Car hire - prices have doubled.

[DEC]

Has anyone else noticed prices for car hire have gone up near 100%

The airport is about 100klm from me so I always rent a small car for the trip there and back.
For the last few years I have been paying between $35 and $47 (6 mths ago $45) but for the last week I have been keeping an eye on them ( I book several weeks in advance) and continually get prices of, cheapest today $95.38 with Budget for a Micra or similar.

Anyone have an idea as to why the HUGE increase all of a sudden?
Or can anyone recommend a better site than vroomvroomvroom?

 

[westminster]

Ouch - haven't noticed it myself but that does seem ridiculous price increase.

I tend to use the airlines car hire deals

 

[weg]

I used Budget in December 2013 and prices appeared much the same as a few months before, and well before that come to think of it.

Paid just under $94 per day (or close to) for a Cruize (paid for and thought I was getting a Corolla). Included the highest insurance/lowest excess.

The figure of $45 you gave for 6 months ago sounds like a small car minus the insurance.

Insurance makes up a big portion of the cost of hire particularly if taking out the lower excess.

 

[rowena]

corporate governemnt rate is $45 for a holden/falcon!

Try googling and look for discount vouchers.. u may find some extra specials through websites like racq/qantas/virgin.. etc etc.

 

[Tony3008]

I've not hired a car for a while but the insurance is a scam. IME Thrifty give you a great headline rate of (say) $45, then you find out that this is with an excess of $5K or some ridiculous figure and bringing it down to a sensible figure is another $35. No matter how careful a driver you are, you probably decide that it's prudent to pay since you could well come back to a car park and find that someone has scraped the car and the hire company will charge you top dollar to fix it. Meanwhile they're collecting $10K+ a year not for insurance, but just for excess reduction.

 

[moyjos]

Where are you hiring from. One way is usually a bit dearer. I have not noticed any huge rises. We are hiring a car (swift or similar) from Sydney airport over easter (17 -22 nd of April) and are paying $192 from Eastcoast rentals. http://www.eastcoastcarrentals.com.au/

 

[VYBerlinaV8]

The trick is to buy a cheapo domestric traval insurance policy which explicitly includes hire car excess of up to $4000, then decline any additional insurance.

For a week away a family domestic traval insurance package might cost $75, but save you $25 per day, so you'r actually $100 better off, and get insurance against thefts, medical problems and travel delays for free!

 

[DEC]

The trick is to buy a cheapo domestric traval insurance policy which explicitly includes hire car excess of up to $4000, then decline any additional insurance.

Exactly what we do.

The figure of $45 you gave for 6 months ago sounds like a small car minus the insurance.

Correct Nissan Micra or similar and the same website and car used then as today. (vroom vroom vroom)
Usually we get given an i30 or a Corolla.

Where are you hiring from. One way is usually a bit dearer.

Brisbane to Coolangatta.
Same trip ever time and always one way, like I said, previously around $40 and now closer to $100.

Looked at different dates in different cities - Newcastle to Sydney is about $40 dearer again.

Add: http://www.eastcoastcarrentals.com.au/ were dearer again @ $103

 

[moyjos]

Eastcoast came up as $103 from the Valley but just $42.88 from Brisbane airport.... Can you get to the airport to collect the car? Their branch address is Nudgee road, so it might even be cheaper if they don't have to pay airport fees if you collect from the branch.

 

[chrispy]

I just checked the CarRental comparison site and it offers $34 a day Brisbane City for a Micra for the day

I always use Thrifty and they have not increased rates to me, but I am a Bluechip Member

Chris

 

[DEC]

I just checked the CarRental comparison site and it offers $34 a day Brisbane City for a Micra for the day

Which one?

I found a few on various sites that offer same, but when you get to the end that have added on out of hours droppoff of $40 plus a few other smaller charges bringing it back to around $90.

I have never had these charges before because at the Airport dropoff point there are always staff there at 7am

 

[datto]

I paid about $400 for 6 days (incl insurance) over xmas at Brisbane. Crappy car. Get this, hail damage, theft of vehicle and hitting an animal/person NOT covered by insurance.... some of these car hire places have got a nasty piece of fineprint attached - watch 'em!

 

[VaSSagO]

The last couple of times I have used Apex Car Hire, good rates and easy to deal with

 

[marg4000]

The trick is to buy a cheapo domestric traval insurance policy which explicitly includes hire car excess of up to $4000, then decline any additional insurance.

For a week away a family domestic traval insurance package might cost $75, but save you $25 per day, so you'r actually $100 better off, and get insurance against thefts, medical problems and travel delays for free!

We did this on a recent trip to NZ. We were taking our travel insurance anyway, so figured the excess cover was just a free bonus.

However, we had a small accident. The $3500K excess was debited immediately to our credit card. All gone in a nano-second! Fault is not taken into account.

This was followed by 6-7 weeks of frequent emails and phone calls. Around 4-5 weeks to get the paper work from the hire care people (a big name one, hate to think of a small operator) then another 2-3 weeks to get the refund from the travel insurance.

Travel insurance won't look at the claim until you receive the final repair statements from the car insurer (to ensure the entire excess was used, or to find out the total cost of repairs if smaller than the excess).

Overall we have no complaints (we got all our money back), but if you take this course of action, just be aware that the entire excess will be immediately debited, and you won't have access to this credit until the claim is sorted out.

If you are going overseas and hiring several cars at different times, this may have a huge impact on your available credit.
Marg

 

[Aaron_C]

marg may I ask who the travel insurance company was that covered it?

 

[westminster]

marg may I ask who the travel insurance company was that covered it?

I'd love to know too. I have an annual travel insurance policy with CoverMore which covers car rental insurance too so that I don't have to worry about using car rental gouge rates

 

[Doncossack]

I've not hired a car for a while but the insurance is a scam. IME Thrifty give you a great headline rate of (say) $45, then you find out that this is with an excess of $5K or some ridiculous figure and bringing it down to a sensible figure is another $35. No matter how careful a driver you are, you probably decide that it's prudent to pay since you could well come back to a car park and find that someone has scraped the car and the hire company will charge you top dollar to fix it. Meanwhile they're collecting $10K+ a year not for insurance, but just for excess reduction.

Always reminds me of the scene in"Meet the Fockers" where Gaylord Focker(Ben Stiller) refuses to pay for the extra insurance and then the car is a write off later on..