it’s more than technique. Before hiring a manual car in the Uk, it’s worth checking with the hire company (and insurance company if doing that independently) that your licence covers you for that - the UK has 2 types of licences: manual and automatic or automatic only. Section 88 of the Road Traffic Act refers to “corresponding class” when talking about who can drive what.
Driving automatic most certainly takes the shifting element out of all the other new experiences such as driving on the other side of the road.
is well worth becoming familiar with the Highway Code (to be honest most UK drivers also need to become familiar with this!)
Interesting - I’m not likely to be doing any more UK sits requiring a car, but didn’t know that auto/manual licenses are different. When I rented a few years back neither Enterprise (x2) nor Sixt asked about it. And driving manual all came back to me, although I learned on a maual in 1967.
I have a family I sit for in Surrey and they always leave me their car to use. They’re in a small village and on the train line but sometimes I just need a car for quick errands or to visit friends further afield. They just add me as a rider to their insurance and it’s always worked out well. If I do use their car (which sometimes I don’t), no matter if it’s just a quick trip to the grocery store, I leave the car with a full tank of gas/petrol to thank them. It wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Just on our latest car rentals experience as Aussies in the UK. We paid 330£ for 14 days from Budget via Discovercars.com from Luton Airport. We then got full comprehensive insurance through Rentalcover.com for about 70£ for the whole period. When we went to pick it up our automatic MG or equivalent they gave us a complimentary upgrade. Feeling rather posh!
BMW must not be in demand😉, we got upgraded (for a fee) from a fiat 500 (cheapest thing we could find) to a BMW. Turned out to be a good thing as the fiat really would have been too small. Husband’s eyes popped when he saw what we were getting, but after driving it for 41 days decided he would not buy one.
Hello, I have had great experiences with Turo a car rental company that is similar to Air bnb but for cars. It has been less expensive, longer term rentals and I find in the winter they have winter tires and or all wheel drive so that makes me feel better driving on snow and ice.
Hi, im in England. Petrol prices here are also higher than the USA for example.
I hired a car in Ireland in June. I was recommended to buy the insurance via a price comparison site, Money Maxim. You can get car hire insurance just for the 2.5 weeks. This was MUCH cheaper than taking the hire company’s policy.
Also, I reserved a hire car thru booking.com …… other forums would work equally well…… ensure there is full, free cancellation…… then re-check the prices every now & then.
I re booked 4 times, & the price reduced each time. You can set up email alerts on some sites too.
In the Uk, there is a great app called petrol prices.com. …… you put in any UK address, & it will show cheapest petrol stations nearby, by price order or distance order.
Prices can vary enormously, from rural areas to cities, & avoid filling up at motorway service stations at all costs!!! the mark up is HUGE, 20-40p per litre more expensive.
Oh, & we drive on the left of course….nothing you can do about that, lol!!
