Need advice on car rental

Heathrow is the best place. Easy to get to from London via public transport. In the right direction from London for The Cotswolds. All the big firms are there with a big range of cars.

Stay away from Green Motion or Easirent.

We always pick up and drop off at Heathrow. Personal choice, but I always rent through Avis. I reserve the vehicle from the states. Manual shift vehicles are standard in Europe so if you don’t want to shift on the left, ensure you specify an automatic when you make the reservation. Chipping Campden is a nice small town to use as a base for visiting all the other small Cotswolds area towns and not as crowded as places like Bourton on the Water.

I, too, would rent the car at Heathrow. There is likely to be a wider selection of vehicles (assuming you want an automatic), and the rental site will be open longer hours and on weekends than if you rent in a town outside London..

For many years, when I rented through Auroeurope at Heathrow my reservation was with Europcar. At Europcar, I usually had around an hour wait in a packed waiting area. The past 2 years my Autoeurope reservation at Heathrow has been through Hertz, which I found to be tremendously more pleasant in terms of being less crowded and there being a shorter wait.

Heathrow would probably be the most convenient place to rent from and return to, but you could be paying more because of the fees airports charge car rental companies. You might want to explore the Auto Europe website for alternatives in suburbs west of London that you could reach by tube or a short train ride -- keeping in mind that train fares for seven adults might swallow any savings in the rental cost. I believe it's as easy in the UK as on the continent to return a car to a different place without extra cost, so Heathrow could still be your drop-off point.

Automatic shift will cost more and needs to be reserved well ahead. I drive manual on the continent but prefer automatic when I have to move over to the left side of the road, so I don't add shifting to all the other physical and mental adjustments I must make. But some folks have less trouble with that than I do.

I used Easirent a couple of years now, no problems at all.
I'm using them again in June from Heathrow.
The prices were cheap too, and the car was a brand new one.

Thank you all for your advice! I have a couple of follow-up questions.

Part of our group has decided they want to visit Bath for one night after leaving London, and then go on to Chipping Campden to meet the rest of the group. I'm assuming it doesn't make sense to take a car to Bath and have to park it overnight. In that case, would it make the most sense for them to take a train to Bath, spend the night, then rent their car in Bath to drive to CC? Or would it be better to take the train to Bath, the bus from Bath to CC the next day, then rent their car somewhere near CC? We'd still want to drop this car off at Heathrow when we leave.

Also, what size car would you recommend for 4 people/4 suitcases? We'd like to have enough room to be comfortable, but have heard a lot about the narrow roads we will encounter in England and Wales.

Thanks again for your help.

With 4 adults, you’ll need a mid-sized at least. Boots/trunks in cars tend to be smaller in Europe, so with 4 carry-on sized suitcases, space could be tight, but will fit. For where you’re heading the roads are fine and a mid-sized vehicle shouldn’t pose any problem. If you were going to Cornwall my answer would be different. If your lodging in Bath has parking, there’s no reason you couldn’t just drive there. Once in Bath, if your lodging isn’t right in town, either walk in or take the local bus into town to walk around. Getting to Bath shouldn’t take more than 2.5 hours via the M4.

pj,

Be sure to do some research on driving on the "correct side of the road", as that can be challenging for some people. I'd recommend using a GPS / Google Maps on your phone or at least have a good map available. Be careful not to exceed speed limits and I'd highly recommend getting a very good insurance package. Finally as mentioned earlier, getting a vehce with auto transmission would be a good idea.

One other suggestion..... when crossing the road as a pedestrian, be sure to look both ways as traffic will be approaching from the opposite direction to what you're used to.

I always go big, even a 7 seater mini van is not big compared to our cars.
If there are at least 4 of us, I get a 7 seater. Room for everyone to be comfy and room for all the bags.
The mini vans are still the size of a normal SUV here in the U.S.

Easirent:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186216-i15-k7950707-o10-EASIRENT_Car_rental_Run_like_hell_from_them_the_worst_ever-United_Kingdom.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186216-i15-k7950707-o10-EASIRENT_Car_rental_Run_like_hell_from_them_the_worst_ever-United_Kingdom.html

Yeah, that looks brutal. I'm guilty of finding every detail before I go.
When I rent, I get Full insurance with Tires and windscreen added as well (8 pounds a day I think)
It's a no brainer, the price is still cheap and I can run this into a building and be covered.
They don't even take a hold on the credit card with the full coverage.
I have checked other rental agency's too.
I understand peoples frustrations, and I admit I had to pry the info from them to get all the details, but in the end it worked out just fine.

Automatic shift will cost more and needs to be reserved well ahead. I drive manual on the continent but prefer automatic when I have to move over to the left side of the road, so I don't add shifting to all the other physical and mental adjustments I must make. But some folks have less trouble with that than I do.

That may be according to what you normally drive. I drive a six speed manual as my daily driver, so I had no problems when we tootled around Scotland.