Car hire 'best when booked early'

That old adage about the early bird catching the worm is extremely accurate when it comes to hiring a car abroad, one expert has said this week.

According to Holiday Autos, travellers will find that if they start researching their booking a few months before their trip there will still be plenty of availability and prices will be low.

It claims that those who leave booking their holiday motors until the last minute could see the price of their rental shoot up by as much as 40 per cent, especially in the summer holidays or during a peak winter ski season.

Holiday Autos also advises travellers wishing to drive on foreign shores to shop around for the best deal. It says that car hire brokers will often do this hard work for them, sourcing the cheapest deals from a wide range of suppliers.

The car hire firm a rental is taken out with, however, is not the only thing travellers need to bear in mind; the location they are driving in, where they pick their vehicle up from and local petrol prices can all impact on the cost of their rentals.

It explains: "Some countries are renowned for their cheap petrol."

Venezuela is highlighted by the firm as the most cost-efficient destination with one litre in the nation costing less than two pence, while this resource is 20 pence per litre in Dubai and 47 pence in the US.

For those heading to European shores the cheapest place to fill up their cars is Spain (96 pence a litre), while the UK is one of the dearest nations at £1.19.

Holiday Autos recommends using online resource petrolprices.com to locate the cheapest nations for petrol outside of the UK.

Last month, it emerged that not only is Spain Europe's cheapest nation for petrol costs, it is also the continent's best place to hire a car.

Research conducted by vehicle hire company CarDelMar found that 99.5 per cent of motors hired in Spain are returned in immaculate condition.

Carsten Greiner, managing director of CarDelMar, said: "Drivers are always very quick to blame the driving conditions of another country or the habits of another nationality - and perhaps our survey proves that some countries are worse to drive in than others."

Nations which were found to be risky places to take to the roads included Chile, with the highest percentage of returned damaged cars at 7.7 per cent.

This figure is more than 25 times the number bumped and bashed in the US (0.3 per cent).

Mr Greiner concluded: "It is interesting that such a diverse mix of countries have topped the polls with a much greater percentage of returned vehicles with damages."