Cheap car rental

If you need cheap car rental in Madrid, we deliver the car to you — 24 vehicles on this page, from €14 per day, with the booking agreed with a manager. Economy, electric, convertible and comfort classes are all here, and a week starts at €84.

How cheap car rental in Madrid works with delivery

Cheap car rental in Madrid with Rent-Trip works on two rules: the car comes to you, and nothing is confirmed until a manager has agreed it with you.

Self-drive cheap car rental in Madrid, delivered to you

We deliver the car to you in Madrid — you drive it yourself, without a chauffeur, no driver waiting in the seat next to you. That is what self-drive means here: the keys are handed over, the car is yours for the booked period, and you decide where it goes. Delivery covers the city and the places we already work in — Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport, Madrid Puerta de Atocha–Almudena Grandes, Madrid-Chamartín Clara Campoamor, IFEMA MADRID, the centre around Gran Vía, Barrio de Salamanca, Las Tablas, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Las Rozas, Alcobendas and La Moraleja. The exact spot and the time are agreed with a manager when you book, not fixed in advance, so the hand-over fits your flight, your train or your hotel check-in rather than the other way round. Our 24 cars on this page run from €14 to €41 per day, which is the whole point of a cheap booking — the money goes on the car, not on getting to it.

Booking agreed with a manager, step by step

Every booking is agreed with a manager — dates, car and hand-over details.

• Send your dates: tell us the pick-up and return days, plus the time you land or arrive, and we check the car you want against the fleet.
• Confirm the car: the manager matches you to a class and model — a Smart Fortwo at €14 per day, a 5-seat Fiat Panda at €21, or an electric at €30 and up.
• Agree the hand-over: the delivery point and the time are settled here, whether that is the airport, a station, IFEMA MADRID or an address in the centre.
• Read the rental agreement: everything is set out in the rental agreement, so ask about it before you confirm rather than after.

In our practice, the questions that come up most are about the hand-over point and what the agreement covers — both are settled in the same conversation, which is why we keep a person on the booking instead of an automated confirmation.

What cheap car rental in Madrid costs by class

Our 24 cars run from €14 to €41 per day across four classes, so the range on this page is narrow enough to pick by budget alone. Below is what each class holds and where the money goes.

Prices by class

Economy holds 18 of the 24 cars, so the cheapest tier is also the easiest to get — and the only one where a 2-seat car exists at all.

What makes the cheapest cars cheap

The cheapest way is the smallest Economy car — the Smart Fortwo at €14 per day. Step up from there and the price moves in small increments: the Smart Forfour at €16, the Peugeot 108 at €17, the Hyundai i10 at €18 and the Kia Picanto at €19 all sit within €5 of the entry rate. Seats and transmission, not age, move the price. A manual 2-seater sits at the bottom, a 5-seat automatic at the top, and the four electric cars at €30–€35 carry an automatic gearbox as standard. In our experience the biggest saving is not the class itself but how long you keep the car: a €14 daily rate repeated over a week lands at €84, while the same week in a €30 electric is €180.

Which class fits which trip

• Solo or a couple, city only: the Smart Fortwo at €14 or the Smart Forfour at €16 — 2 and 4 seats, both easy to park in Centro and Salamanca.
• Family of four with luggage: the Citroen C3 at €23 or the Renault Clio at €25 — 5 seats, 1.2 L and 1.0 L petrol, manual.
• Five seats on the smallest budget: the Fiat Panda at €21 or the Dacia Sandero at €24 — the two cheapest 5-seat cars on the page.
• Zero local emissions for the ZBE: the Citroen e-C3 at €30 or the Renault Zoe at €34 — automatic, 113 hp and 135 hp.
• A weekend for two, roof down: the Fiat 500C at €30 — the only convertible here, 4 seats, manual.
• Something with more punch: the Mini One at €41 — 1.5 L, 102 hp, the single Comfort car on the page.

The two cheapest 5-seat cars, the Fiat Panda and the Dacia Sandero, sell out first on peak weekends — if your dates are fixed, book those two early rather than waiting for the price to drop.

Cheap car rental in Madrid by model and spec

Our 24 cars split into fourteen Economy models, four Electric, one Convertible and one Comfort, with seats for 2, 4 or 5 people and a choice of petrol, hybrid or electric power.

Cheap models from €14 to €41

Fourteen Economy models cover €14–€35, with electric and Comfort above. Two 5-seat cars sit under €25 — the Fiat Panda and the Dacia Sandero — so a family of five does not have to jump to the top of the range. The Renault Clio and Hyundai i20 land at €25 and €26 with the same five seats, and the Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208, Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo fill the €27–€32 band. The electric line starts at €30 with the Citroen e-C3 and runs to €35 for the Peugeot e-208, while the Mini One closes the list at €41. Every model on this page is a hatchback, which is what makes the rates work: small bodies, small engines, low fuel bills. If a specific model matters to you, name it when you book — the agreement sets out which car you get.

Seats, fuel and transmission across the fleet

• Two seats: the Smart Fortwo is the only 2-seater, and at €14 a day it is the cheapest car we list.
• Four seats: Smart Forfour, Peugeot 108, Hyundai i10, Kia Picanto, Toyota Aygo X, Fiat 500, Fiat 500C, Fiat 500e and Mini One.
• Five seats: Fiat Panda, Citroen C3, Fiat Pandina, Dacia Sandero, Renault Clio, Hyundai i20, Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208, Citroen e-C3, Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Polo, Renault Zoe and Peugeot e-208.
• Fuel: petrol across most of the range, one hybrid — the Fiat Pandina at €23 — and four electric cars from €30.
• Transmission: manual on every petrol and hybrid model; the four electric cars are automatic.

The fleet comes with 2, 4 or 5 seats, Electric, Hybrid or Petrol, and Automatic or Manual. Only one hybrid and one convertible are on the page — book those early if you need them. Engines stay between 1.0 L and 1.5 L and power between 67 hp and 136 hp, so nothing here is fast, and nothing here is thirsty either. One practical note from our side: the automatic cars are all electric, so if you want an automatic gearbox and a petrol engine together, that combination is not in the fleet.

Renting a cheap car in Madrid for a week or a month

Longer bookings follow the same daily rate, so a week starts at €84 and a month at €294 — both figures come straight from the cheapest car on the page, the Smart Fortwo at €14 per day. We price a week as the daily rate multiplied by six and a month as the daily rate multiplied by twenty-one. Nothing else changes: the car, the class and the terms stay exactly as they are for a single day.

Weekly bookings from €84

A week of cheap car hire starts at €84, which is the daily rate multiplied by six. Take any other Economy model and the same multiplier applies — the Renault Clio at €25 per day runs to €150 for the week, the Opel Corsa at €27 to €162, the Peugeot 208 at €28 to €168. Moving up a class moves the total with it: the Citroen e-C3 at €30 per day comes to €180 for the week, the Renault Zoe at €34 to €204, the Mini One at €41 to €246. Because the multiplier is fixed, the ranking of the fleet by price is identical whether you book for one day or for seven — the cheapest car per day is also the cheapest car per week. In our experience, travellers who plan a week of city driving and day trips out to Toledo or Segovia do better choosing on seats and boot space than on the daily figure, since the Smart Forfour at €16 a day seats four while the Fiat Panda at €21 seats five.

Monthly bookings from €294

A month of cheap car hire starts at €294, which is the daily rate multiplied by twenty-one. The same rule holds across the fleet: the Hyundai i10 at €18 per day comes to €378 for the month, the Fiat Panda at €21 to €441, the Dacia Sandero at €24 to €504, the Volkswagen Polo at €32 to €672, the Seat Ibiza at €35 to €735. Electric cars follow the same arithmetic — the Fiat 500e at €32 per day is €672 a month, the Peugeot e-208 at €35 is €735. Two things are worth knowing before you commit to a long booking. First, the car you start with is the car you keep, so pick the seats and transmission you actually need on day one. Second, the terms of the booking are agreed when you book, so ask before you confirm.

What to settle before a long booking

• Dates and hand-over: both are agreed with a manager when you book, and a month-long booking gives more room to choose a convenient day.
• Terms of the booking: the details are agreed when you book rather than fixed in advance, so ask before you confirm.
• Delivery: we bring the car to you, and the delivery point is agreed at booking along with the dates.
• Class: Economy holds 18 of our 24 cars, so a long booking on the cheapest tier is the easiest one to place.

Electric and hybrid cheap car rental in Madrid

Cheap car rental in Madrid includes four electric cars and one hybrid, priced from €30 and €23 per day — the two lowest-emission options in a 24-car fleet that otherwise runs on petrol.

Electric cars in the fleet, from €30 a day

• Citroen e-C3: 5 seats, Electric, Automatic, Front-wheel, 113 hp, €30 per day — the cheapest electric car on the page.
• Fiat 500e: 4 seats, Electric, Automatic, Front-wheel, 118 hp, €32 per day, the smallest body of the four.
• Renault Zoe: 5 seats, Electric, Automatic, Front-wheel, 135 hp, €34 per day, the most powerful of the group.
• Peugeot e-208: 5 seats, Electric, Automatic, Front-wheel, 136 hp, €35 per day, the top of the electric range.
• Fiat Pandina: 5 seats, Hybrid, Manual, Front-wheel, 1.0 L, 70 hp, €23 per day — the only hybrid here.

Charging and the ZBE Madrid sticker

Every electric car in our fleet is a battery model, so it carries the 0 emisiones (blue) DGT sticker, and the hybrid carries the ECO one. Both matter inside ZBE Madrid (Zona de Bajas Emisiones de Madrid), which covers all city streets of the municipality across all 21 districts: cars without a DGT environmental sticker (category A) — petrol registered before 2000 and diesel before 2005 — cannot enter. Public charging in Spain runs across the whole range at 0.20 EUR/kWh (Acciona and other networks), and the electric cars come with Automatic transmission, so you skip the manual gearbox that dominates the petrol side of the fleet. In our experience, drivers who have never used an electric car before ask about range first — and then book the e-C3 twice.

What to weigh before choosing electric

The four electric cars sit between €30 and €35 a day, against €14 for the cheapest petrol model, so the gap is real. What closes part of it is the ZBE Madrid access: a category A car simply cannot be driven on city streets, while any of our electric or hybrid cars can. Book the Fiat Pandina early if you want the hybrid — there is one on the page, and one convertible sits in the same position. Charging costs and the fuel policy are agreed when booking, as are delivery details.

Driving a cheap rental car in Madrid

Traffic drives on the right and every car in our fleet is left-hand drive, so a driver from the continent settles in within the first few kilometres. What changes the first day is not the side of the road but the speed limits, the ZBE low-emission zone and the parking meters in the centre.

Speed limits and fines you should know before you set off

• Urban single-lane street: 30 km/h is the general limit, with 20 km/h on streets built as a single platform for traffic and pavement.
• Urban multi-lane street: 50 km/h where there are two or more lanes in one direction, not counting bus and taxi lanes.
• Autopista and autovía: 120 km/h; on an ordinary out-of-town road the limit is 90 km/h.
• Speeding fines: on a 30 km/h street, 31–50 km/h costs €100 with no points, 51–60 km/h costs €300 and 2 points, and 71–80 km/h costs €500 and 6 points.
• Phone in hand: €200 and 6 points; seatbelt or child seat offences are €200 and 4 points.
• Alcohol: 0.25 mg/l of breath is the general limit, 0.15 mg/l for drivers in their first two years, and above 0.60 mg/l it stops being an administrative fine.

The ZBE low-emission zone

The ZBE covers every urban street of the municipality across all 21 districts, and cars without a DGT environmental sticker — category A, petrol registered before 2000 and diesel before 2005 — cannot enter. A blue 0 emisiones sticker for battery-electric, range-extended and hydrogen cars, and an ECO sticker, both count as access. Cars on foreign plates have no DGT sticker at all and must be registered in advance. In our experience the sticker question is the one travellers ask last and should ask first — tell us your plate when you book and we check what applies to your trip.

Parking, tolls and charging

• SER zona azul: blue zone, maximum 4 hours, weekdays 09:00–21:00 and Saturdays 09:00–15:00.
• SER zona verde: green zone, maximum 2 hours, and resident permit holders get a 75% reduction.
• Tolls: the M-30, M-40, M-45 and M-50 ring roads and the radial A-1 to A-6 motorways carry no charge; the R-2, R-3 and R-4 radial motorways are paid.
• Charging: public charging in Spain runs at around €0.20 per kWh.

Fuel sits near €1.971 per litre for Gasolina 95 E5 across 231 filling stations sampled, so a small Economy car at €14 a day stays the cheap part of the trip. Winter tyres are not a permanent requirement — DGT restricts roads point by point when snow falls, which here means the Sierra de Guadarrama passes.

Documents and insurance for cheap car rental in Madrid

Every booking is agreed with a manager, and the paperwork follows the same logic: what you must show, what is included by law, and what the agreement sets out in writing before you drive away. Below is the part of cheap car rental in Madrid that people ask about most often — documents, cover and the terms that are printed rather than promised.

What you need to drive in Spain

• Licence from the EU/EEA: valid in Spain as it is, including Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, for as long as it has not expired — no extra document is required.
• Licence from outside the EU/EEA: valid for driving as a visitor; residents may use it for no more than six months from the date they take up ordinary residence in Spain, after which it must be exchanged (canje). The DGT recommends getting an international driving permit before the trip.
• Licence not in Spanish: valid only if it is issued in the format of Annex 9 of the Geneva Convention or Annex 6 of the Vienna Convention, or comes with an official translation into Spanish. For Cyrillic, Arabic or character-based scripts this in practice means an IDP or a certified translation.
• International driving permit (Permiso Internacional de Conducción): a supporting document only — it is shown together with your passport and national licence, never on its own, and is valid for one year.

Insurance: what is included and what is optional

Third-party liability cover is compulsory in Spain and comes with any legally roadworthy car, so it is part of the booking by default. The statutory minimums are 70,000,000 EUR per incident for personal injury and 15,000,000 EUR for property damage, under Real Decreto Legislativo 8/2004, article 4.2 as amended by Ley 5/2025, with those amounts in force since 26.07.2025. It pays third parties — not you and not the car.

Damage cover is different: CDW limits your liability for bodywork damage to the excess, and theft protection covers total or partial theft and vandalism, again except for the excess. Super and full versions buy the excess down in part or entirely, glass and tyre cover is usually a separate option, and none of these options work if CDW itself was not taken or an exclusion applies.

What the agreement sets out

The excess, the deposit pre-authorisation on the card, delivery fees and any discounts are not fixed figures on this page — they are set out in the rental agreement, and the amount must be explained to you before you sign. The excess is agreed when booking, and the fleet itself runs from the Smart Fortwo at €14 a day to the Mini One at €41, with 18 Economy cars, 4 Electric, 1 Convertible and 1 Comfort class available.