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People movers hire for large families: 7- and 8- seaters

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People Movers Options
The snow season is coming, so is the high demand for the people movers. We are always looking after our clients and want them hire the best suited car. Besides it will save them some money too.

There are now so many 7 seaters available. In this article we will focus on the mini vans only and I promise to put together another post on SUVs that suit larger families.

VW MULTIVAN

Pros: Can fit up to 7 people and would be very roomy inside. The car offers European safety, lots of power, diesel and good boot space. It is great for big kids and adults to travel comfortably. The vehicle is very reliable and goes the distance. This car is also known as a Volkswagen Transporter before being released as Multivan.

Cons and gotchas: height can be an issue in some carparks (look for 2.1m clearance). It is 7 seats but the 2nd row would be great as a bench seat making it an 8 seater. It can come with the table as an extra but how often do you think you might use it? A lot of people told us they have never used it. We are not sure if it was just our issue, however Low Cost Car Rentals team decided to replace all of our VW with Toyotas just because of our door problems in this specific VW model.

VW CARAVELLE

Pros: Newer models come as 9 seater which suits large families nicely. It is quiet spacious inside, european safety and quality. The car is reliable and well priced among other 9 seaters offered for hire.

Cons: Height can be an issue. Longer body than the VW Multivan for parking. The boot space is not as big but there is some room inside the van for bags etc.

HYUNDAI IMAX

Pros: It is probably one of the cheapest vans for this size. Mostly this car comes as a 7 seater, however it is possible to rent an 8 seater as well. Hyundai iMax offers good sized seats in the back. You can even walk around inside. You will be amazed with the great boot space too. Some rental companies add an extra 9th seat in the first row making it a 9 seater.

Cons: doesn’t have the european safety, you can also note some heaviness in the body and doors. Therefore the cheaper price. If you’ve ever opened a VW or Mercedes van then you know what I’m talking about. Some vans come slightly smaller in size if you only have little children (with little legs). Otherwise, make sure you ask the rental company about the dimensions of the specific model they offer.

KIA CARNIVAL

Pros: well priced, 8 seats, drives like a car as not as big as other vans, easy to park, no height restrictions to worry about. The newer Carnival model looks amazing with a new shape.

Cons: Not as spacious. Although it’s an 8 seater some of the seats are smaller in the back. Check you can fit all of your car seats in and still fold down the seat to get into the back. Carnival doesn’t have the heaviness in the doors and body compared to an european van. Older models had some engine problems. So make sure the company you rent it from offers 24/7 road-side assistance. Fortunately, I overheard the manufacture has already switched to new engine so be careful renting older models or cars with a lot of mileage on it. Always ask, if the rentals include the road-side assistance as well.

TOYOTA TARAGO

Pros: One of the best and the most popular rental cars among MPV. It is built to last and they just keep going and going (we see some older ones in our fleet and we have never had any issues with it). The car can be a 7 seater but most of the companies offer the 8 seater option. This vehicle is the most reliable car among all. It has very nice and attractive body shape. You will find it easy to drive and park. You will not have any height issues compared to the bigger vans.

Toyota Tarago

Cons: I could not think of any. You may pay a little extra but you will get what you paid for.

MERCEDES VALENTE, VIANO, VITO

Pros: european safety and heaviness in the doors and body, luxurious, reliable, roomy inside, great boot space, 8 seater and good full sized seats. Great for lots of kids, car seats and long legs.

Cons: Price, price, price. Luxury cars offer great comfort but you will have to pay for it.

CHRYSLER GRAND VOYAGER

Pros: roomy inside, 7 seats, reliable, luxury features. It is not as big as some of the other people movers.

Cons: Price and size. It is slightly smaller than others and will cost you some buck since it is considered a luxury car too.

HONDA ODYSSEY

Pros: Offers 7 or 8 seater options. It is not as big as some people movers so it will be easy to drive/park. Newer model has really changed and are larger.You will find some luxury features inside that will pleasantly surprise you.

Cons: Price. Also, it is not as big inside as other people movers which can be an issue with carseats.

MERCEDES SPRINTER MINIBUS

Pros: 12 seater, european build (think heavy safe doors and body) and safety features. It is reliable vehicle of a great quality, Would suit really big families and long travels.

Cons: Price – the vehicle itself isn’t cheap therefore the rental companies will have to price the hire fares accordingly. Height and size of van for shopping centres/carparks/parking can be a trouble.

TOYOTA HIACE COMMUTER

Pros: Big enough to fit the largest of families (OK maybe not the Duggars but plenty of room for everyone with 12 seats or 14 seats in the super long wheelbase), great for parties and playdates as extra seats, reliable and they go and go and go. The vehicle is well priced. Note: the word “commuter” means it is a people mover, also called full-size van and has 4 doors. Don’t confuse it with the commercial version of it that normally comes as a 2 seater and 2 doors, suited to move things.

Toyota Hiace Commuter

Cons: parking at shopping centres (you’ll need bus parking) and height considerations in carparks, OK parking full stop! Otherwise another great vehicle.

IMPORTS

The Japanese do some nice people movers that aren’t available from dealers and you might have seen a Nissan Elgrand around and there seem to be a few in Sydney. There is also a japanese version of Toyota Tarago called Estima – it mostly looks and feels exactly the same as the australian model. However it might come as a AWD and cost you more on petrol. Car Rental companies rarely supply the imports to their customers as they are more expensive in servicing and repairing. It could also get you in trouble with the road-side assistance if you need one – it might just take a little longer to help you when you need help.

Among other imports: Mazda MPV (seats 7), Hyundai Trajet (seats 7, older version of Hyundai iMax), Mitsubishi Starwagon (comes as 7 or 8 seater), Mitsubishi Grandis (seats 7).

CONCLUSION

To summarise will just list down all the things to consider when renting a family van:

  • how many carseats do you have/need to fit in and how many anchor points
  • how big is the boot for your pram (especially if you have twins, 2 or more little ones)
  • budget
  • where will be you driving (just locally, inner city, country etc)
  • how long do you go on family holidays for and is it big enough
  • reliability and reputation
  • easy to drive, park and get kids in and out
  • safety, safety and safety (e.g. how many airbags are fitted throughout the car)
  • petrol and the cost of it

Self-driving cars and the Future of Car Rentals

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Revolution is coming

Self-driving car

Cars capable of driving themselves – some of the time at least – are taking on the roads. There are two competing approaches:

  • adding self-driving features to existing cars as driver aids,
  • and building entirely new vehicles that can operate only in autonomous mode (fleets of which could operate as taxis in a city centre, for example, summoned using a ride-hailing app). Self-driving trucks are also being under development.

Every century the humans come up with at least one revolutionary change. It happened when digital cameras replaced film cameras. Now the printing industry is dying in favour to the emailing and electronic documents storage. Any revolution comes with skepticism but technology always wins because it makes our lives easier and better.

There are many historical parallels with the advent of the motor car more than a century ago. Among them: concerns over safety, regulatory uncertainty, liability in the case of accidents and worries that the new technology will destroy jobs. The car displaced the existing travel infrastructure built around horses and carriages. Obviously it impacted their related professions as well. But it also created new jobs for mechanics, drivers and workers in roadside service stations. It stimulated commerce more generally (car rentals business is one of the instances) by making travel easier. A switch to autonomous vehicles, feared by truck drivers and taxi drivers, would have a similar dislocating affect, but also offers benefits in the long term.

What is next?

Just imagine, you can still commit to a few drinks at work while your vehicle is waiting for you at the car park. You can go on travel and save on a hotel room while your car is driving you far away at night and your whole family is having a nap at the back. We are thinking that self-driving people movers and motorhomes are going to be the most popular autonomous vehicles for rent. They are already self-driving trains all over the world, so why not buses and mini vans next?

Models suggest that shared, self driving taxis could reduce the number of vehicles needed in a typical city by 90%. Most people would no longer need to own a car. Space wasted on parking (as much as 20% of the area of some Australian cities) could be used for housing or parks. And autonomous cars could be electric, thus reducing climate-changing vehicles might greatly expand demand for products (such as food) made locally. In developing countries, billions of people might skip car ownership altogether. Car accidents and death would plummet. Just as cars reconfigured cities in the 20th century, both history and current trends suggest that autonomous ones could do the same in the 21st.

Car Rentals Future

We suspect the car rental companies would experience a revolutionary change in its services as well. Low Cost Car Rentals has already replaced all the manual cars with automatic. The reason being, we spotted that 97% of our customers preferred automatic transmission over the manual. Despite, the manual cars were involved into more accidents and we want our customer to be safe and happy.

We also foresee the rental rates might raise until the self-driving cars get cheaper. However a lot of people under 25, young tourists and professionals can avoid extra fees and charges. No more excess reductions, no extra charges for overseas license holders and no P-plates. Everyone would be able to save any costs associated with just being an approved driver.

Insurance industry will freak out at first. The road Police will have to make a lot of adjustments into their day-to-day responsibilities. Nevertheless the benefits the change offers just too good to stop it. All of our Low Cost Car Rentals staff here in Sydney can’t wait for this revolution to happen.

We all know, the vehicles are more exciting if piloted by humans. But in future that seems likely to be the exception, not the rule.

Rental cars for long term or buying a vehicle – Scenario #2

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Rental Cars vs Owned

We have already proven that buying a brand new car when you only use it over the weekends is 3 times more expensive than rental cars.

You can do a quick recap over here: Long Term Car Rentals VS Buying Car – Scenario #1.

The calculations in the previous post were around medium size car Toyota Corolla.  If you were to rent a people mover (7 or 8 seater), you could expect the purchase price would be even higher. Therefore hiring such vehicle will save you more money than owning one.

Lets put another life style under the review.

Scenario #2. Extremely active family. Driving from and to work on a daily basis, constantly taking kids to school, driving to shops multiple times a week.

Now, lets also assume they are taking long holidays a few times a year – Snowy Mountains for 3 weeks in winter, Byron Bay for 2 weeks in spring, 2 long weekends in Jarvis bay during summer and 2 days at the Blue Mountains in Autumn. Not to mention, they like camping so would need a 4WD for most of their adventures.

Wow, we have one of the target of finding the cheapest option for those guys.

As you can guess, buying a 4WD just like renting one for the whole year will be very expensive. Nevertheless renting will still be cheaper. A brand new Toyota Kluger AWD would cost you at least 44,000.00$. Interests on such loan will be through the roof.

Our goal this time is to minimise the family expenses so they still have some money left to have fun at all those places they are visiting.

To achieve the goal, we will need to come up with a mixed option. Don’t forget rental cars can be changed almost every day.

You can go from a very cheap option renting a Hyundai Getz or similar. A week later you could rent a 12-seater mini bus in case your relatives are in town. Then, you can hire a Four Wheel Drive to go to snow in winter or camping in summer.

 

Rental cars

 

Lets roughly calculate how many days you would need the all wheel drive for.

3 weeks in Kozciuszko National Park is 21 days. Renting a 4×4 car will cost about 70$ a day, that rate would include the unlimited kilometres and insurance with default excess. The price for the whole period will be 1470$.

2 weeks in Queensland is 14 days. The total will be 980$.

6 days down south in Jarvis Bay and 2 days up at the Mountains will come to 8 x 70 = 560$.

Lets add at least 3 weekends camping, another 420$.

The total cost for renting the AWD would come to 3430$ annually. I don’t see a reason to continue calculating. There would be no way you can buy even used 4WD for this amount of money.

Its not over, we shall find out what would the family do for the rest of the days when they need to go to work and drop kids to school?

There is roughly 240 working days in the year. Renting a medium size car like Toyota Corolla would cost you 240 x 35 = 8400$.

Guess what? This active family still paid less than a cost of the used car from the scenario #1 (to remind you the previous family sold it for 15,000.00$).

Once again, when hiring a car, you don’t need to pay any extras except your rental fees. When buying one, you pay for the service, road side assistance and insurance out of your pocket.

So scenario 2 proves rental cars for any of your needs all year round are still cheaper when buying a used vehicle and paying all the extra costs for its registration, maintenance and insurance.

Long term car rentals or buying a car – Scenario #1

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What is cheaper – long term car rentals or owning a car?

Long term car rentals vs Owned cars

I have been asked this question way too often. Therefore I became curious myself and did some calculations. I had proven, these days it is potentially easier and much cheaper to hire a vehicle rather than buying one.

Below is to prove the statement above is legitimate.

Firstly, we will have to make a few assumptions:

 

Assumption #1. A person or a family changes cars every 3 years.

Assumption #2. There is always a rental car company available in your area.

Assumption #3. You are over 25 years old with a full Australian driver licence and have not lost any demerit points in the last 3 years.

 

Secondly, we would want to do similar calculations for different life styles.

Here is the Scenario #1. Young family, active life style involves a lot of travelling. The public transport is used to get from and to work. Car is mostly used on the weekend to visit family and friends, do shopping and go on hiking or to the beach.

 

Buying a car.

Lets use the calculator on the Toyota website: Car Loan Calculator

Here we are going to buy a delightful Toyota Corolla 5 doors Hatchback Petrol (latest model). We will take the 3 years loan with 5000$ deposit. The calculator shows the cost of 921.62$ monthly with 7.5% interest rate. The repayments part will equal to 33,178.32$ for 3 years, so the total car price including the deposit money will become 38,178.32$

Toyotas are one of the best cars in the world, the most reliable and the dealers are freely offering drive-away prices, means you do not need to pay anything for the registration and green slip for the first year. However the consequent years will cost you approximately 1200$ annually. So it is 2400$ for 3 years.

The expenses don’t end here. To get the best out of your warranty and not to get into a trouble with your car, you will have to service your vehicle regularly. You can find the service fees from one of the Sydney Toyota Dealers here Toyota Capped Price Servicing.

Here we are assuming you don’t travel more than 400km a week. That would come to 20800km a year, around 62400km for the period of 3 years. Considering above, each service would cost around 140$. Please note that in case you need the new oil, engine or suspension service, tyres or break pads replaced, it is charged on top. Approximately 50$ each time. According to this schedule Toyota Service Intervals you will need to service your car at least 6 times in 3 years. That brings the total cost to (140 + 50) * 6 = 1140$.

The expenses list goes on. Nowadays it is absolutely essential to have the 24×7 road side assistance. Costs 199$ annually and comes to 597$ for 3 years.

Now, the most interesting part – the insurance. Considering that most of the hired cars have comprehensive cover included in the rental fees, would be fair to base our calculations as we were to purchase the full comprehensive insurance. That is where we need the assumption #3. If you are a driver with a good driving history you can be lucky to get the cheapest premium which is about 1000$ a year. This brings us to 3000$ expense over 3 years.

Fortunately, we can sell the car in 3 years and get some money back. Lets check Car Sales to know how much we can expect. Luckily, Toyotas always keep their resale value, you can get impressive 15000$ back when selling the vehicle.

 

Rental vehicles.

Lets review the above and see what fees are applicable when renting a car.

Car cost are equivalent to the rentals fees. It would be about 70$ for 2 days each week with 400km included. Brings it to 3640$ a year.

Registration and green slip – 0$.

Servicing – 0$. The Rental Cars Company takes care of it for you, you just need to bring the car back in time.

Road side assistance – 0$. Because it is included into the rental fees of the most car rentals.

Insurance – 0$. The default insurance is already included.

 

To conclude:

 

* buying a car for 3 years will cost you 45,315.32$ but you will get 15,000.00$ back. Surprisingly the cost of owning the car over 3 years was 30,315.32$.

* renting a car for 3 years would cost you 10,920.00$.

As per above, hiring a vehicle is almost 3 times cheaper than owning a car. Also, lets not forget the rental cars are almost hassle free. And that is the reason why the car hire is in demand these days.

The only benefit of buying a car, you will get to drive a brand new vehicle with that factory smell in it that eventually goes away. Obviously, new cars can be a disadvantage to some who knows the pain of getting the first scratch.

Feel free to perform your own calculations if you think of checking whether buying a used car will make much difference. Obviously, the vehicle would cost you less but servicing of a used car always involves bigger cost. There could be additional costs of pink or blue slips depends on the car age. Lets not forget, the resale value of the older vehicles might not be as attractive.

Rent a car Vs Public transport in Sydney

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Rent a car vs Public Transport

Are you wondering to rent a car or catch a train while in Sydney?

You are not alone. This is probably the most asked question on Travel Forums.

Every tourist visiting a country would always ask themselves how to get around the destination quicker.
We always want to see as much as possible in such short period of stay.

Renting a car always involves risks in case you do not have enough experience or you do not have a place to park it while staying at cheap hotels.

Getting around on the public transport is a little bit cheaper. However you are limited to the public transport network.

Let’s investigate all the pros and cons of both solutions.Continue reading→