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AUTHOR Robert Gillespie
February 26, 2013

How Specific Can I Be When Choosing My Hire Car?

One of the most popular questions we get asked is, How Specific Can I Be When Choosing My Hire Car?

When booking a hire car people often want a specific make, model, colour, fuel type, transmission and engine size. These often can’t be booked specifically but below are the cans and cants when it comes to hiring a car with specific requests.

Most suppliers use SIPP codes when listing their fleet, which are the industry standard for determining the kind of car that is being rented. They comprise of 4 letters that designate size, type, transmission and a/c, respectively.

Make/Model

Car hire suppliers have a varied fleet of vehicles meaning it is difficult to guarantee a specific make or model of vehicle. We can only book a ‘type’ of vehicle, meaning if you book a vehicle Such as a ‘Volkswagen Golf or similar’ there are a number of vehicles that fit this ‘or similar’ tag, such as: Vauxhall Astra, Ford Focus, Audi A3 or Hyundai I30. All of which are midsize hatchbacks.

Colour

Often people want to hire a car in a specific colour, rental cars are for the most part in very basic colours e.g black, silver, grey and so on. If you want a specific colour you often aren’t guaranteed it, however if say the colour you request is in stock depending on the car hire supplier you use they will request a colour for you, but for the most part this is not guaranteed.

Fuel Type

On the whole there is no guarantee when it comes to choosing Diesel or Petrol, however with some select suppliers you can specify certain fuel types with as its part of what they sell to you like diesel hire cars being more expensive or something along those lines.

Transmission

Your choice between manual and automatic is certain, even if you’re car doesn’t fit any of the criteria previously the one thing that can be confirmed 100% is the transmission when you choose between manual or automatic you should always get your choice.

Engine Size

You can’t specify the engine because there is no guarantee you will get the engine size that you specifically want. When you book a car, you book it within a range like a mid-ranged vehicle but that has no reflection on the engine size. Vehicles are usually grouped in a range of engine size, so a small city car would usually be between 1.0 and 1.2 litre, while a large family saloon would usually be between a 1.8 and 2.2 Litre.

Having worked in the car rental industry for over 15 years, he really knows his stuff. Rob heads up our marketing department and as a keen traveller, always has a new location to talk about. Particularly if there is a golf course nearby.

Robert Gillespie

Traveller

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