Help with size of rental car please!

[amacspad]

Hi, had an email of auto europe with special offers so thought I would check out their prices, this time there will be 4 adults with a suitcase each, many of the cars say they accommodate 4 adults but only 1 case, when you start getting to the cars that take more cases the prices start getting quite silly and just wonder what realistic car woud be suitable for us!

Many thanks,

Debs x

 

[I Love Tigger]

When travelling as a family of four adults, with four cases and hand luggage we book a full size, or large SUV. We are to paying £295 for a Full size with Alamo Brits in May for 16 days.

Hope that helps

 

[chmurf]

4 adults with 4 large suitcases and hand luggage will hardly fit in a fullsize (unless the suitcases are medium sized)
you'd probably be better off getting a SUV if you plan on having that many large suitcases

on the picture below is our Impala (Fullsize with Alamo)
both suitcases are 28" tall. As you can see, you can't squeeze a 3rd one there. (and it was so tight we ripped the boot's light off when we took the black one out of the car)
This was on our arrival day, we only had 2 suitcases for 3. On our departure day we had 4 suitcases the size of those on the picture. We barely manaeged to cram half of our carry-on in the trunk, 2 suitcases and the rest of our stuff journeyed to MCO on the back seat along with DS (glad we didn't have a 4th person with us.)

.

 

[amacspad]

Thank you for your replies, huge help, we we thinking of upto £300 but wondered what we would actually need, we go on 30th Oct so I will have a look at prices when I get home tonight!

Debs x

 

[catherine]

Don't know whether you could use ME or not. If you could, then you could always pick up your car from the car care center. That way you could get a much smaller car!

 

[amacspad]

Thanks Catherine, never thought of that!

Debs x

 

[scoobydooby]

Hi, had an email of auto europe with special offers so thought I would check out their prices, this time there will be 4 adults with a suitcase each, many of the cars say they accommodate 4 adults but only 1 case, when you start getting to the cars that take more cases the prices start getting quite silly and just wonder what realistic car woud be suitable for us! Many thanks, Debs x

Having paid for full size SUVs and 7 seaters to fit us as a family of four (teenage kids) we have more recently started with my DH and DS picking up a full size car and me and DD catching ME. This is the only way we can fit four large suitcases and four sets of hand luggage in this size vehicle. We were paying a fortune for massive vehicles that spent most of the holiday parked up. The one year we booked a full size car but not ME we ended up having to upgrade because we could not fit the luggage in it. The guy at Alamo took pity on us and upgraded up for free but we got lucky. After this we paid for big cars until we started using ME too. We just use a taxi and the car to get us to bag drop at DTD on our last day. Saves us several £100's doing this. Also DH finds driving the 7 seaters very stressful.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

It also depends on your luggage. If you have lots of hard cases then you are going to struggle to get four of these in anything smaller than an SUV. We switched to using good quality 'barrel bags' and that has really helped as these can be squashed into more gaps than a standard case.

You also need to consider hand luggage. If you also have four reasonable sized rucksacks in your party they will also take up space in the car.

 

[amacspad]

Hi, sorry for the delay, just got home from a late shift at work, thank you so much for all your advice, will def have a think about ME, dh actually fancies getting an suv so will check out both options, I know I'll be even more of a nervous wreck (passenger) in a bigger car over there, I already grip the doors as it is lol!

Debs x

 

[scoobydooby]

Hi, sorry for the delay, just got home from a late shift at work, thank you so much for all your advice, will def have a think about ME, dh actually fancies getting an suv so will check out both options, I know I'll be even more of a nervous wreck (passenger) in a bigger car over there, I already grip the doors as it is lol! Debs x

There are two sizes of SUVs. The smaller size will still be a challenge and involve three in the back and bags in the front seat.

 

[amacspad]

Really? Dread to think what it will cost then, just felt a bit mean asking my dd and her bf to take the bus unless we do like Catherine suggested and all take the ME and pick the car up the next day, would have to check out where we would get it from!

Debs x

 

[Tinks1984]

We had a Chrysler Town & Country last time we went (and have another for next trip) and it fit 5 adults and the suitcases in there no worries. I don't think we would have been able to have had any other type and fit us, plus luggage in there. As you say, not cheap though...but we found it well worth it's money as we tend to eat off-site as well as on, so it was always roomy and we never felt like we were cramped up at all. Plus, it was amazing to drive I can't wait to be back behind it's wheel next year!

 

[scoobydooby]

Really? Dread to think what it will cost then, just felt a bit mean asking my dd and her bf to take the bus unless we do like Catherine suggested and all take the ME and pick the car up the next day, would have to check out where we would get it from! Debs x

Me and my DD actually prefer taking DME and leaving the boys to deal with the car so I don't think it's at all mean and it is mad to spend money on a massive car just for two journeys when for the rat of the holiday a smaller one will do just fine. DME is stress less. I find that first drive from the airport to the hotel really stressful though so this has become the perfect solution for us. Certainly I don't think you'd be doing them a disservice, really.