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In July 10 we are fly driving to Perpignan. I've just been looking at the car hire sites and the prices appear to have rocketed from 2 years ago when we got a Nissan Note for 10 days for about £280. They are now asking about £350.

Am I just timing it wrong and need to hold my nerve or is this the norm now?

We paid a lot more recently for a hire car.  We've done lots of long weekends (four or five days) in the past, and car hire has always seemed reasonable.  In December we paid nearly twice as much as we expected - and then had to pay extra again because we wanted to take the car into Spain.  This was despite us asking for this in the quote, and it supposedly being covered.

Beware, also, the 'scam' that the friend we were staying with suffered.  He returned his car, the Rep from the company went around it, and 'signed it off' as undamaged.  As soon as he got home (he lives in Egypt but has a holiday home in France) he had received an email stating 'The car radio has been damaged beyond repair, as the CD mechanism has been 'abused'  and retaining his deposit (a substantial one as he was hiring the car for four weeks).  In those circumstances what can you do??  How can you prove that you never even used the radio, let alone the CD player?  So a warning, that if you do hire a car then make sure they check EVERYTHING when you return it.

Based on what happened last year with hire cars being in very short supply in european holiday spots I recommend you bite the bullet and book early.

Because they were in short supply prices did shoot up and the exchange rate has not helped either.

Try National Citer. Pick up/ collect airport Perpignan, July 10  for 10 days seems to offer € 263 for a Ciroen C3.

Come what may, I always have found them to be very competitive, and round Paris, have never had any problems with deposit retention etc.

FM

We've been paying quite a bit for the past few years. The airports that are used more by commercial clients are usually cheaper. I found that the prices definately rise the later you book so get in there early. We've never had any problems with hertz.

We booked a VW Polo or similar for 3 weeks for 340 Euros for July 2010 picking up and dropping off from Barcelona airport. We used www.vroomvroomvroom.co.uk which is a comparison site. It is booked with Hertz. May be worth trying it.