There are several advantages and disadvantages to hiring ‘high end’ cars for business or pleasure. In this blog, we’ll be talking about both.

As a consumer there are many things to consider when hiring a ‘high end’ car; first, let’s look at the business end of hiring a car. By being in business, you need to be able to create the right impression with a client, and the car that you are driving will certainly be noticed.

Make sure you get the right car for your business image

You need to think of this as part of your company image, so hiring a luxury car when on a business trip may well pay dividends in the long run. Yes it will be more expensive, but it needs to be viewed as an investment.

There are many things to consider if and when you do hire a car. But let’s deal with the big one: price. Price is obviously important regardless of what your budget is for hiring cars, and this can be affected by the travel season factor.

In the winter, you get better deals in the car hire arena

Normally during the winter months prices tend to slip a little due to less people traveling. During the spring and summer things naturally tend to get a bit more expensive since more people want to hire the ‘high end’ cars. Some of the hiring companies don’t carry too many ‘high end’ cars in their respective fleets so it is sometimes difficult to find the car that you want. The price is higher simply because of supply and demand.

During the winter expect to pay anywhere from £25 pounds to £35 pounds per day for an Audi A4 or a VW, and that’s only for the car. You have to factor in insurance, airport fees, and fuel charges as well as taxes. You can hire a VW Golf or a Ford Fiesta for roughly £22 pounds (sometimes lower at weekends).

If you’re looking more ‘high end,’ Hertz carries a large selection of such cars, like the Mercedes ML 270 or a CLK class. It is important to book in advance, but the hiring companies will work with you if the reservation is made within 48 hours of the date you want to hire (remember though, this is during the winter months).

Wanna hire a Mercedes? The cost is up to £150 per day

If you want to hire a Mercedes CLK or other similar luxury models expect to pay top price. Hertz will charge anything up to £150 per day for their ‘Prestige’ models. Avis just recently added some really nice high sedans to their fleet of luxury cars, ideal for the business customer. It is common to see most of the hire companies running special deals during the slow months of the year.

During the spring and summer months, it’s a totally different story; the price to hire a car jumps up quite a lot. Prices on average jump 25% or more during high peak travel months. It is advisable to book your hire a month or more in advance. The high end cars come with all the options that you are likely to need to drive in comfort. The bigger companies such as Hertz will add in a GPS system as an incentive for the customer to hire a car from them. Avis is known to run weekend specials for their rentals. If you hire via the web with Avis, they will give you 10% off your hire for any car in the ‘high end’ (Prestige) fleet.

What do the hire companies have to offer in hire selection and other services? As mentioned above, the big hire companies like Hertz, Alamo and Avis have a wide selection of cars in their respective fleets. So what do they offer the customer? Let’s take as an example a business person traveling to a conference. They book a hire car three weeks in advance with Avis; decide on a 2008 BMW 5 series for two days and get the car in their favorite colour of blue. This will cost roughly £300 for the two day hire. This car comes with unlimited mileage, insurance and VAT (tax). Some added perks are no airport supplements for hires at Heathrow or Gatwick, and there is no extra charge for adding drivers to the hire. One more thing, Avis will deliver and collect the hire in and around all the central London hotels.

If you want to hire a BMW, you can get some additional perks with it

Now, let’s imagine that you and your family of seven are going on a week long get-away to a beach resort. Avis has an Audi Q7 4×4 SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) to hire, ideal for you and your family. This vehicle comes with automatic transmission and air conditioning. It can take four pieces of luggage and two carry on pieces, plus it has a GPS Navigation system all for the price of £1,291 for a seven day hire. These prices are for the Central London area. Normally the hire starts on a Monday and ends on a Sunday.

An SQ will put you back £1,291 per week

Now if you really want to have a great time driving, then you could hire a Ferrari 430 Spider convertible for a two day weekend for just slightly less than £1,680. This car is extremely fast, so you really need to be experienced in driving such cars. All the hire rates mentioned are for a three to four week in advance hire. Also remember that these prices do not include specials that the hire company might be running, or other promotional programs to attract customers.

All of the car hire companies have what are called restrictions and or requiements before you can hire a car. Now take for example that red hot Ferrari 430 Spider you want to hire to impress your girlfriend. Well you have to be over thirty years old, have a major credit card and a mileage restriction will be imposed. Most of the higher end cars have mileage restrictions, something you don’t have to worry about if you hire a Ford Escort, a VW Golf, or similar.

You can hire a Ferrari - but be warned- there are restrictions

All of the hire companies have some type of restrictions and or requirements when hiring a car. To be on the safe side, make sure that you read your hire contract carefully and ask questions if you’re unsure about a certain clause. Better to be sure then than to find out later that you are responsible for that dent someone put on your hire vehicle.

Almost all the hire companies have services that are free to their customers. Avis offers free pick-up and delivery of a hire car, within a limited range of course, and Hertz recently came out with a new service called the Hertz 369. In a nutshell, this service allows you to hire a car for half a day. This service is available at over 1,200 city and airport locations across Europe, including Belgium; France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. So if you need a car for half a day, Hertz is the company for you.

Hopefully this information will be helpful to you when it comes time to hire a car. As you can see there are some advantages in hiring ‘high end’ cars, especially if you are traveling on business or have a large family and want to travel in comfort. Click on our home page, and start looking.