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After someone drove into my car in the company car park and bent the back wheel out of true, it was off the road for 10 days (taking in 2 weekends). We were booked for two long weekends (Lake District and Longleat) with the van. As hard as I tried I could just not find a single car hire company that could hire me a suitable towing vehicle with twin electrics and a towball. As a result we had to do b&b for one break and use the tent for the other. If this had happened to us just before our main holiday we would have been in a real mess. Has anyone else had a similar problem ? and more importantly does anyone know a solution to this situation ? ( just in case we have the same misfortune again ).

Hi, there are specialist firms that do hire out towcars, But the restrictions and cost due to the abuse a lot of vehicles get put most people off. But a good nationwide firm can be found here They supply 4x4's of all types and sizes,

you will find most hire companys wont stock cars for towing due to the extra strain put on the engine ..equates to more repair bils or more frequent repairs to the cars and the different insurance they would have to provide if you was towing a caravan

Sorry but I don't know of anywhere that hires cars with towballs. Had a similar problem 3 years ago, except that my caravan was written off in the accident and my car was off the road for nearly 7 weeks.

My Legal Eagles wouldn't entertain the idea of my claiming off the Third Party for a caravan and big car with towball for the whole time so we had to compromise. They paid for a tent, I used my other car for all but our annual holiday - 10 days in Yorkshire - for which they hired me a Vectra rather than the usual Corsa so we could get all our camping gear in. (My Civic had to go in for a well earned service while we were away so it was ready for work when we returned ).

I wasn't happy about it at all but luckily the weather was good and we really enjoyed the novel experience of tenting for a change.

I had the same problem just before Christmas having booked to go away at New Year. I had a no fault accident and because of a problem with his insurance was first offered a Corsa!!

My insurance had handed the repairs over to a third party repairer whose normal hire company had nothing to offer with a tow bar. Very firmly I told them and my insurance that the policy says like for like and that means something that pulls my caravan.

After a total of three days I had a call to say a Freelander would be with me the next day and I told them I doubted that would do it either so I got a brand new 3.2lt Shogun Warrior DiD...result

Funny thing was though I was glad to see the back of it... before that is it did my back!!