I went on the link to flyertalk for coupon codes and it did give me a big discount. From GBP486 (Avis) down to GBP389. However, I don't know they will ask for any proof as some of the comments from flyertalk found that they ask for ID. Does anyone know anything about this?

They don't ask for ID unless it's an Avis employee discount.

Just curious- why a car at all? The rental cost + GPS + fuel = a pretty large tab. We have visited the places you list with public transportation.

DD was 12 when we visited Stratford upon Avon and she loved the tour, particularly Mary Arden's house. My son was a few years older when I took him and he liked the Shakespeare tour, Bath and Warwick Castle the most. Both loved London and Stonehenge.

I have been researching UK car hire for over a week now and am becoming very confused. I have used almost every online quoting site available and consistently I am getting better quotes direct from rental companies than through agents such as Autoeurope, even without using any discount codes. Am I missing something? These are normal quotes straight from the quoting engine on the website.
Eg:
Autoeurope: GBP437
Europcar: GBP331
Hertz: GBP341
Avis: GBP397
Alamo: GBP408
National: GBP400
Budget: GBP425

It is a 2 week hire starting at Heathrow and finishing up in Edinburgh, so the price includes airport charges and one-way charges. To the greatest extent possible I have equalised the requirement in terms of car type, period and general conditions.

GPS charges are also WAY different:
Europcar: GBP140
Hertz: GBP140
Avis: GBP70

I haven't even begun on insurances yet, but I have noticed substantial differences in excesses. I think the rental companies, like the insurance companies, try to make it as difficult as possible to compare products and prices by differentiating their offerings.

Yelpir -- Are you sure the quote from Autoeurope is in GBP? We have a rental from Autoeurope for 2 weeks, pickup at Edinburgh airport and drop at Heathrow and our charge is $467 -- that's US dollars -- (mid-size, manual, a/c, no insurance as we will use our cc for insurance).

This reservation was made by telephone and includes a AAA discount.

One thing you may consider is buying a gps in the us, that is loaded with UKmaps. Probably run you the same as renting from hertz, and you have the gps when you are done.
Under no circumstances should you drive into central london, too confusing, too hard to figure out parking, too far from where you are staying given the traffic.
Better to take the tube or bus. I agree with the poster that you may not need a car, as most of the attractions you listed are available by public transportation. There is also a major bus depot in Golders Green, not to far from you, that is serviced by national express bus. The one thing you should be aware of is that East Finchley is serviced by the northern line, which tends to have a fair amount of closures, so you should check the tfl.gov.uk website before you go anywhere to make sure the tube is running. You can also get bus maps for that area as well.


You are also near hampstead heath, which is lovely. There are a ton of outdoor concerts there over the summer that you can go to.

crckwc1: I just checked Auto europe again and, yes, that is the price in GBP for a Ford Mondeo 1.8.

I think a lot depends on your country of residence. I suspect that, if you book from the US it's cheaper than booking from the UK. I know it's cheaper booking from the UK than it is booking from South Africa. If I convert the South African rand price to GBP it is considerably more expensive than the GBP price as booked in the UK.

Yelpir, I mis-spoke about renting from Autoeurope. It was, in fact, Kemwel which is a sister company which uses the Autoeurope logo on some of their European rentals. Anyway, from Kemwel/Autoeurope, we're getting a Passat 1.6, 2 weeks, pickup Edinburgh airport, drop Heathrow -- sounds like a comparable rental. Your cost of 467 GBP is roughly $934 compared with our cost of $467.75. IMHO, I think you should telephone Autoeurope and ask about the huge discrepancy.