Survey emphasises on the importance of shopping around for car hire

A recent research looking into the comparative cost of car hire in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland and US has indicated that the UK is the cheapest country to hire a car - with car hire costing an average of £24.00/day for one week.

According to a report undertaken by independent market research company Mintel on behalf of Europe’s  low cost car hire provider ArgusCarHire.com, this disclosure is despite the fact that the UK is the most expensive country to run and operate a car.

Spanish holiday makers have to pay the highest prices for car hire with it costing an average of £33.00/day to hire a car. This is in spite of Spanish insurance, VAT and fuel costs being significantly cheaper than the UK and other countries surveyed.  Prices being charged by top car hire operators in Spain can also vary enormously resulting in UK holiday makers having to pay up to 20% more for hiring the same car for the same period in different pick up locations. 

While France is the cheapest country to buy a car (50 percent cheaper than UK ), car hire costs for 1-day are the highest of all the countries surveyed with French holiday makers having to fork out a whopping £78.00 a one-day hire. This may be attributed to French car buyers having to pay the highest VAT rate on top of the cost of a car (29.6 percent). 

Ireland was second highest in the league tables for 3-day hires which is understandable as Irish car buyers have a double whammy as not only are VAT rates the second highest (21%) amongst the countries surveyed, but on top of this Irish consumers have to pay an additional one off fee to register a new car which works out on average at £3,073/per car.

On Mintel’s findings, Greg Turley chief executive officer and founder, ArgusCarHire.com said, “This report highlights the enormous imbalance and variations in the way that the top car hire operators are pricing car hire.  We are calling for greater transparency around car hire pricing to ensure a fairer deal for UK Holiday makers.  We are sure that British travellers will be very surprised to find out how much they are being ripped off for car hire by certain operators in Spain.  This report reinforces the importance of shopping around for car hire.”

The survey also looked at prices being charged by some of the leading car hire providers in each of these markets including Hertz, Budget, Europe Car and ArgusCarHire.com. “Low cost car hire providers - ArgusCarHire.com came top of the league tables across all car sizes providing the cheapest car hire prices in all locations surveyed across one-day, three-day and seven-day periods. ArgusCarHire.com prices can be up to 20 percent cheaper than prices quoted by competitors with Europe Car being the most expensive company to hire a car,” stated the company.