Car rental in London

Ready to book a car rental in London? Rent-Trip keeps 147 cars in the city, from £22 a day, and delivers the car to any address in London as well as to Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend airports — the delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.

What car rental in London looks like with delivery to your door

Car rental with Rent-Trip runs on one simple sequence: you send a request, a manager confirms the car, the delivery address, the date and the time, and the vehicle is brought to you. No counter queue, no shuttle bus to an out-of-town depot.

How delivery works

We bring the car to any address in London, and the delivery address, the date and the time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed. That covers the six airports — Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend — as well as St Pancras & King's Cross, Euston, Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, Canary Wharf, Wembley, ExCeL London and Mayfair. Requests outside those places are arranged case by case and are not promised on the site.

In our practice, the single most useful thing a customer does is name the exact address early: narrow residential streets and kerbside parking restrictions decide where the hand-over can physically happen, and a postcode plus a building entrance saves a second trip.

Hand-over standard

• Clean car: the vehicle is supplied clean, inside and out, at the moment of hand-over.
• Full-to-full fuel: the car comes with a full tank and must go back with a full tank; otherwise the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement.
• One fuel option only: no pre-paid tank and no full-to-empty arrangement is offered, so budget your last fill-up before return.
• Return timing: the date and time of return are agreed with a manager alongside the delivery slot, not left open.
• Condition check: how the condition of the car is recorded at hand-over and at return is set out in the rental agreement.

Petrol sits at £1.75 a litre and diesel at £1.99 a litre (19.10.2026), which makes the last fill-up worth planning a day ahead rather than hunting for a station on the way back.

Choosing a class for car rental in London

Fourteen classes, 32 brands and 147 cars sit in one fleet, so the real question is not whether we have a car for you but which of the fourteen fits the trip. Below are the classes with their counts and starting rates, then the two ends of the range.

Classes and daily rates for car rental in London

Economy and Crossover start at £22, Comfort at £23, Luxury at £294 and Exotic at £954, and each class has its own top of the range — a Crossover runs to £58, an Economy car to £72, a Comfort to £80.

Cheapest and priciest cars for car rental in London

The Citroen C3 Aircross and the Fiat 500 open the fleet at £22 a day, both with a manual gearbox, and the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ closes it at £3,300 a day. That spread is what 32 brands in one park produce: the same booking page carries a 1.0 L petrol hatchback and a 2-seat exotic with nothing in between but choice.

Matching a class to the trip

In our practice, most travellers settle one class above the cheapest — the step from £22 to £31 buys an estate boot that swallows four suitcases, and the step to £40 adds all-wheel drive for a weekend in the Cotswolds. Pick the class by the largest thing you plan to carry, not by the daily rate.

• City-only days: Economy or Crossover at £22 — 4 to 5 seats, front-wheel drive, and a footprint that fits standard bays inside the Congestion Charge zone.
• Airport arrival with luggage: Comfort at £23 or Sedan at £36 — the estate and saloon bodies take four large cases without folding a rear seat.
• Family or group of seven: Minivans at £44 — diesel seven-seaters such as the Volkswagen Sharan and the Volkswagen Touran.
• Long motorway run: SUV at £34 — the Toyota RAV4 hybrid pairs all-wheel drive with automatic and returns better economy than a petrol-only equivalent.
• Zero-emission driving: Electric at £71 — the Volkswagen ID.4 and Mercedes-Benz EQA are both five-seat automatics.
• Special occasion: Luxury at £294 or Exotic at £954 — the top of the range reaches £3,300 for the Aventador SVJ.

Longer bookings and weekly rates for car rental in London

Weekly bookings start at £132 and monthly bookings at £462 — figures that come straight from the daily rate of the class you pick. For car rental in London the multipliers are fixed: a week is the daily rate times six, a month is the daily rate times twenty-one. Nothing else changes, and no separate long-stay tariff exists.

How weekly and monthly rates work for car rental in London

At Rent-Trip a weekly booking is calculated as the daily rate of the chosen class multiplied by six, and a monthly booking as that same daily rate multiplied by twenty-one. Take the cheapest cars on this page: the Citroen C3 Aircross and Fiat 500 at £22 a day give £132 for a week and £462 for a month. A Comfort class car such as the Volkswagen Golf Estate at £31 a day works out at £186 weekly and £651 monthly, while a Premium model like the BMW X1 at £84 a day comes to £504 for a week and £1,764 for a month. The arithmetic holds across all 14 classes and 147 cars, from Economy hatchbacks to the Exotic group. The saving comes from the multiplier itself, not from a discount code — so compare classes on their daily rate first and let the multiplier do the rest.

In our practice, travellers who book three weeks or more get a better effective rate by moving one class down than by hunting for a promotion.

What to fix before a long booking for car rental in London

• Fuel: the car is supplied with a full tank and must come back full (full-to-full); missing fuel and the refuelling service are charged as set out in the rental agreement.
• Delivery address: the address, date and time are agreed with a manager, and a long rental is worth confirming earlier than a weekend one.
• Return date and time: a long booking is counted from hand-over to return, so the exact day and hour are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.
• Class availability: 147 cars sit on this page, but a single model is not guaranteed for a month-long stretch — confirm the class, not the badge.
• Charges along the way: Congestion Charge and ULEZ run daily, so a month of city driving adds up — who pays them is agreed when booking.

A month at the daily rate times twenty-one is the only long-stay formula we quote; anything else — a season, a half-year — is arranged case by case with a manager and is not promised on the site.

Picking up car rental in London at the airports

Six airports sit inside our delivery area, and the meeting point at each is agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed. That covers the big intercontinental hubs as well as the smaller city fields.

Airport delivery for car rental in London

• London Heathrow Airport (LHR): the busiest of the six, 84,481,178 passengers a year, 30.3 km by road from the centre, roughly 45 minutes without traffic.
• London Gatwick Airport (LGW): 42,775,241 passengers a year, 48.6 km by road, about 70 minutes without traffic.
• London Stansted Airport (STN): 29,758,490 passengers a year, 57.9 km by road, around 63 minutes.
• London Luton Airport (LTN): 17,770,247 passengers a year, 56.9 km by road, about 63 minutes without traffic.
• London City Airport (LCY): 3,737,888 passengers a year and the closest of the six at 14.5 km by road, around 33 minutes.
• London Southend Airport (SEN): 719,513 passengers a year, 67.4 km by road, about 74 minutes without traffic.

Stations and districts inside the delivery area

St Pancras & King's Cross, Euston, Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, Canary Wharf, Wembley, ExCeL London and Mayfair all fall inside the delivery area, so the car can meet you at a terminus or at your hotel rather than at a depot. Anything outside the listed places is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site, so ask before you assume.

In our experience the rail terminals are the trickiest hand-over of the lot: forecourts at Euston and Waterloo run short-stay only, and a driver waiting on the rank blocks buses. Name the exact postcode and a realistic window when you book, and build in 15–20 minutes for the taxi rank or the drop-off lane.

Landing times slip, and a car parked at Arrivals for two hours costs everyone. Send the manager your flight number and the agreed time gets built around it, not around the schedule you booked weeks earlier. Heathrow alone moves 84,481,178 passengers a year, so terminal roads there clog fastest between 07:00 and 10:00 and again from 16:00 to 19:00 — a mid-afternoon arrival at LHR usually clears the car park exit quicker than a dawn one.

Driving rules that affect car rental in London

The rules below are what guests ask about most often at hand-over: which side of the road to keep to, how long a foreign licence stays valid, and how speed limits work on a road system built around left-hand traffic. Traffic drives on the left and every car in our fleet is right-hand drive, so the steering wheel sits where a British driver expects it — the adjustment for most visitors is the lane position, not the controls. The Highway Code sets the framework: keep left unless signs or markings say otherwise (rule 160), turn closer to the left kerb (rule 183), and at roundabouts give way to traffic approaching from the right (rule 185), travelling clockwise around the island.

In our experience the first hour is the steepest — a car collected at Heathrow and driven straight onto the M4 motorway is a harder start than one collected at a hotel in Mayfair with a few quiet streets first. Ask the manager to route your first drive away from the busiest junctions if you land at peak time.

Licences and limits with car rental in London

• Foreign licence: a full, current licence from your home country is valid for 12 months from your last entry to Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland).
• Speed limits: 30 mph in built-up areas in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 60 mph on single carriageways, 70 mph on dual carriageways and motorways; on lit roads 30 mph applies unless signs say otherwise.
• 20 mph zones: many areas carry 20 mph signs — the sign overrides the default, so read the posts rather than assume.
• Mobile phones: holding and using a phone, satnav or tablet at the wheel is banned even at a red light; the penalty is a fine and 6 points, and a driver who passed their test under 2 years ago loses the licence.
• Seat belts and child seats: belts are compulsory where fitted; children need a child seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12, whichever comes first, with a fine.

The minimum age for the driver and any young-driver surcharge are agreed when booking, not fixed by the rules above.

Charges and tolls around car rental in London

Three charges shape the cost of driving a hire car here: the Congestion Charge, the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and the toll crossings on the eastern side of the city. Each has its own hours, its own tariff and its own payment deadline, and each is separate from the hire itself.

Congestion Charge and ULEZ with a hire car

The Congestion Charge is £18 a day when paid on the day of travel or in advance, and £21 if paid by midnight on the third day after the trip; it runs 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays, and is not charged from 25 December to the New Year bank holiday inclusive. The zone sits inside the Inner Ring Road — Pentonville Road, City Road, Old Street, Commercial Street, Mansell Street, Tower Bridge Road, New Kent Road, Elephant & Castle, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall Bridge Road, Park Lane, Edgware Road, Marylebone Road and Euston Road form its edge and stay outside it. ULEZ is £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week except 25 December, and covers all 32 boroughs; the M25 itself is outside the zone. Petrol cars must meet Euro 4 and diesel cars Euro 6 to avoid the ULEZ charge, and TfL's vehicle checker confirms a registration by plate. Who pays the charges and any penalty notices on a hired vehicle is agreed when booking — it is not fixed by the tariff.

Tolls on trips out of the city

The Dartford Crossing on the M25 uses Dart Charge: £3.50 per crossing for cars (class B) on pay as you go, or £2.80 when prepaid, usually charged 06:00–22:00 every day of the week including weekends and holidays, with payment due by midnight on the following day. Missing a Dart Charge payment brings a £70 penalty charge notice, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days and raised to £105 if left unpaid. The Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels carry their own charge as well — £4.20 at peak (northbound 06:00–10:00 and southbound 16:00–19:00 on weekdays) and £1.55 off-peak with Auto Pay between 06:00 and 22:00 on weekdays and all day at weekends.

In our experience the tunnel and crossing bills arrive after the trip, so keep the crossing dates and the car's registration to hand for a fortnight afterwards.

Fuel and running costs for car rental in London

Fuel is the one running cost you control directly: our fleet runs on petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric power, and the price you pay at the pump depends on the grade. Petrol accounts for 100 of the 147 cars, diesel for 24, hybrid for 13 and electric for 10, so the majority of bookings never need a charging plan at all.

• Petrol: £1.75 a litre on 19.10.2026 — the grade in every Economy and Crossover car, from the Citroen C3 Aircross and Fiat 500 at £22 a day upwards.
• Diesel: £1.99 a litre on the same date — the standard fill for the Commercial vans, the larger Minivans and most of the Premium SUVs.
• Hybrid: the Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla and Toyota RAV4 pair a petrol engine with a battery and take petrol only, no plug.
• Electric: the Volkswagen ID.4, Mercedes-Benz EQA, Tesla Model 3 and Nissan Leaf charge at public points; the return conditions for an electric car are set out in the rental agreement.

How the full-to-full rule works on a booking

Rent-Trip hands over every car clean with a full tank, and it must come back with a full tank — the full-to-full rule. If the tank is short on return, the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement.

A petrol car covers the whole of Greater London and the M25 on a single fill, so in practice most drivers refuel once, on the way back to the delivery address. Our advice: fill up at a supermarket forecourt rather than a motorway services, where the litre rate runs noticeably higher, and keep the receipt until the hand-over is closed.

What the car does not cover

The Congestion Charge and the ULEZ are separate from fuel, and who pays them is agreed when booking. The Congestion Charge runs £18 a day (£21 if paid by the third day) between 07:00 and 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays, and ULEZ is £12.50 a day for vehicles that do not meet the emission standard. Dartford Crossing adds £3.50 per crossing, or £2.80 prepaid, and payment is due by midnight the following day. Who pays road charges, tolls and any penalty notice on a hired car is agreed when booking, so settle it with the manager before you collect the keys.

On a longer booking the multipliers do the work: weekly is daily x 6 and monthly is daily x 21, so a fuel-efficient Economy class stretches furthest across a month.

Seats in car rental in London

For car rental in London the fleet splits into two clear groups by seat count: 98 five-seat cars and 49 that carry between two and seventeen people. Gearboxes follow the same logic — 101 automatics against 46 manuals — so the choice usually comes down to how many passengers you carry and whether you want to work a clutch in traffic.

Group sizes for car rental in London

• Two seats: 15 cars, mostly convertibles and sports models such as the Porsche Boxster and Mercedes-Benz SL 43 AMG, built for a driver and one passenger.
• Four seats: 18 cars, including the Fiat 500, Mini Cooper and Porsche 911 Carrera S, enough for two adults with luggage in the back.
• Five seats: 98 cars, the backbone of the fleet — most hatchbacks, every crossover and estate and most SUVs, from the Kia Rio to the BMW X5.
• Seven seats: 9 cars, the Volkswagen Sharan, Kia Sorento, Peugeot 5008 and Mercedes-Benz V-Class among them, for families or a group with bags.
• Eight and nine seats: 3 cars, the Mercedes-Benz Vito 8 Seater, Ford Tourneo and Volkswagen Transporter 9 Seater.
• Twelve and seventeen seats: 2 cars, the Ford Transit 12 Seater and Ford Transit 17 Seater, the largest vehicles on the page.

Automatic covers 101 of the 147 cars, and the split is not random: nearly every hybrid and electric model in the fleet is automatic, while the cheapest Economy and Crossover cars — Citroen C3 Aircross, Fiat 500, Volkswagen Polo — are mostly manual. Front-wheel drive dominates, with all-wheel drive on models such as the Toyota RAV4; the Volkswagen ID.4 is rear-wheel drive.

In our experience, a driver arriving from a right-hand-traffic country should book the automatic first and the class second — the first hour in central traffic is not the moment to relearn a manual gearbox on the wrong side of the road. If you need seven seats and an automatic together, the Kia Sorento, Volkswagen Touran and Ford Galaxy pair a seven-seat layout with an automatic gearbox, and the exact combination is agreed when booking.

Booking car rental in London with a manager

Self-drive means you take the wheel yourself, and the paperwork, deposit and insurance excess are set out in the rental agreement rather than promised on this page. What Rent-Trip can state plainly is the fleet and the hand-over standard. Every booking is agreed with a manager before it is fixed: the car, the delivery address, the date and the time.

What you confirm with a manager

• Car and class: you pick from 147 cars across 14 classes, from Economy and Crossover at £22 a day up to Exotic at £954 a day, and the manager confirms the exact model.
• Delivery address: any address in London, one of the six airports, or a station and district we cover — St Pancras & King's Cross, Euston, Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, Canary Wharf, Wembley, ExCeL London, Mayfair.
• Date and time: both are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, so the hand-over fits your flight or train rather than the other way round.
• Length of booking: weekly is daily x 6 and monthly is daily x 21, so a seven-day booking starts at £132 and a month at £462 on the cheapest class.
• Deposit and excess: the amount and the insurance excess are set out in the rental agreement, and delivery fees and discounts are confirmed at the same stage.

Hand-over for car rental in London

The car comes clean with a full tank and must be returned with a full tank — full-to-full. If the tank is short on return, the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement; no other fuel option, such as a pre-paid tank, is offered.

What to have ready before you book

• Licence: a full foreign licence is valid for 12 months from your last entry to Great Britain — check the expiry date before you call.
• Timing: allow for the drive from the delivery point; Heathrow sits 30.3 km away by road and takes about 45 minutes without traffic.
• Charges: Congestion Charge and ULEZ apply inside the city, and who pays them is agreed when booking, not assumed.

In our practice the bookings that run smoothest are the ones where the address is given down to the postcode and the arrival time is a real one, not the scheduled landing time. A flight that lands at 07:00 rarely has you at the kerb by 07:20. Tell the manager the flight number and let them work backwards from it — that single detail removes most of the friction from the first hour.

Practical conclusion on car rental in London

Car hire works best when you start from the class you actually need and then let the practical details follow: 147 cars across 14 classes, from £22 to £3,300 a day, delivered to the address you agree with a manager. The fleet covers petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric, automatic and manual, from two seats to seventeen — so the choice is rarely about availability and almost always about matching the vehicle to the trip.

Four things decide how smoothly a booking goes:

• Class before model: Economy and Crossover start at £22 a day, Comfort at £23, Luxury at £294 and Exotic at £954. Pick the class, then confirm the exact car with a manager.
• Address before arrival: delivery to any address in London, to the six airports and to St Pancras & King’s Cross, Euston, Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, Canary Wharf, Wembley, ExCeL London and Mayfair is agreed in advance, not on the day.
• Length before price: weekly bookings start at £132 and monthly at £462, calculated as daily x 6 and daily x 21. Compare the multiplier against the daily tariff of the class you want.
• Charges before the drive: Congestion Charge at £18 a day, ULEZ at £12.50 a day and Dartford Crossing at £3.50 per crossing exist independently of the hire; who covers them is settled when booking.

In our experience the bookings that go wrong are the ones where the delivery address was left vague — a narrow street with no room to stop, or a terminal meeting point nobody pinned down. Name the exact address and the exact time when you book, and the hand-over takes minutes rather than an hour. Everything else — deposit, excess, delivery fee, additional drivers — is set out in the rental agreement, so read it before you sign rather than after.

Drive on the left, keep to the posted limit, and return the car with a full tank on the same full-to-full basis it arrived.