Hire car in UK with only km/h on speedo
Hire car in UK with only km/h on speedo
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Discussion

chpmerlin

Original Poster:

15 posts

147 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
I've hired twice from Hertz in the last couple of weeks and both times have been given Irish-registered cars with only kilometres on the speedo.
Seems odd that this is allowed. Anyone else encountered this?

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

32,007 posts

264 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
chpmerlin said:
I've hired twice from Hertz in the last couple of weeks and both times have been given Irish-registered cars with only kilometres on the speedo.
Seems odd that this is allowed. Anyone else encountered this?
That's weird! Was there not smaller mph underneath the kph numbers?

Satnav or iphone were your friends presumably? (or mental arithmetic biggrin)

ESD1711

390 posts

80 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
We had this with an insignia once while hiring in NI..... there was a setting to change it to mph though.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

32,007 posts

264 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
chpmerlin said:
I've hired twice from Hertz in the last couple of weeks and both times have been given Irish-registered cars with only kilometres on the speedo.
Seems odd that this is allowed. Anyone else encountered this?
What cars were they?

chpmerlin

Original Poster:

15 posts

147 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
Clio and a Fiesta. After some fiddling, managed to get the digital display to read speed and changed it to mph on the Fiesta. Didn't seem possible on the Clio though.

ESD1711

390 posts

80 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
Where were you out of interest?

Seems common for them to pass about between Ireland and NI.

chpmerlin

Original Poster:

15 posts

147 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
That's weird! Was there not smaller mph underneath the kph numbers?

Satnav or iphone were your friends presumably? (or mental arithmetic biggrin)
Nope just the kph on the analogue display! Managed to get the digital display to show speed on the first car and changed it to mph. Didn't seem possible on the second car - had to resort to mental arithmetic!

chpmerlin

Original Poster:

15 posts

147 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
ESD1711 said:
Where were you out of interest?

Seems common for them to pass about between Ireland and NI.
Northern Ireland indeed. Yes, I thought that was probably the case. Someone hired one-way from Dublin and rather than have the car taken back they just kept it up North perhaps.

ESD1711

390 posts

80 months

Thursday 10th September 2020
quotequote all
chpmerlin said:
Northern Ireland indeed. Yes, I thought that was probably the case. Someone hired one-way from Dublin and rather than have the car taken back they just kept it up North perhaps.
Yup, exactly the case. Not uncommon smile

V8 Bob

302 posts

154 months

Friday 11th September 2020
quotequote all
Had the same with a Peugeot picked up late at night at Cardiff airport. No handbook or even a quick guide to the car which you often find in hire cars.

Ended up having to google how to change the settings over. The car was brand new off a transporter with single digit mileage when I picked it up.

Mammasaid

5,568 posts

126 months

Friday 11th September 2020
quotequote all
La Régie make it easy for you...


surveyor

18,690 posts

213 months

Friday 11th September 2020
quotequote all
There is also this issue which we never really found the answer for...

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

donkmeister

12,871 posts

129 months

Saturday 12th September 2020
quotequote all
I've had a couple of hirecars in England where some prat has changed the units to metric... I seem to recall in both cases it was 30 seconds of going through the menus before I could change it back. Also, amusingly, the hire car people hadn't spotted it in either case so I've had to explain how I'm returning a car with fewer miles than I hired it with (as the odometer changed too).

I assume that it's happened because someone from a km country wants to see the fuel consumption rather than the fuel economy, so just as l/100km are not immediately appreciable to me, MPG aren't immediately appreciable to them. The mad fools.

The other possibility is something very strange that I experienced when I switched my own car into metric the first time I took it to the continent... I had it changed back within a few miles as it was messing with my head. I've never had that issue with a rental car, but in my own car it was somehow "wrong" to see the speedo reading "100" when I knew I was doing 62mph. Seems very bizarre but even driving in a km country it was more familiar to me to see a speed limit sign and convert it to mph than it was to simply see "80" and not let the dial go above "80". So perhaps you've picked up cars rented by people who have the same car in a km country.