A sat nav can be very useful if driving alone to an unfamiliar destination — especially if you’re driving a large van.
In today’s article, I’m going to continue my ‘How Much Does It Cost?’ series with a look at sat nav hire, a widely available optional extra on car and van hire.
Sat nav hire has become one of the most popular car and van hire options over the last few years.
Even if you don’t normally need a sat nav, you may find one useful when you are driving a large, unfamiliar hire van that’s harder to turn round than a car, and are unfamiliar with your route.
Most big van hire companies now offer sat nav hire as an optional extra on van rental, but I’ve found that you can spend a surprising amount on hiring a sat nav — so much so that if you do it often, you may want to consider buying a sat nav instead.
Here’s a run-down of the prices being charged by the main companies featured on vanrental.co.uk:
- Europcar: £13.99 per day, £300 penalty if the sat nav unit is lost, damaged or stolen.
- National: £13.99 per day, maximum charge of £139.99 per rental. Replacement fee of £300 if lost, damaged or stolen.
- Thrifty: £10 per day for 1-6 days, £6 per day for hires of 7 or more days.
- Hertz: A maximum cost of £19.80 per rental where available (Hertz offers sat nav hire as its ‘NeverLost’ service)
- Sixt: Minimum £11.99 per day, cost per day decreases for longer hires — I was quoted £9.20 per day for a five-day hire.
- Van Hire 3000: As Van Hire 3000 is a broker, the cost of sat nav hire varies depending on the supplying hire company.
- Argus Car Hire: As Argus Car Hire is a broker, the cost of sat nav hire varies depending on the supplying hire company.
As you can see, the cost of sat nav hire can vary considerably when you rent a van. Hertz and Thrifty look like they are the cheapest two, and Hertz’s flat-rate maximum of £19.80 looks very good value for longer hires, assuming there are no extra costs that I missed.
On the other hand, National’s maximum of £139.99 per rental (10 days) would be likely to make you think about buying a sat nav for yourself — since you can buy quite a decent sat nav for around £150.
As always, however, the underlying cost of the rental can also affect which van hire company is cheapest, so you do need to compare prices and rental quotes quite carefully — the best starting point is with our van hire price comparison search engine.
To learn more about the true cost of van hire, check out the following articles:
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