We are trying to decide what model/class of car to rent for our 2 week driving trip in March. We are flying in and out of Shannon (already have tickets, that was the best deal for us) and are still working on our itinerary. On our last trip to Ireland there were 4 of us, this time we can get by with a smaller car. We plan on renting a manual. Most of our driving will be on R roads, with some N roads. We are not planning on any Motorway driving, but may end up wanting to get somewhere fast. We also want to be able to poke around on the smaller, third class roads. What cars do people recommend? Small is good for us, we are considering the smallest category cars from rental agencies (such as the Toyota Aygo). Will they be a problem for the driving we want to do?
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9371 posts
Take the smallest car you can fit into with your luggage. There is no advantage to having a larger one, even on the motorway.
Posted by
Atlanta
1358 posts
I agree with Nancy. It'll cost less for the car AND for gas. There's always a chance that the rental agency will be out of the smaller cars and give you a bigger one, anyway.
Posted by
Greeley, Colorado, USA
11 posts
No matter how small your vehicle, you'll still need to fold your side mirrors in, in some of the villages... and for some of the roads which have foliage growing on both sides (to the point they look more like tunnels than roads). Before our trip to Ireland last year, we "test drove" a couple models from dealerships here in Colorado. From the company websites, I got the dimensions of different cars and "translated" their model names from UK to American. Sorry, can't remember specifics, but I will tell you it was a great idea... and your needs may be different from ours. I'm just suggesting the process. It is time consuming, but we're retired and it was a fun way to spend an afternoon... trying on cars.
Posted by
Whitefish, MT, usa
37 posts
I flew to Shannon and then proceeded to head up to Donegal, taking many back roads. I started with a Volkswaggen Passat despite one of my friends that lived in Ireland, telling me that was a very large car there. Well, they were right! I exchanged it for a Ford Focus and even that was a bit large for the roads I was on. The car had plenty of pickup despite being so small and I was glad for the decent gas mileage. Honestly though, with the narrow roads I was on, I would have been happy with something even smaller. I can't begin to count the number of times that I had to pull over when I met an oncoming car because there just isn't room on the side roads. And remember, the vegetation can be so thick, sometimes there is nowhere to pull over. Final note, take photos of your car when you pick it up as I have heard a few horror stories where travelers were blamed for something they didn't do. The cars are in pretty rough shape and often scratched-you dont want to be blamed.