renting a car in Ireland

Smaller the better, and if you drive a manual the better too. It will save money on fuel as well as the hire.

A BMW will be premium brand rental and you will be paying for the badge, look for a Ford Focus, Toyota Auris, VW Golf equivalent.

If in doubt pop along to your local Ford dealer etc and look at one of these cars. This should help judge the sizes of the luggage storage.

Smaller the better car size wise and luggage wise. One bag each will help. Beemers are too big for some of the roads. Honestly, why be worried about scrapping side doors, when, if you buy the more compact vehicle you'll not have that angst. Do this. Use the Google Maps Satellite and street view images. In the search engine type Slea Head, Ireland. You'll also see 3 rental cars in the image. Use the hand and circle icons to follow one of the cars along Slea Head. See the oncoming car. Welcome to driving in Eire. I've done it twice. Once in a small hatchback, once with a four door. MUCH preferred the hatchback.

A third suggestion for the smallest car you can tolerate. I've driven in Ireland each of the last two summers, first in a 4-door (Renault Fluence) and the next in a small clown car (Nissan Micra). I preferred the clown car.

Thank you for all the suggestions - I am hearing smaller is better. There are four adults so I am concerned about comfort in a really small car as well as adequate luggage room. What about the ford focus?

With four people plus luggage, the tiny car may well not work. While I certainly remember the tight squeezes on the roads of Ireland (thanks Claudia for the street view thing, it brings back memories!), when we showed up to pick up our compact car for two of us, all they had was a Nissan Qashqai. This is a small SUV style car, and while it was a little more exciting to navigate, there would have been room for four with luggage, and the somewhat higher riding height was really helpful-so it's a mixed bag.

We requested and got an automatic, highly recommended, we also took the super cdw (zero deductible) and were subsequently struck in a hit and run. No cost to us due to having taken the s-cdw for an extra $80 or so. Ireland is hard on cars.

I will also add that for Slea Head in particular, it was worth it to us to pay for a guide for a half day to drive us. We got much more out of that, and saw more, than we would have had I been piloting the vehicle!

Archimedes, you had a Micra?! I am so sorry, hope you've recovered.

From this side of the Atlantic I think part of the problem is it seems in North America the likes of the VW Golf, Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla/Auris etc are viewed as small cars, here they are family cars. If you want to get a look at the sizes the main offerings from the hire car companies on line, and there is a youtube channel, carbuyer.co.uk, that is very likely to have a review of the car you might get.

MC,
Did you know that Ford sells different cars in Europe than they do in the US? So, if Jacques is American, he may not be able to see the possibilities at his local Ford dealer.

It's crazy! Anyway, I agree to rent the smallest car possible. Jacques, you could try Googling the make and model of the car in question, and see if there's detailed info about the interior.

Have fun! Pack light!

Hi Stacy, yes, I am aware the North American market has different cars to the European one, but according to wikipedia (terms and condtitions apply) and searching on Ford.ca shows virtually the same Fiesta and Focus models are sold in North America (at least in Canada) as in Europe. I think the big difference now is we do not get the big cars like the Crown Victorias or the pick ups.

I agree with doing the google. The manufacturers have online presences now so worth going to ford.co.uk or ford.ie for Ford is a good place to look, the specifications including luggage space will be there. Somewhere.

Probably after you've bought the car in question.

I would read carefully the description of the luggage capacity of the vehicle you anticipate renting. If it says "hand luggage," that means a purse. So a car that holds 2 suitcases and 3 pieces of hand luggage will only hold 2 suitcases. We had that problem the last time we went. The vehicle we planned to hold 6 of us and our luggage would actually hold 4 adults, 2 small children, and about 2 suitcases. If in doubt, it's worth it to call the rental agency and get specific about it. While some of the roads are tiny, we never had trouble, even with what was considered a large car.

I knew what I was getting with the Micra, the rental agency listed several cars in the various classes, and I did as others suggested and went to Google. I was able to find copious pictures of the interior and could make my own call on whether we'd fit. I found the rental agencies' info on persons and bags to be conservative, on more than one occasion I have found we had more room than the agencies' estimates.

The Nissan Micra is one of those cars with, at least in the UK not sure about Ireland but probably the same, zero street cred. Not bad cars per se, but no street cred!

We rented our car through Easy Tour Ireland because they had a MUCH better deal with the super coverage insurance. It's a third party provided who rents through Hertz, so we just showed up at the Dublin airport Hertz to pick up our car. We saved a ton of money! And we got a VW Golf -- 4 door, should be room for four carry-on size suitcases in the back. No issues at all with either the car (even on small roads) or the rental company.

Hi

If hiring in Ireland, try Nova car hire - a reputable hire broker (ie the cars they offer are from all the mainstream rental firms, but cheaper) - and Nova are Ireland based. I use them regularly, not just for Ireland, but Spain too. Nova.

We rented a Toyota Corolla, about the same size as the ones sold in the US. Plenty of luggage space for 3 women with lots of luggage and shopping bags. Paying extra for an automatic was worth it. Confusing enough to drive on the left with an unfamiliar car in an unfamiliar country. Get the extra insurance, you'll need it!

I did a ton of research about renting a car in Ireland last year, for my Ireland trip done in October last year, and I concluded that using Easy Tour Ireland (www.easytourireland.com), as someone else mentioned, was the best way to go. I was extremely pleased with the results of booking through that company (which, I believe, is based in Salt Lake City, Utah). Why?

1. My research showed that it makes sense to get all of the insurance coverage available when renting a car in Ireland; most people call it "Super CDW", and that coverage covers you for everything except damage to the tires and mirrors, I believe.

2. The prices quoted from Easy Tour Ireland are all-inclusive (includes the Super CDW). In many other cases, I found that while the quoted rates were substantially lower than the Easy Tour Ireland rates, they did not include any Super CDW coverage.

3. The Easy Tour Ireland rates ended up being extremely competitive, if not the lowest.

4. Whenever I called Easy Tour Ireland, or emailed that company, my questions were fully answered.

If you use Easy Tour Ireland, or are considering that company, you might want to call their number and ask them any questions you might have.

By the way, I do not work for Easy Tour Ireland and have no incentive to recommend them. I'm just a very pleased customer and will use them again for my Ireland trip this September!

We just returned from Ireland and would highly recommend Dan Dooley/Fox rentals which have a desk at the airport. I did reserve in advance and got exactly the car we asked for, even though our flight was delayed and we arrived 6 hours later than planned. We got a Nissan Micra which is too small for 4 people, unless you travel very light and you don't all have long legs. "Mike" was perfect on the narrow roads and got 40+ mpg. ($70 to fill tank). One more thing I want to say about Dan Dooley - they reimbursed us for a tire we had to buy when we got a flat outside of Doolin on the way to the Cliffs of Moher. We bought the super CDW insurance and when we returned the car, they reimbursed us for the tire purchase, which surprised my husband. It may be standard coverage with the super CDW - I didn't check the small print. One more thing - my husband was extremely glad for the automatic transmission and he is no sissy. A lot of the regional roads are very narrow, some with no shoulders at all, and at one point we encountered a bike race up "Corkscrew Hill" in the Burren and came face to face with a tour bus that was trying to pass the cyclists around a blind curve. The bus driver quickly got back into their own lane which slowed my adrenaline a bit...

We rented a Renault Fluence with automatic transmission. It did just fine with diesel fuel.
It wasn't luxurious but did have a USB charger which was handy. Passenger seat did not recline.
We got super deductible. First day my husband took out the left mirror. Also got coverage on tires.

Hit a lot of curbs. He got a lot better.