is.
Familymad said:
These are so cheap to lease now. Saw one in Bucks and it's not hard on the eye.
Very hard on the eye of following one at night I have discovered in the last week. Unless it was broken the car has a light bar across the whole of the back of the car that is brighter than brake lights and on all the time. When the brake lights did come on they seemed barely any brighter. After over taking the fronts were equally seemingly on main beam. I believe they've now renamed them also as the plan to mug off slow witted, aging house wives in the suburbs of Bristol and Brum by making them think the car was a cat while also being funky doesn't look to have been the deviating win that the importers had hoped for.
Still too expensive. Still too many fingers in the pie from when the car rolls out of the factory and onto the driveway. These really ought to be among the cheapest cars on sale in the U.K.
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