Second Car or Good hire company??

[cjhillman]

Hey All,

Being a freelance musician i occasionally get a run of shows around the UK or a one off that is quite far away. Since scrapping my Focus and moving to London i've just got my Mk3 Escort (which i definitely don't intend on moving along... ever!)

Thinking how i can take the load off the Escort...

1st Question is: Do insurance companies usually charge the same again for a second car if you use the same firm? I'm at £650ish with Adrian Flux with my Escort down here. If it would be a couple of hundred more, it would probably be doable. Thinking something a bit newer than the Escort thats Japanese/reliable/bigger engine but, still fuelling the retro part of me.... possibly 



2nd Question is: Any good cheap hire car companies out there? I hear you can buy your own insurance for about £40 for the year and it brings the premium down? I'm thinking sometimes it might be good to have a car for 4-5 days and if i did this a few times, it could be as much as a cheap old car.
I occasionally get tempted by these cheap offers from Rental.com

Anyone use these? would have to go back to Heathrow a lot but if its £4 a day it would be worth it... I'm guessing there is a horrible catch.

Anyone out there in a similar position?

A second Car seems fun but I if I'm quite they might end up sitting around doing nothing.

[mercedeslimos]

The horrible catch is the crippling excess if you as much put a scratch on it. I was in Latvia recently (I rent cars abroad 4-6 times a year) and for the first time saw their scale of damage costs to individual parts of the car. A scraped bumper was over 400 euros...

I have my own excess insurance that will cover me if they charge me up to 900 euros. I never pay for the super insurance, it’s often twice the cost of the rental alone. I got a KIA Cee’d in Spain a couple of months ago for a week for 66 euros. If it has been super insured it would have been 366.

[cjhillman]

Yeah i know they're terrible for if they get damaged. I was thinking if i took out my own insurance for hire cars i could use that and it might all be a lot cheaper?

[jamesd1972]

I use Questor insurance. You have to fill in a ton of forms and be extra careful on collection but they do pay out OK. www.questor-insurance.co.uk/car-hire-insurance.aspx?advertid=300378&gclid=Cj0KCQjw77TbBRDtARIsAC4l83kd33yJ5MOyhgHDC_P4wLMkt3sxw5-eAES7_2wWG08d72pJKWopudQaAr1PEALw_wcB

Holiday Auto's are the big company for rentals all the big names are available.

UK rentals are usually very modern as they are effectively car sales companies - they have to wait 6 months to sell but can sell for the discounted price they bought the car for so all the rental money is profit.

James

[ChasR]

If it were me.

Make the Mk3 a non-business car and save the insurance money. Then get a second car for the business.

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Another option if it’s only odd periods here and there is temporary insurance.

I bought a donor car a few years ago and just insured it for 24 hours on the day I collected it and again to drive it to the garage. It cost about £35 for the day which was decent imho for a car with a 2 litre sr20 engine in.

I’m guessing weekly insurance would work out cheaper on a daily rate.