Do you know one day car hire prices are currently insane in Ireland?

The Flight Detective
a group of cars parked in a parking lot

Let me start off by saying I am not someone who uses car hire on a regular basis. The last time I hired a car was in 2008 in Scotland, so quite a long time ago now.

All of that being said, it’s very clear to me that prices are absolutely insane in Ireland at the moment. You could almost buy a car for a cheaper price.

Car Hire Price Insanity

I’m heading off to a wedding in July, which happens to be in a rural part of Ireland. While the area is stunningly beautiful, it has pretty crappy public transport options, so driving is the best way to get there.

Since I have little need for a car, I don’t own one (hey, I have to offset all the carbon from flying somehow!), so naturally I thought I would hire one. Let’s have a look at the cost of a one day hire for July 2022.

That’s €290 for one day of hire or £250, crazy money. God help you if you need an automatic (as I do), as they start at a blistering US$465 per day – that’s £370 or €433. For 24 hours!

Other discount websites show cars starting at €392 per day for a manual, another €426 and so on. It’s all eye wateringly bad, so guess who isn’t hiring a car? I’d walk before paying those prices.

Overall Thoughts

This pricing is utterly ridiculous all round. The car hire companies sold off their fleets during the pandemic, which means now that demand is back there is little supply. From that perspective, the prices make complete sense, as that’s how basic supply and demand economics works.

Obviously if you take a car for a week, it’s no so bad, coming in at just over twice the one day price. Even so it is nothing like a normal market, which would not cost nearly as much.

Have you had to book any car hire recently? Are the prices similarly high elsewhere? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Erik Mclean on Unsplash.

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11 comments
  1. Sounds like a good business opportunity for somebody! Surely someone can beat those prices and still make a profit.
    Also there are websites where people rent out their family car. No brainer.
    We are still a democracy and you can rent from whoever you want to.

    1. Now that’s something I didn’t know, that there are websites where people rent out the family car. Very interesting! I suppose it is a temporary opportunity for someone, if they can get their hands on a vehicle! Thanks for the comment.

      1. Yes, far, far above what it usually is, that’s for sure! Thanks for the comments!

    1. I threw in a week in July and it came up at about $1,100 or so. Seriously, $2,500 you’d be better off just buying a second hand car and selling it again at the end of the trip. That’s awful money to spend on car hire.

      1. Yeah, but with used car prices also skyrocketing, you probably won’t be able to find one that cheap. I bought a Highlander Hybrid in Dec. 2020 with 9000 miles on it. It now has 30000 miles on it and if I traded it in, I could get more than what I paid for it when I bought it. It is just crazy.

        1. That’s a very good point, I had read that about the used car prices being very high as well. Thanks for that!

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