What You Need To Know Before Booking Your Hire Car

Hiring a car when you’re travelling can provide you with the ultimate flexibility and freedom to see and do what you like with ease. Here’s what you should think about before you pick up a car.

Length of Hire

Planning ahead can save you a lot of money. For instance, most car hire companies charge per 24hr period. If you are picking up or dropping off a hire car in order to travel to or from a port or airport, try to coordinate your pick-ups or drop-offs with your departure/arrival times. Even if you return the vehicle an hour into the next 24hr period, you will likely be charged for another full day. Planning ahead can remove a lot of the worry and financial stress from travel and car hire.

Length of Journey

Make sure you know where you intend to go before hiring a car. If you a hiring a car for the freedom they provide, take an unlimited kilometres option. However, if you are hiring a car for a specific journey, or leg of a journey, you may be able to save yourself some money by hiring on a limited kilometres deal.

Choosing a Vehicle

Quality local hire car companies like Pacific Auto Rentals, have a range of cars to suit all needs. It is important to consider what kind of car you will need for your journey. Obviously, if you have children or you are a bigger group, you’ll want a larger sedan or SUV. Alternatively, if you’re on a budget, you have the choice of choosing something small with good fuel economy. Moreover, personal preferences like automatic/manual transmission, environmentally friendly, baby seats and GPS systems are also things to consider when choosing your car.

Petrol

Most rental companies stipulate that their cars should be returned with a full tank of petrol. If you return it without a full tank, you’ll find out that the company will charge you a higher price per litre for the trouble of having to fill it up again.

It is advisable to always fill up before you take your hire car back unless you don’t mind being charged a little extra for convenience sake.

Easy Ways to Avoid Insurance Add-Ons

There are easy ways to limit the amount of extra liability you’ll pay.

One of the best ways to prevent damage is to avoid taking the car on any unsealed roads. If you want to take the road less travelled, consider parking up ahead and walking or riding a bike. If you do want to take unsealed roads, you'll either have to pay higher premiums upfront or pay for extra damage at drop-off. It is surprising how much financial damage one stray stone kicked up from an unsealed road can do.

You probably don’t know this but many a times your travel insurance covers you for rental car excesses. To find out if you do have this benefit, read through the fine print of your insurance papers which could help you save some money.

When booking a hire car, it is useful to consider these tips. For excellent local hire car services in Tauranga, visit Pacific Auto Rentals.