Money is definitely something you must have in abundance if you need a car hire in europe. Here is a quick rundown of the various costs you'll incur when renting a car during your European vacation.
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Parking. Unless you plan to stick around for long hours in any of Europe's metropolises, you wouldn't need to spend that much on parking. If you do, city parking typically costs anywhere between $25 and $40 per day.
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Tolls. This matters if you need to travel through expressways. Generally, traveling through them will cost you about $4 to $9 for every hour.
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Fuel. Standard cars will cost you approximately $160 per week or about 700 miles in terms of mileage. Of course, you can end up spending more if you are driving a gas-mad sports car or less if you are driving a fuel-thrifty compact car.
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Insurance. Naturally, you will be expected to pay for insurance. If your current policy already keeps you covered even when driving abroad, that's great! But if not, then you should expect to pay about 30% on top of your rate. However, this figure already takes into account the cost of collision damage waiver as well.
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Taxes. Expect your total price to increase by 18 to 25% because of taxes alone. In Switzerland, the tax rates are significantly cheaper at 8%. On the other hand, their base rates for car rentals are significantly higher than the others as well.
How to Save More When Renting a Car
There are several ways for you to minimize your expenses when renting a car. One way is to get a monthly car rental. More often than not, the more days you reserve a car for a single booking, the lesser you will have to shell out each day. Another way is to lease a car. Leasing a car in europe is a wiser choice if you would be needing a car for longer than a few months. At the start, the terms and conditions of this type of arrangement can appear complex, but you'll get the hang of things soon enough.
There may be an age requirement when renting or leasing a car in Europe. To avoid any problem relating to age, make sure not to place the car rental name under a minor or an overage driver. Keep in mind that age requirements can vary in each European state. In some cases, for instance, you may need to be 28 years old to rent a car convertible while you may just need to be 25 to drive a regular sedan If you're sure about needing a car rental abroad, don't forget to apply for an international driver's permit as well.
