Best Car Hire in South Africa
 

Can anyone recommend a good, reasonable car hire company in South Africa. We are arriving in Johannesburg on 4th August and require a car for 3 weeks (2 adults and 1 child). Thanks in advance.

Holly

Not sure what to make of this site as it's the third post I've posted and no replies.

Oh well never mind, maybe there are'nt any decent car hire companies in SA. I'll do a search and see what I come up with.

Holly

Doing a search in this forum for "car hire" or "car rental" will get you quite a few threads where this is discussed. I hope you find useful information!

Celia

Hollly

You're not being ignored but this kind of Q often draws less responses as the information gets out of date so fast compared to opinions on regions, reserves and so on.

When I was researching my trip it initially seemed that Tempest would be the cheapest by far. However when I factored in the costs of the additional (FULL) insurance, one way fees, extra drivers and so on they were no longer the cheapest. ALSO their excess fees (what you have to pay to cover damage before the rest is paid by the policy) was ridiculously high. With all this taken into account, Hertz came out the cheapest.

Tip: Create a spreadsheet and compare like for like on all the rental agencies you can find. Put in ALL the extras too. Check excesses and where you can/ can't drive with the car (no dirt tracks = no self drive game reserves) and then decide.

AND NEGOTIATE - most have leeway on the final prices.

Kavey

I used www.africarhire.com. The car came from Hertz but worked out cheaper than using Hertz itself. The thing I liked about this website is that the price included everything (including zero excess and insurance on gravel roads) and so there were no surprise charges at the end of the hire. I found it very confusing trying to work out the exact cost with other agencies.

We had a good experience with Avis. Their price was good and all the terms were very clear.
Check out http://www.avis.co.za especially their 'International Visitor Special' with no excess.

Gee, thanks for all the replies. You've given me a few to work on so shall get started just as soon as I've caught up with unread threads.

Thanks again for your help, greatly appreciated.

Holly

I see that you seem to have visited South Africa in 2003. Did you hire a car then? If not, you will probably have noticed that many International names had airport booths. Including Avis and Hertz.

Personally, although I usually used to go for the "little guys", in recent years I've found Avis online rates pretty good for my infrequent hires. Tempest also gets recommendations, and Budget. The website addresses are usually the co. name at co.za.

Hi Arthur, yes I did visit SA in 2003 and used Alamo (UK Co.) as I had vouchers to use. Unfortunately they are one of the most expensive companies here in the UK (and no more vouchers) hence my query for our forthcoming trip.

I did also live in SA but that was a long time ago and had no need to hire a car.

I have since found a good price through E-bookers (Hertz) so have gone with them.

Everything is booked and paid for so just sitting back and waiting for the 4th August when we'll be on our merry way.

Thanks again to all that replied and gave advice.

Holly

Hi Holly: During April and May we rented a Toyota Corolla from Tempest with pick up and delivery in Cape Town. 42 days cost $1,413 including zero excess insurance. Petrol costs for 4,970 miles cost $440. We were happy with the company.