Pricewatch Daily

Readers are floored by car-hire prices, sceptical about discount cards, and lamenting the weather, writes CONOR POPE.

Jacking up the cost of Irish car rental

The high cost of car hire has been exercising our readers’ minds of late. A reader named Paul contacted us to highlight the price differences between Hertz’s Irish and UK businesses. He says the cost of renting a Ford Mondeo in Dublin for one day in July was €133.80. Renting the same car for the same period in Cardiff, however, was just £36.09 (€41.72). “People were shocked at the price of clothes chains here marking up their UK price conversion but this takes the biscuit,” he fumes.

Joe Griffin was equally shocked by the high price of car rental in Ireland. “I have just found out that it will cost €169 to rent a car from Avis at Shannon airport for one day.” He says it worked out cheaper for a colleague to get a taxi from the airport to his ultimate destination and back again, which is what he did.

“Avis has lost a rental. I e-mailed them and asked for an explanation. The response was ‘Unfortunately, our rates are due to the peak season and very limited availability.’ So if nobody rents their cars, the availability will be greater and prices will come down. And the sun will shine in Ireland every day in July and August. This, of course, will also allow pigs to fly without the problems they might encounter in the rain.”

Discount cards – profit or loss?

The G-Club dining and hotel card, which offers people who pay an upfront fee of €75 substantial discounts in upmarket establishments, has attracted both negative and positive comment from Pricewatch readers.

“Is this not the same principle as those hair-salon cards that used to do the rounds about 10 years ago?” asks Sharon Burn. “You’d pay £50 and get X number of cuts, colours, treatments, which was allegedly worth £500.” She says it was based on the premise that 95 per cent of people would only ever use it once. “As the old saying goes, ‘if something seems to good to be true, it usually is’. I’ll stick to early bird menus and hotel weekend deals and save the €75 administration charge.” Ray described it as “an old gambit of getting money from people the easy way”.

Not so, said another reader who identified himself as Stephen. “We have used the card a number of times and have easily made our money back. We have also visited places we wouldn’t have done without the card.”

Summer days, driftin’ away

Unsurprisingly, the weather has been occupying the thoughts of many readers this summer, with the vast majority being deeply depressed at what the gods have dished up so far this year.

Elka, who moved here from Canada 17 years ago, says she is still amazed at how much rain there is. “I’m surprised the whole island hasn’t just dissolved into the Atlantic. Yes, the scenery is stunning when you can see it and for those of us who have but a few weeks’ holiday per year, you’d really want some guarantee of good weather.” Her comments did not go unchallenged, and a reader called Alan was quick to respond that while “it might rain here, what about the weather in Canada? A couple of months of warm sunshine and months of below-zero weather.”

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