Why Budget? Decent price for a decent car. (Budget)

Member Name: jammaker49

Product:	Budget
Date:	20/08/02 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick and courteous., Easy booking and confirmation on-line

Disadvantages: None discovered.

We have just returned from 11 days in Ireland, and as we were going to be doing a fair bit of travelling, we hired a car for the duration. When we went to Dublin earlier in the year, we hired a car through Hertz, but when attempting to book for this trip, for some reason there were no cars available for the dates we wanted, so we needed to find one elsewhere.

First of all, we tried Avis. On the face of it, we thought we were on to a good deal, with 11 days hire of a mid-sized car at around 340 Euros. However, on reading the small print, this included no insurance whatsoever, and the charge per day for third party, damage waiver, and theft bumped this up to almost double! Their damage waiver premiums were 27 Euros a day on their own! Proof positive that it pays to read the small print!

I then utilised Copernic to find me other car rental companies that had pick up points based at Dublin airport, and had a browse through the results. There were a number that I discarded immediately, either because of cost, or availability, others that I’d never heard of, or I just didn’t fancy their terms, and finally settled on Budget.

BOOKING ONLINE

The Budget website was clear, and easy to use. I simply typed in the dates and times for pick up and drop off, what sort of car I was after, and the level of insurance required, plus of course, the location to pick the car up from!

Based on this, I was given a quotation of 378.71 Euros for 11 days hire of a group 3 car. This is a Toyota Carolla or similar. This apparently, is the price for online bookings. I believe that phone bookings can work out slightly more expensive. I presume that is because they have to do the donkey work and prepare the paperwork to be sent, rather than the customer doing it. The hire cost also incuded third party insurance cover, and unlimited mileage. As we were picking the car up from an airport location, there was a further 22 Euros surcharge, w

hich is general for airport pick-ups.

We were also given the option of extra insurance cover, which could be arranged when we collected of the car. However, unlike Avis, their Damage waiver cover was only 8 Euros a day, which is a vast improvement on 27. We already have personal accident cover on our travel insurance, so had no need to add that one!

We were given a very comprehensive, easy to read page of terms and conditions, which I printed out for our records, and confirmation of the booking was sent by email. All the paperwork was very clear and easy to read, and an option was also given for cancellation. The company did require a credit card number, but it was made clear that this was for identification purposes when collecting the car. No deposit was required, unlike Hertz, who specified a 75 Euro non-returnable deposit. Hertz also needed a fax number, which we didn’t have when we booked with them. This did create a bit of a problem back in February, although we did manage to get it sorted. With Budget, only the email address was required.

We were informed of the whereabouts of the Budget collection point in the arrivals hall at Dublin airport, and given a contact email address, just in case we needed any further information. We were clearly informed that whilst all effort would be made to equip us with the car that we had chosen, if that was unavailable we would be given another Group 3 car, which was fine by us.

So, within a short space of time, our car was reserved, all the necessary paper work printed out and placed for safe keeping with the holiday insurance forms and Ryanair booking forms, and we were ready for the off. I DID have to remind hubby to take his driver’s license, but it was already in his wallet! Better to be safe than sorry!

COLLECTING THE CAR

As we had the email confirmation print out, we were able to proceed directly to the car park, where the Budget kiosk was readily sight

ed. We decided to take the 8 Euros a day Damage waiver option, just in case, as we would have been liable for 600 Euros if we had damaged the car. The formalities were dealt with quickly and efficiently, and we were given the bay number, where our car awaited us. Here came the only blip in the proceedings, when hubby noticed that the plastic bit holding the key was split, and could easily have broken off in the ignition! He went directly back to the kiosk, where they changed the car immediately, with no fuss and bother.

The car we had was a 2002 registered Nissan Almera, in a light silvery aqua colour, and was very comfortable indeed. We had electric windows, central locking, plenty of boot space and a full tank of petrol. It was equipped with both driver and passenger airbags, a stereo radio cassette player, and very convenient places to stand small bottles of water etc for handy retrieval. We had to leave a 50 Euro deposit against returning it with a full tank, which was refundable on return.

USING THE CAR

We travelled over 1000 miles during our 11 day stay in Ireland, and had no trouble whatsoever with the car. It gave us a smooth, comfortable drive, and was very economical on fuel. We took charge of it with a full tank of petrol, filled it again when it was half used, and then filled it right up just before returning it to the airport. With lead-free petrol costing around 97 cents per litre, I suppose we spent about 70 Euros in all on fuel.

I don’t drive, but I know hubby was impressed with the performance of the car, and would have no hesitation in driving a similar car in the future. We did a lot of little back road driving, as well as main road stuff, and the car performed perfectly all the time.

RETURNING THE CAR

This was simple. We simply drove into the “car returns” section of the airport car park, an attendant came out to check for any bumps and scratches (there weren’t any
) che
cked the petrol level, signed the docket, and hubby received his 50 Euros deposit return as an refund on his credit card. All in all, it took about 10 minutes, and we then trundled our luggage the few hundred yards to the airport departure building.

WOULD WE USE THEM AGAIN?

We most certainly would. The ease of booking, registering, and returning the car made it much simpler than when we used Hertz from the same location. All details of cost etc, were made clear from the outset, and there were no hidden additions.

We have never hired a car before this year, and Budget made the process very simple. Their cars were clean, comfortable and easy to drive, and their staff were always helpful, courteous and competent.

If, nay, WHEN we return to Ireland, we would certainly use Budget car hire again.

Website;
http://www.budget-ireland.com/

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