uptowngirl2418

Hi...3 of us are traveling to Ireland in June. Can anyone recommend the best car rental company and explain all those insurance requirments? Thanks.

Xsnewman

Look at Auto Europe. They include all taxes, insurance and they guarantee the best rate. They have excellent customer serivce.

Budman

Autoeurope also accepts the M/C Platinum for CDW Insurance Coverage.

JOHNOD

You can go crazy trying to find the cheapest rental company in Ireland. Sit down one night and keep hitting sites until you find one you think looks good. I am going this year with Irish Car Rentals. $604, 13 days for an automatic subcompact with CDW with excess and theft. You will need a bigger car for three people but get the smallest car that suits you as the roads will be narrower than you are used to. Heres some things to lookout for. There will be a 20-22 euro fee for picking the car up at an airport. Check and see if you are being charged for a full tank of gas and should bring the car back with an empty tank, (almost impossible to do.) Its easier bring the car back with a full tank if they will let you (ask). Gas in Ireland runs around $4.50 a gallon so this can be a real expense. Check the car for damage before you even start it and don't be afraid to photograph the damage and have the attendant note the damage on your rental agreement. You don't want to get home and find a several hundred euro charge on your credit card for old damage. Make sure they have a 24 hour number for roadside assistence and like budman says see if they will accept a Plat. MC card to cover the CDW that can save you real money. The CDW and theft limits your liability for theft of or damage to the car to around a 1000 Euro based on the class of car. You can buy additional insurance for a hefty price that reduces that down to around a 100 euro. Most folks will tell you that renting the car is the most trying part of the trip. Have fun

amyprib

Don't forget to check out the sites directly, like Hertz. We exhausted our searches thru some of these others guys, like the consolidators and Dan Dooley, etc... but, it was much cheaper when we went straight to Hertz. We had an automatic, compact (one size bigger than smallest economy), for 12days, no A/C, and declined ALL of their insurance offers (used MC platinum, no problem).. and I think our total was $550 (or at the time 444euro i think). This was in mid-late June also.

I've mentioned elsewhere, but check out any frequent flyer mileage programs you have, check their "deals" online. You could end up with a discount for car rental like we did..(around 10-20%).

And, if you choose to go with using MC platinum if you have it for insurance, you might have trouble going through some places like Dan Dooley as they seemed to require you to buy all the insurance for some reason, even though their cars came from Hertz...

amyprib

btw, there are several other threads near the top of the Ireland section, that have great details about all this. There's also another thread called "cheapest car rental in Ireland" or something near the top.

Then if you still have specific questions, let us know. There's already a couple threads about car rental that seem to repeat themselves.

Canadian6

We found the best rate via the Budget-rent-a-car site. Total was 190 euro for a 3 day rental (Toyota Corolla or similar), which includes taxes, LDW, theft insurance, unlimited km and automatic transmission. This is also including a fee for picking the vehicle up in Dublin and dropping it in Shannon.

bigtyke

turning in the car with an empty gas tank is easier if you spend the last night in Swords, right outside the airport. I put in a liter on the last afternoon to make sure i had enough to get me to the airport!