robin1234

I think this highlights a general difference between US and UK. In the UK, so many businesses and services are set up to accommodate people who don't use a car, while in the US the assumption is everyone has a car or can get a ride. I know that supermarket delivery is (and has been for years) ubiquitous in England, while in US it is available some places not not generally.

formula

Some supermarkets even run buses around villages, to take you to their store and back again.

theoldgit

One of the things that concerns me about owning a car on our return is getting back on the insurance ladder.
I own a car here in Bangkok and, somehow, have managed to build up a full NCB, not easy here I can assure you.
I suspect I'm going to have to start from scratch again in the UK with insurance costing as much, or more, than a little run around.

Wombat7

Get a letter from your insurance company detailing your no claims bonus. We came from Canada and with such a letter and the UK insurance company honoured it.

not2old

On the highlight above

Is the AA coverage £300.yr for the vehicle 'Breakdown service' only? That appears expensive & seems like a lot of money?

On the Auto repairs, £1000/yr average, every year?

Given the yearly cost for you since you do mostly local & few KM's per year, it would seem daft to spend £280/mth, that the alternate would be taxi for back & forth to work, then the 'Car club' for other personal use

Perth

Here's another question re living without a car. I owned a car in London before I left and had never rented. If we live car-free in the UK, but want to rent one once in a while, is it like the US where you would pay extra for insurance coverage if you don't already have it?

Bud the Wiser

I would check if your credit card would cover your car rental insurance.

not2old

on your specific question, try this

http://www.carrentals.co.uk/

another option is from post#19 from Dunroving

Car Hire Club | UK Leading Car Sharing Club | City Car Club

I checked it out & it appears everything is included

our Standard plan, here is what is included:
-Access to over 840 vehicles in 17 UK cities
24/7 member support
Choice of low emission vehicles - small & medium city cars, estate cars, 7 seat cars & vans
Comprehensive insurance, servicing, fuel and breakdown cover
Exclusive membership offers
No weekend surcharges
Access to selected special offer cars at just £25 per day

formula

In the UK every vehicle has to be insured. That now includes those sat on a private drive and never driven (unless a SORN has been declared) as the rules changed for these type of owners last year. So no more just insuring a vehicle when you want to drive it.

It is a criminal offence to drive another car just on your own insurance unless that car is included in your policy or has it's own valid insurance. i.e if your insurance policy allows you to drive another persons car under third party insurance AND if that car has it's own insurance, you can drive it. Plus if you don't have this, I doubt the insurers would pay out if you had an accident.

ANPR cameras are everywhere. If the police don't catch the driver of an uninsured vehicle at the time (they have ANPR in their cars) the roadside cameras will record the offence. Both the registered car owner who allowed their car to be driven, and the driver (who the car owner must name) will be charged with the offence.

As you can see, the car rental place must insure their car at all times. It will be up to each company what discount they may allow for your own insurance, but if they allow this, do check that they have a valid insurance and tax on that car.

not2old

did a search and found Easirent the cheapest, with two options for a basic no frills vehicle

Car Hire Birmingham Airport | Birmingham Airport Car Hire | Birmingham Airport Car Rental

£13/day or £37/day fully loaded - zero excess charges

Is this a low, medium or high price?

Pistolpete2

We have tended to rent from Enterprise over here because we like their reasonable rates and their weekend specials - Friday noon to Monday noon. They will also pick you up within a reasonable pick-up zone.

If you rent from their non-airport locations they include collision damage waiver as part of the package so, in my experience, you cannot use your credit card to cover the entire rental as this (CDW) must be declined to be eligible - at airports you can as there is typically no damage waiver included but the daily rental charge is higher and you are surcharged for the airport location as well.

I have taken out European excess protection to supplement the damage waiver so that there is then no add-on premium for the excess cover renters typically charge where the charge is not all-in. This costs me about USD40 per annum from Protect Your Bubble - Protection Plans for Phones, Electronics, Rental Cars & More.

For a bit of feedback, what with picking an area to live in which has decent quality public transport - bus and rail and using my buspass and senior railpass plus groupsave3 when tripping as a family (use traveline for all transport time and connection info), getting around has been just fine without wheels of our own, unless we were going somewhere that involves significant exploring.

Train travel can get very expensive, an issue that was brought home to me when www.thetrainline.com emailed me to advise that I had saved just under 1,000 pounds by using them for just some of my train travel from August 1st to the end of the year - admittedly we have gone first class where the charge difference is only a couple of quid (in advance when the savings are huge). I have taken care to use favourable routings that avoid London where this only moderately adds to the travel time and buy in advance wherever possible and these measures can make rail a much cheaper option.

dunroving

Yes, my AA coverage is all-singing, all-dancing. I probably should look at cancelling or negotiating. It's like a lot of things; it automatically renews each year and it's easy to miss how much it is going up. I had a discussion with a colleague who is with RAC about rising prices so I created a spreadsheet to figure it out. Results below:

Year Fee %increase
2006 £171
2007 £201 18%
2008 £211 5%
2009 £222 5%
2010 £235 6%
2011 £245 4%
2012 £275 12%
2013 £287 4%
2014 £306 7%

re: Repair costs, I either have bad luck with cars or the garages see me coming. My car before last (Subaru Legacy estate) I paid for a new exhaust, new clutch and new fuel filler neck (each cost in the £100's) within a year and then something else major went (can't even recall what it was) so I got rid of it P/X for £250. If I had P/X'ed it about 8 months earlier I could have saved myself over £1,000!