When would car rental rates go down in Ireland?
 

I need to rent a full size automatic in March and was wondering if anyone knew when the rates might go down/up? I don't know if I should reserve now or not, because I would have to pre-pay some of the good rates. Thanks.

Rental car rates tend not to be like airline rates. They don't go up and down that much and if anything, just continue to go up. The pre-pay option may be as good an option as any as it may save you a bit if the dollar continues to tumble against the euro. It is unlikely that it will improve before March which really is not that far off.

The best rates I've seen so far are on irishcarrentals.com which is one of the sites for Sixt Car Rental (they have a few). I haven't yet called O'Scannlain which requires a pre-pay for the best rates. They have a 30% off offer for Hertz right now.

Have fun!!

Bill

Thanks for your help Bill.

I checked out irishcarrentals.com and they quoted me $744 for a 17 day rental of an automatic full size Mondeo.

O'Scannlain quoted the same car, same period for $841.12.

I guess irishcarrentals.com it is!

Did you try autoeurope.com? ((b))

Hi Molly:

Glad that you got a good rate. O'Scannlain's prices seem to be best on the smaller, manual shift cars which is what I usually drive.

Bill

I did. Very expensive. So is europcar and Hertz.

I was wrong. I read the e-mail wrong. O'Scannlain is actually cheaper than irishcarrentals.com by $100.

Sometimes with O'Scannlain, if they mail you a price quote they'l give you a voucher for another 5% off if you respond by a certain date. You might want to check that out.

Bill

Thanks again.

We flew Aer Lingus to Ireland last year. They actually gave us the best rate of all of the other agencies including O'Scannlain and AutoEurope. They connected us with Hertz.
But I don't know which airline you are using.

For our '04 June trip, we managed to get a 12day, automatic, compact car for about $550. This was directly thru Hertz website. We booked about 2-3months ahead, and it wasn't any special deal. This was by far the cheapest after looking at countless companies/sites. But I've heard others say they get cheapest thru others.

We did also use a 10% discount coupon. I had gotten it from one of the airline miles programs, I think American. I was browsing their website one day and as a member of the miles program, I just downloaded the coupon (or got the code) and was able to use it. Didn't even have to book through the aa.com site.. just presented it to Hertz.

So you might check those sites to see if any miles programs have discounts you can use too.

If it's a 17-day rental, don't you qualify for a lease? In my experience, beyond 17 days I lease and save money.

StCirq - I don't know anything about leasing. Would I check with the same companies? What about the CDW? Thanks for your help.