Why is car rental in Ireland so cheap?

redcup342

Just asking if anyone has had cheaper rental in other countries ?

Surprising as I thought VRT would have an impact on the cost.

Ireland seems to be the cheapest place in the world so far for Car Rental, today I booked a VW Polo from Dublin Airport for 22 Euros from Today until Thursday, that's 5.50 / day

I get my excess insurance from a UK Company.

It almost seems it's cheaper to rent a car than own one these days.

mickdw

A taxed insured and maintained new car for 5.50 per day is surely a bargain.
My car costs more than that to keep taxed, insured and maintained never mind actually buying the car.
I dont think its easy to get cars at that price all year round though.

redcup342

mickdw wrote: »

A taxed insured and maintained new car for 5.50 per day is surely a bargain.
My car costs more than that to keep taxed, insured and maintained never mind actually buying the car.
I dont think its easy to get cars at that price all year round though.

Ya it's a little bit on the cheap side, any time I'm back I rent and I think the most expensive was 11 euros a day.

coylemj

OP, would you care to name the company that is operating from Dublin airport and renting out Polos for €5.50 a day in the high season?

Even if they managed to rent that car out for the entire year i.e. 365 days at your daily rate, they would take in a grand total of €2,007 which wouldn't even cover depreciation on a Polo, never mind third party insurance, maintenance, breakdown recovery, DAA airport charges, admin. etc. etc.

redcup342

coylemj wrote: »

OP, would you care to name the company that is operating from Dublin airport and renting out Polos for €5.50 a day in the high season?

Even if they rented out at that rate for the entire year i.e. 365 days, they would take in a grand total of €2,007 which wouldn't even cover depreciation on a Polo, never mind third party insurance, maintenance, breakdown recovery, DAA airport charges, admin. etc. etc.

Budget car hire, booked via ebookers.ie

https://www.kayak.ie/cars/Dublin,Ireland-c7362/2017-07-03-22h/2017-07-06

J.pilkington

coylemj wrote: »

OP, would you care to name the company that is operating from Dublin airport and renting out Polos for €5.50 a day in the high season?

Even if they managed to rent that car out for the entire year i.e. 365 days at your daily rate, they would take in a grand total of €2,007 which wouldn't even cover depreciation on a Polo, never mind third party insurance, maintenance, breakdown recovery, DAA airport charges, admin. etc. etc.

Go to argus.ie, 5 options to rent for sub €30 for 3 days. Close enough quote to the OP, should put your suspicious mind to rest.

Are you new to the car rental game? How many customers actually take the base rate? I'd bet very few and this is where they make their money (€10 insurance per day / €10 extra driver per day / would you like a larger sized car, it's only €10 more per day / would you like a diesel / would you like a sat nav etc etc)

wonski

redcup342 wrote: »

Budget car hire, booked via ebookers.ie

https://www.kayak.ie/cars/Dublin,Ireland-c7362/2017-07-03-22h/2017-07-06

It could be smaller than Polo, but still great price.

Could be something similar to supermarket loss leaders, the rest of the cars listed are more "reasonably" priced at between €90-200.

oppenheimer1

redcup342 wrote: »

Just asking if anyone has had cheaper rental in other countries ?

Surprising as I thought VRT would have an impact on the cost.

Ireland seems to be the cheapest place in the world so far for Car Rental, today I booked a VW Polo from Dublin Airport for 22 Euros from Today until Thursday, that's 5.50 / day

I get my excess insurance from a UK Company.

It almost seems it's cheaper to rent a car than own one these days.

Its a similar model to Ryanair. A low rate to entice you in, but a loads of optional extras that you get encouraged to take out. The canny can avoid these but many don't.

That said, I used to hire cars regularly before I bought and have never seen it as low as €6/day. €22/day was the lowest I've ever paid so that's a real bargain or possibly a misprice you're looking at.

myshirt

Wait until you bring it back and see the charges op. Post back then about how much it cost per day

PixelTrawler

myshirt wrote: »

Wait until you bring it back and see the charges op. Post back then about how much it cost per day

What charges? Weve rented in Ireland and there were no surprise charges.
I was shocked how cheap it was. The profits must be razor thin.

We had a yaris for 4 days over the may bank holiday weekend for 30 quid.
Booked at short notice too. Full insurance etc.

BillyBobBS

Sold the old car and was without one for three weeks in March of this year. Rented a 2016 fiesta from a rental place for the three weeks for a total of 131 euro, worked out at about 6.25 a day, I was actually shocked at how cheap it was tbh as have never rented in Ireland before only abroad. How they make profits with these numbers i'll never know. No extras that was the total price.

antoinolachtnai

It's a weird old business. If they've got the cars they will rent them at whatever price they can get. Low prices could be to do with lower-than-expected summer trade a much as auth Int else. If there are a lot of extra cars it may even be a saving to rent a car at a loss than to pay someone to move the unused vehicle to the out-of-town holding area.

punisher5112

Just checked link. €8 is the cheapest.

munchkin_utd

firstly, have you actually picked up the car yet and is that what you've actually paid. Normally the fee to pick up at the airport would be as much as your price there.

try getting a car for the summer peak season in August and you're looking at about €50 per day.
Christmas is the same, if not worse.
If you need an automatic, then its a good 20 to 30% more again on top of regular price.
Dont worry, the car rental companies make their money.

CiniO

punisher5112 wrote: »

Just checked link. €8 is the cheapest.

Op's very similar.
22 from today till Thursday, gives €7.33 per day.

redcup342

munchkin_utd wrote: »

firstly, have you actually picked up the car yet and is that what you've actually paid. Normally the fee to pick up at the airport would be as much as your price there.

try getting a car for the summer peak season in August and you're looking at about €50 per day.
Christmas is the same, if not worse.
If you need an automatic, then its a good 20 to 30% more again on top of regular price.
Dont worry, the car rental companies make their money.

I used them a few times before and had no issues, once I came back and there was unmarked damage on a wing mirror, thought they would pull my pants down but in fairness they checked their records and the damage was pre-existing, was all sorted out in a day.

I just refuse the extras a few times they given me an upgrade for free. I don't really care what car it is, it's just to have a runaround.

Aircoach down to cork was 22 euros one way so it was a no brainer to take it.

I have seen Americans getting completely shafted, for a start when you rent on an American website it comes with no insurance whats over so they end up getting shafted on that and then usually they scare them into thinking they need the super insurance, then they ask for an automatic which they charge more money for.

There was a lad in front of me, we were taking the same car on the same days, I think he ended up paying 40 euros per day and I ended up paying around 7 or 8.

coylemj

Sounds good. As several posters have pointed out, there is a bit of a 'bait and switch' model to the business but if you're wise to the tricks of the trade, have the balls to stand your ground and decline the extras and/or provide your own excess insurance, you can get a bargain.

Well done OP.

Grueller

Could somebody explain excess insurance and what it is?

Aren't rental cars VRT excempted? So depending on the model of rental the company probably can sell the car for pretty much the same money they paid after 6 months of hard labour.

coylemj

Grueller wrote: »

Could somebody explain excess insurance and what it is?

https://www.axa.ie/other/car-hire-excess/
https://www.aig.ie/personal/car-hire-excess-insurance

Why I'll never buy car hire insurance again

naughtysmurf

redcup342 wrote: »

I have seen Americans getting completely shafted, for a start when you rent on an American website it comes with no insurance whats over so they end up getting shafted on that and then usually they scare them into thinking they need the super insurance,

Oh don't worry, plenty of Irish get shafted in the US when it comes to insurance, exactly as above & in plenty of other countries too, this unoficial policy is pretty much universal among car hire companies, you just need to be wise to it, they make plenty of money out of it & the staff selling it to you get a commission

R.O.R

samih wrote: »

Aren't rental cars VRT excempted? So depending on the model of rental the company probably can sell the car for pretty much the same money they paid after 6 months of hard labour.

No. Bought on the Vat scheme so all vat reclaimed on purchase and vat paid on sale price.

Vrt used to be deferred but that changed a few years ago.

bigboss1986

redcup342 wrote: »

Just asking if anyone has had cheaper rental in other countries ?

Surprising as I thought VRT would have an impact on the cost.

Ireland seems to be the cheapest place in the world so far for Car Rental, today I booked a VW Polo from Dublin Airport for 22 Euros from Today until Thursday, that's 5.50 / day

I get my excess insurance from a UK Company.

It almost seems it's cheaper to rent a car than own one these days.

Dublin Airport has over 10 rental companies so there is price war.Come to Galway and normal car will cost 40+ extras or automatic car atm cost 400€ a day.Your bum h@le will be like Japanese flag if you dont have enough money to pay deposit even if you have excees bought of from 3rd party.Place i work for we dont care how much is base rental.Extras is where money is made.80% european clients buy extras,north americans (USA and Canada) over 85%-90% extras is being sold.Also a lot of our clients dont have credit card and they have to pay for full insurance wich is usually more than daily rental

OU812

redcup342 wrote: »

I get my excess insurance from a UK Company.

Which company?

DaveyDave

redcup342 wrote: »

I have seen Americans getting completely shafted, for a start when you rent on an American website it comes with no insurance whats over so they end up getting shafted on that and then usually they scare them into thinking they need the super insurance, then they ask for an automatic which they charge more money for.

There was a lad in front of me, we were taking the same car on the same days, I think he ended up paying 40 euros per day and I ended up paying around 7 or 8.

naughtysmurf wrote: »

Oh don't worry, plenty of Irish get shafted in the US when it comes to insurance, exactly as above & in plenty of other countries too, this unoficial policy is pretty much universal among car hire companies, you just need to be wise to it, they make plenty of money out of it & the staff selling it to you get a commission

When an Irish person rents in the US insurance is included as standard. At least it was with Alamo when I went in April. We also don't pay a lot of the taxes and charges like airport fees. You won't get charged extra for an automatic as they're standard there. Americans however have to pay extra for insurance, the taxes, tyre wear etc. If you have a credit card this counts as extra insurance for most people.

I've heard so many horror stories about renting. When I went I declined extra insurance as the standard insurance covered crashes, third party injury, legal fees etc. I was also covered for injury with travel insurance and I declined roadside assistance because mechanical faults were covered as standard. If I got a flat I'd sort it myself for free.

Didn't even have the 'hard sell' I heard so much about. Declined GPS as I had one, declined an upgrade as I didn't want a Mustang GT or Corvette over a standard Mustang. That was it. In and out, no issues, no declining GPS only to have it added onto the contract on the sly etc. Prepay for gas was the same price as regular petrol stations.

Some rentals will charge mileage and tyre fees and possibly some other fees, but most I priced didn't.

ED E

The listed price gets you the custom. Car hire is quite like ebay sellers: Item: €0.01, Postage: €79.99.

ironclaw

DaveyDave wrote: »

I was also covered for injury with travel insurance and I declined roadside assistance because mechanical faults were covered as standard.

Just two points on this to encourage people to check, as I rent a lot of cars corporately:

- Some travel insurance policies don't cover you in a rental car.
- Your rental may cover mechanic faults, but it won't cover you for the tow. Likewise, if you break down or get a flat in some areas e.g tunnels / bridges in New York, your car is going to be moved whether you like it or not and you will be charged a pretty penny for it.

I'm no shill for rental car companies but unless one really understands their own excess insurance and have a buffer of cash for out of pockets before you are reimbursed from your own insurance, thread carefully in the waters of declining everything.

TheShow

I see the benefit of excess insurance, but then they block over a grand on your card for the excess. So you need to have a card with a big limit. the hireco policy may add expense to the rental, but gives alot of peace of mind.

jimmycrackcorm

I've hired cars before going up the country for weekends because my own is a thirsty petrol car and the cost of weekend hire for a diesel car worked out cheaper including diesel than the cost of the petrol in my own for the same journey.

redcup342

OU812 wrote: »

Which company?

http://www.insurance4carhire.com/?curID=2

737max

rebate for icarhireinsurance.com from money savings website Quidco.com brings cost of cover down to about 33 to 35 euro if paying in sterling per year but I haven't got my rebate yet as I only took out insurance on Monday.

cheapest car hire I got this year was €3 per day for a Corsa from Budget car hire outside of high season.

big b

Trying to book a car for first 2 weeks in August (peak season I know) ex Dublin, and the best price coming back, for a Corsa size car, is around 530 euro. :eek:

have tried through expedia, skyscanner etc, but all coming back the same.

Any advice appreciated....

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

737max

big b wrote: »

Trying to book a car for first 2 weeks in August (peak season I know) ex Dublin, and the best price coming back, for a Corsa size car, is around 530 euro. :eek:

have tried through expedia, skyscanner etc, but all coming back the same.

Any advice appreciated....

I don't travel home in August as flights and car rental are too high. I travel home either side of August.

I can't find a cheaper quote than the one you got. It might drop slightly around 20th but not dramatically.

I'm a named driver year round on a family member's insurance policy which I find useful at XMAS when prices are just as crazy.

beauf

Its just expensive at peak times, regardless if you have insurance or not. Perhaps having you're insurance reduces the cost a little.

Off peak it seems very cheap. I know a couple of people who rather than buying a car, just rent them. Neither does it at peak times its too expensive.