If you’re travelling somewhere and plan to stay a while, long-term car hire can be a wallet-friendly way to get around. Whether you rent or lease, having a car on hand gives you flexibility to travel when and where you want. It’s particularly useful if you’re staying somewhere with poor public transport. Here’s my guide to getting the most out of a long-term hire car.
Why book a long-term car hire?
Renting a car for a holiday or business trip is common practice nowadays. For a few days or a couple of weeks, a short-term hire is a quick and easy transport solution. In every city and airport you’ll find a huge range of rental cars to suit most budgets and needs. From flashy convertibles to cheap and cheerful city cars, there’s a rental option for everyone.
How long can you hire a car for?
Every company has a different policy when it comes to the duration and terms of a long-term car hire agreement. Typically, rentals fall into the long-term category if they last more than 28 days and anything up to three months. Although more and more car-hire companies now offer four, six-month and even year-long rentals.
1-month car hire
Long-term rentals start when you hire a car for a month, or 28 days. Great for longer holidays like extended road trips, the longer rental period brings down the daily cost. You can book cheap car hire for a month, just like you would a short-term rental. Most companies will let you extend your car hire as you need to and even swap your car for another.
3-month car hire
If you need to hire a car for three months, you’re also getting into the realm of short-term leasing. This gives you options. Leasing a car for three months may work out cheaper but it gives you less flexibility. Using a car hire company will likely cost a little more. But for that you get far less paperwork and the ability to extend the rental and swap your car. You’ll find different deals and discounts to meet your needs, so you can choose which works best for you.
6-month car hire
More and more rental companies are extending their long-term car hire periods to six months, especially for business fleets. As with three-month hires, this gives you the choice of a standard long-term rental or a short-term lease. The same benefits and pitfalls for three months hire versus leasing apply to six-month rentals too. Read on to find out more about the pros and cons of hiring versus leasing.
Long-term car hire vs. short-term car lease
If you need a car for longer than a few months, you face the question of whether it’s better to hire a car or lease one. Generally speaking, long-term car hire targets rentals of one to six months. Any longer and short-term car leases become an option for anything up to 24 months.
As I’ve explained above, there’s plenty of flex within these timeframes. Indeed, more and more car-hire companies are offering longer rentals to compete with leasing companies. This is a good thing for the consumer, as it gives you more choice.
What are the benefits of long-term car hire?
What are the benefits of short-term car leasing?
How much does long-term car hire cost?
The cost of long-term car hire can vary wildly depending on lots of factors. The location, how long you’re hiring for, what mileage is included and what type of car you want. Then there are the hire companies themselves, with some charging far less but without much in the way of customer service.
How much does it cost to hire a car for a month?
On average, I’ve been finding long-term hire cars priced from around £300 a month at the cheapest end of the scale. Go to a bigger, more reputable hire company and you can expect to pay a couple of hundred pounds more.
How do you find cheap long-term car hire?
Which companies offer long-term car hire?
All major car hire companies including Sixt, Enterprise, Budget, Europcar, Hertz and Avis, offer long-term car hire. Make sure to check the details of every policy to make sure you’re getting the right deal. Pay particular attention to the type of car to make sure it suits your needs and if there are fixed mileage allowances. Companies often offer discounts if you book online rather than over the phone.
Conclusion
Getting a long-term hire car comes with lots of benefits. It makes getting around easy, and removes the hassle of car maintenance and, shudder, car insurance. If you’re going to be somewhere for three, six, 12 months or longer, it offers convenience and mobility without the hassle of leasing or buying a car.
Before you hire a car, long or short term, there are plenty of things to consider. From the best way to pay to knowing what to do in an accident, KAYAK has guides to help.
Long-term car hire FAQs
Yes, there are more and more car hire companies offering car rentals for four months and even longer. Not all hire companies offer this long-term a rental though, so you may need to look around. Or you can of course use the KAYAK Car Hire Search Tool, and let it do the hard work for you.
The cost of leasing a car varies depending on the type of car, where you’re leasing and for how long. When leasing you may need to leave a down payment and pay admin fees up front. You may also face extra costs when you return it.
Multi-year rentals are usually cars that have been leased. If you need to rent a car for three years, you should lease rather than hire it. Leasing is cheaper than hiring and you may find it hard to get a hire car for such a long period.
Yes, there are UK companies that will lease cars for three months. Typically, car leases cover longer periods from six months to three years. More and more leasing companies are shortening leasing periods though, creating competition with short-term car hire companies. This can make it easier to get good prices, so it’s always worth checking both options.
