Taking a car rental into France

[Chz]

I'm looking for recommendations here. I went through a half dozen of the major car rental sites and they either refuse travel in Europe (Ireland excepted) or charge £3-400 extra for it. Which puts things well in excess of £1000 for the 10 days that I need. More like >£1500 for the larger vehicles we'd like.

• Does anyone know of a smaller rental firm that does European travel for a not-backbreaking price? Looking at estate/minivan.
• Just how bad is Turo? The airbnb for car owners idea sounds dodge as fuck, but it does look to be more affordable and there's a 7 seater (218i) that lives in walking distance of me.

 

[dessiato]

You'd really be far better off renting in your destination country. Renting in the UK to take a vehicle into EU is going to be far more expensive.

 

[Chz]

You'd really be far better off renting in your destination country. Renting in the UK to take a vehicle into EU is going to be far more expensive.

How do I get to France with a mountain of luggage and a semi-disabled mother in tow? Flying to Bordeaux is £1000 and then I still need a car to get about in.

 

[Silas Loom]

I can see why the insurance for taking an RHD vehicle into a tenez-la-droite country would be more expensive, but not why the rental fee would be. Probably Brexit’s fault.

 

[rubbershoes]

Not particularly helpful for Chz, but there used to be a sky ferry service where you could fly to Europe with your car.

 

[Sweet FA]

Basically it's a right arse renting in one one country and driving to another Chz - even within Schengen. It can be done but as you've found, costs all the arms and legs.

I don't know your starting point in the UK but could you rent a car to a port (Portsmouth/Plymouth/Newhaven/Dover) ferry to France and pick something up at the other end?

 

[A380]

I use two small independent rental places ( in two towns) for van rental , they both have an absolute ban on taking their vehicles abroad. I asked one , who I ended up on first name terms with due to the three house moves- and he said it was because they were very worried about another lock down as companies had lost vehicles for months during COVID.

Have you got loads of stuff to take or mobility issues with you or a companion that means you need to do the journey by car?

 

[Chz]

That's informative, A380. Thanks.

Basically my mum isn't a cripple, but definitely mobility reduced. Which means packing a few things that are... inconvenient to fit in our car. I'm thinking now it's easier to buy mobility aids in France and suffer through a very tight back seat for a long road trip. The mrs would ideally have liked a 7 seater so that we could do day trips in one car (ma belle-mère is coming in her own Clio), rather than waste petrol and faff about with two. But omg the cost of that! So we were still looking at something bigger than what we have.

 

[dessiato]

How do I get to France with a mountain of luggage and a semi-disabled mother in tow? Flying to Bordeaux is £1000 and then I still need a car to get about in.

In your op you didn't say anything about a semi-disabled mother so I, naturally, didn't take it into account.

 

[Chz]

In your op you didn't say anything about a semi-disabled mother so I, naturally, didn't take it into account.

I don't think it's relevant. If I need estate/MPV capacity, getting 5 people and their bags for a week into France costs as much as the rental unless I live in Portsmouth or Newhaven. And I still wouldn't have a car.

Edit: I'm being pissy because I'm stressed, but I think the point stands. It's not simple/cheap to just show up in France and the rental options in Calais and Caen are poor and expensive. We'd need to fly to Bordeaux and get the holiday rentals and that's a grand right there.

 

[WouldBe]

Do you already have such a vehicle?

Could you buy a cheap one and use that then you can always sell it when you get back.

 

[Chz]

I've seriously considered it. Can get a ULEZ Zafira for 1k and if I can resell it for half that the budget looks pretty good. I was just hoping there was a way that didn't involve that level of paperwork.

dessiato , apologies. It's been stressful organising all the different bits of family and trying to make everyone happy and I got snappy. You didn't need that.

 

[Silas Loom]

Really good breakdown cover for the UK and for France (maybe separately?) would be the other consideration with a £1k Zafira.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Not particularly helpful for Chz, but there used to be a sky ferry service where you could fly to Europe with your car.

Not since the mid-1960’s you loon!

 

[Chz]

For anyone else who digs this up in a search, Kendall Cars in Wimbledon do reasonable prices for taking a car in Europe. The people carrier I'd have liked was still outrageous, as they are everywhere, but I could rent an Octavia Estate for 10 days for around £850, including taking it to France.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Chz If belle-mère is already planning on driving, could you travel separately, ie instead of thinking of it as either you hire a car here or you all fly to Bordeaux, what about if some of your family travelled with belle-mère in her car, so you have fewer airfares to pay for, and then your mum and you + 1 fly to Bordeaux and you rent something there?

And presumably flying would be more comfortable for your mother if she has mobility issues, plus there's assistance in airports.

This is a Bordeaux holiday vehicle rentals company (I almost did an internship with them last year).

Motorhome rental between Individuals

No. 1 in the rental of motorhomes and campervans between individuals. From £60 per day. Comprehensive insurance included to travel anywhere in the UK and Europe. 98% of our customers very satisfied with our services

www.yescapa.co.uk

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I've seriously considered it. Can get a ULEZ Zafira for 1k and if I can resell it for half that the budget looks pretty good. I was just hoping there was a way that didn't involve that level of paperwork.

dessiato , apologies. It's been stressful organising all the different bits of family and trying to make everyone happy and I got snappy. You didn't need that.

I can't think of anything more stressful then taking a family to France on hiday in a 1k car with all the stress that brings. I mean I've taken old cheap cars to France when I was younger, but I knew (thought) they were broadly reliable and still had to work out the French version of Radweld in a hyper market. Imagine deing with the breakdown.

 

[Chz]

I can't think of anything more stressful then taking a family to France on hiday in a 1k car with all the stress that brings. I mean I've taken old cheap cars to France when I was younger, but I knew (thought) they were broadly reliable and still had to work out the French version of Radweld in a hyper market. Imagine deing with the breakdown.

Yeah, I've discounted it on the stress level it would bring even if everything goes fine! The 7-seater was a nice-to-have, but now it's just down to whether it's worth grabbing an estate to not feel cramped or not.

@Chz If belle-mère is already planning on driving, could you travel separately, ie instead of thinking of it as either you hire a car here or you all fly to Bordeaux, what about if some of your family travelled with belle-mère in her car, so you have fewer airfares to pay for, and then your mum and you + 1 fly to Bordeaux and you rent something there?

That's sort of what we're going to end up doing. The mrs really wanted to have us all together, to save on organisation and petrol, but that's not required and it's just not going to happen the way things are. So it's 5 of us either really cramped in our car, or slightly less so in a larger rental I can afford meeting her outside Le Havre where we transfer one (or more) people and baggage over to her car and go down together. My mum stays with us and one or more of the kids (who can speak a bit of French, unlike my mum) go with MIL. That way the longer part of the journey isn't cramped.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I mean tbh this is why I've got a big estate. I don't use it most of the time, but dam it's good it's handy when I do.