Car rental in southwest, England
 

Hi, I'm planning a 2 week driving holiday in the Southwest of England (Cotswold, cornwall...)

Aside from the international car rentals firms (hertz, budget, etc), are there any local car rentals that you recommend for value for money, reliable and safe cars/service ?

I'm traveling with my 2 young kids and wife in July

Thanks!
Eric

You are often better off w/ a national or international chain since they have more locations and allow one-way rentals. Local firms are usually only in one location. Where are you starting from -- London, Oxford, Bath, Bristol, someplace else??

We've recently been researching car rentals for a trip to England. We're renting a car from Plymouth and dropping off at Penzance then on another part of the trip, we're renting a car in Oxford and dropping off in York railway station. We're using the train for parts of our trip. Anyway, we found the best price through Alamo (they use Europcar). I didn't expect it, but they were cheaper than economycarentals, Costco, and Novacar, as well as Autoeurope. So you might check out their website. We didn't have a drop off fee. Be sure and click on their coupons for 20% off Europe car rentals; it's on their website. Alamo was cheaper for us, and they use Europcar, than the Europcar website itself. Hope this helps.

Once to do the SW England trip we took the train from central London to Exeter,,,then rented a car to drive around Cornwall,,(returned via Plymouth, Lyme Regis, Devon etc and turned the car in to Gatwick.
OR you can continue north to the Beautiful Cotswolds and turn in your car at Heathrow (if that were you are flying out of?)
YOu didn't say where you are from.
AutoEurope is also a good place to start for a car rental,,,,they are brokers for major companies and will give you the best car/company for the area you want to visit.
Their customer service is outstanding and they are very reputable. Headquarters are in Maine, I believe, and they have 24 hours service.
If you have AAA there is also a recuction in rental price.

I've been renting cars for years in the UK and europe, and I must admit I've never found a decent small/local rental company.

Your best bet is to go through the brokers who get deals on the major companies, like already mentioned auto europeand economy car rental. But if Alamo are offering 20% off their site then snap it up! I've been looking for rentals in March and I've noticed Travelocity are actually showing the cheapest (using Alamo I think), with holiday autos next then auto europe.

In terms of Alamo using Europcar - in Europe they are now one and the same company. They still trade as separate corporate names but most stations are now run by "Europcar"

You might enjoy this trip report on southwest England:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...of-england.cfm

I originally planned on getting a car in Bath after spending a couple of days just walking around the city. Then pick up a rental at Bath to drive to and around Cotswolds, Cornwall and Devon, Exmoor. Then, drop the car in Devon and take train back to London.

But I find that if we take a train from London to Bath, the price is very high!I'm guesisng the train from Devon will be even more expensive! Makes it worth it just get a car from London already.

I am staying at Earl's Court in London.

What do you think ?

Booking in advance should make the trains less expensive - I recently got a train from Hampshire to Exeter and it was £54 return (and I flew to Dublin £10 return with Ryanair! Shocking...)but a friend done the same trip, booked 2 months in advance, and got it for £15 return