Car Hire Galway City

JohnCleary

Folks,
Have family home from abroad.

They have Full Irish license etc. so no problem, but just wondering if anyone knows where the best value is for car hire, for 1-2 weeks?

Mrs OBumble

Either Enterprise (office is in Ballybrit Upper Ind estate) or Budget if you get a good price via www.arguscarhire.ie (The latter are a broker, much cheaper than going to Budget direct).


One thing: if you go to Enterprise, they need to see two proof-of-address things (ie posted bank statement, utility bill, etc). Faxed copies are fine ... but it's not actually the sort of thing that many people carry on their holliers.

xtradel

Stay away from Budget. They are too pushy with the excess insurance. They insist on it even if you paid an excess thru a third party. You dont have to take it but they will use a lot of scare tactics to convince you otherwise.

Unrealistic

Be careful with car categories with one of the providers mentioned above. When you check through a broker and ask to compare one category (e.g Ford Mondeo/Opel Insignia/Toyota Avensis full size saloon) this company might come back with the best price. But when you turn up at the office they'll try to give you a lower category of car. It happened to me a few times so when the came back as the cheapest price for that category I also printed off a quote for the lower category to have as protection. That way, when I had booked a 'Mondeo or equivalent' and they tried to palm me off with a Focus I could whip out the quote I had printed for a Focus class car and argue that they should give me a discount to that price if they weren't prepared to give me a Mondeo.

JohnCleary

Turns out the family member had a reservation all along with Enterprise. They rang Enterprise this morning (before heading out to pick-up) just to confirm that all is OK (The reservation was for a 9AM pickup)

The response: "Sorry, we probably won't have anything ready until this evening, ring back later and we'll let you know if we have anything" :eek:

The mind boggles.

Family member promptly went elsewhere

keithclancy

xtradel wrote: »

Stay away from Budget. They are too pushy with the excess insurance. They insist on it even if you paid an excess thru a third party. You dont have to take it but they will use a lot of scare tactics to convince you otherwise.

Their all the same with the excess Insurance.

I just say "I have my own"
They usually say "Are you sure its any good, you know you'll have to pay the money to us anyway and get it back from them"
I then say "I understand, I have my own"

Mrs OBumble

xtradel wrote: »

Stay away from Budget. They are too pushy with the excess insurance. They insist on it even if you paid an excess thru a third party. You dont have to take it but they will use a lot of scare tactics to convince you otherwise.

They suggest it, they don't insist. I've not taken it in the past (when I was feeling richer overall, and willing to take the risk), and taken it too. They were cool either way, but made sure I knew what I was liable for.

Beware of the excess buyout via a 3rd party if it's Mondail - there's small print in their policy which says it only applies if you're overseas or more than (I think) 150km from home.

Re car categories, I always pick the smallest one, and very rarely get given it - usually get a far bigger car.

rocky

Unrealistic wrote: »

Be careful with car categories with one of the providers mentioned above. When you check through a broker and ask to compare one category (e.g Ford Mondeo/Opel Insignia/Toyota Avensis full size saloon) this company might come back with the best price. But when you turn up at the office they'll try to give you a lower category of car. It happened to me a few times so when the came back as the cheapest price for that category I also printed off a quote for the lower category to have as protection. That way, when I had booked a 'Mondeo or equivalent' and they tried to palm me off with a Focus I could whip out the quote I had printed for a Focus class car and argue that they should give me a discount to that price if they weren't prepared to give me a Mondeo.

I booked a Corolla or similar through a broker and Budget tried to give me a Fiesta... Ended up with a CMax in the end

Unrealistic

JustMary wrote: »

Re car categories, I always pick the smallest one, and very rarely get given it - usually get a far bigger car.

Not an option, unfortunately when you've got a family of five plus luggage.

rocky wrote: »

I booked a Corolla or similar through a broker and Budget tried to give me a Fiesta... Ended up with a CMax in the end

So it's not just me they tried it with (Renault Megane instead of Opel Vectra and Nissan Almera instead of Nissan Primera).