Car rental in Turkey, too good to be true?
 

I am looking at renting a car for 9 days in Turkey, going from Izmir to Kayseri. AutoEurope gives a price of $514 basic (my VISA would carry the CDW), Kemwel gives price of $535 for the same coverage (but this would be a 4 door Clio rather than a 2 door) and Economy Car Rentals gives me a price of 213&euro; ($331 at today's rate of exchange) for full coverage and <b>no</b> excess. Is this too good to be true?

I forgot to mention that the car would be the Ford KA or equivalent and that the rental cost includes all taxes and airport fees.

Dear Michael,

The rental prices for that category of cars (Ford KA, Renault Clio, Fiat Albea etc) is around 40-55 YTL/day. So your quotation is within the limits. On the other hand, we Turks use the most expensive gasoline in the world (3.20 YTL/litre). So be prepared to pay as much as the rental cost for your 9 day gasoline expenses.

Enjoy driving

Michael,

Try to get a bigger car than Ford KA for such journey is my advice before if the offer is good or not.

Long journey with small car is difficult and bigger is safer in many ways.
Happy travelling,
Murat

Fo0r $10 total in the rental cost, I upgraded to a Toyota Yaris. Thanks for the advice.

I meant to say for $10 extra in the total rental cost.

Well done Michael. You will appreciate the leg room difference once on the road:-)

Cheers,
Murat

Be careful when driving on the highways at night. When I took a road trip there we slammed into a tractor that didn't have any visible signs of driving at night. And it was a long and hard hassle not being able to speak Turkish. Thankfully we had a Turkish translator at our military base. Have a good trip and be safe!

Brief report on the car rental. The car was a Kia Rio diesel given to us as an equivalent of a VW Golf. In fact, it seems to be bigger with a roomier trunk. I would have preferred a smaller car. But it has amazing zip and one can be going 120 km./hr without realizing it. More when we return to the States in 6 weeks and do a full trip report.

I rented last August from Economy..note that they are a wholesaler, the car rental company was Dekar.

I also had a 4-door diesel Kia. You may find that you fuel costs will exceed the rental!

Size fo the car was only an issue (if you can call it that) when driving in Istanbul. Some parking spots were a bit tight. But I had 3 other oeple in car, so room was nice to have.

Dekar was very good. Friendly no hassles.

Andd...Economy was the cheapest, even with all the optional charges.