Car rental Manchester: Reserve ahead or wait?

I would most certainly book it aforehand .

Is there a reason you prefer not to / are unable to plan ahead?

This late date you may get the leftovers. You don't need a special size car or automatic transmission, do you?

No particular reason. We could take either a standard or automatic. Any recommendations of who to book with?

Autoeurope.com

If you book ahead for a smaller, cheaper car and then for some reason they don't have it held there, they should give you whatever larger vehicle they have for the same price. If you show up without a reservation and they only have larger cars, then you pay the rack rate for that vehicle, usually more expensive. Maybe they'd even sell out, or not have something available for as many days as you wanted. Last-minute specials might happen, too, but I think you're driving for several days, so book ahead. Most major agencies have offices in enough cities to allow you to drop off almost anywhere, but that's also a factor where planning helps, if not returning the car to Manchester.