Cheap car rental

From £22 per day, cheap car rental in London puts 24 self-drive cars on the road, delivered to your address or to any of the six London airports. The fleet runs from Economy hatchbacks to a single SUV, all with right-hand drive for UK roads, and the delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.

How Cheap Car Rental Works With Us

Cheap car rental in London with Rent-Trip starts at £22 a day and runs to £72 a day across 24 cars, split into Economy, Crossover, Comfort and SUV classes. We deliver the car to your address or to an airport, and the delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the reservation is fixed.

What the £22 Starting Rate Covers

The cheapest cars in our fleet are the Citroen C3 Aircross and the Fiat 500, both at £22 a day; the Hyundai Kona and the Kia Rio sit at £36 and £31. The Kona is a Crossover with five seats, a 1.0 L petrol engine, 120 hp and a manual gearbox; the Kia Rio is an Economy hatchback with five seats, a 1.0 L petrol engine, 99 hp and a manual. Both are front-wheel drive, so they handle the city the same way.

A class «from» price is not the top of the page: Economy runs from £22 to £72 a day across its 10 cars, and Crossover from £22 to £49 across 9, so the entry figure buys the smallest, not the best-equipped, car in the class. When you want the automatic or the hybrid, the rate moves up the range.

Weekly and Monthly Rates Explained

A week of cheap car rental starts at £132, which is the £22 daily rate multiplied by 6, and a month starts at £462, the same daily rate multiplied by 21. The multiplier is tied to the daily rate of the car you choose, so a Comfort model at £23 a day makes a week from £138 and a month from £483 on the same arithmetic. Longer bookings are the only way the multiplier applies — a three-day booking is charged at the daily rate, and the reduction appears once the rental runs for a full week or a full month. Ask the manager to run both figures for your dates before you fix the booking, because the class you pick sets the base the multiplier works from.

What the Manager Confirms Before the Booking Is Fixed

In our practice, the delivery slot is what people ask about first, and it is also the part that needs the most lead time on a Friday or a bank holiday weekend.

• Delivery address: any address in the city or one of the six airports — Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City, Southend — agreed with a manager first.
• Date and time: the hand-over slot is agreed with a manager when booking, so it is fixed before the car is delivered.
• Fuel: the car comes clean with a full tank and goes back full — the full-to-full rule, with any missing fuel and the refuelling service fee set out in the agreement.
• Charges on the road: who pays the Congestion Charge, ULEZ and toll crossings is agreed when booking, not assumed.
• Rental agreement: the deposit, the insurance excess, delivery fees and any discounts are set out in the rental agreement, so read it before you sign.

Cheap Car Rental in London by Class and Model

Our fleet on this page holds 24 cars from 16 brands, split into four classes: Economy, Crossover, Comfort and SUV. Every car is right-hand drive, and the class you pick decides both the daily rate and how much boot space you get for the trip.

Classes Side by Side

Automatic and Hybrid Options

Three of the 24 vehicles come with an automatic gearbox, and only one is a hybrid — the Toyota Yaris at £25 a day, a 1.5 L with 116 hp. The other two automatics are the Seat Leon at £23 and the Kia Stonic at £30, both 1.0 L petrol. Everything else on the page is manual: 21 vehicles out of 24, from the Fiat 500 at £22 up to the Renault Clio at £72.

In our experience most pick-ups in the city are short runs, where a small manual hatchback is easier to park and cheaper to run than a bigger automatic. If you have never driven a manual, book the automatic early — with three on the page they go first.

Seats, Fuel and Body Types Across the Fleet

• Five seats: 22 cars, including every Crossover, the Comfort estate and the single SUV.
• Four seats: 2 cars — the Fiat 500 and the Hyundai i10, both Economy hatchbacks.
• Petrol: 23 vehicles, from the 67 hp Kia Picanto to the 150 hp Kia Sportage.
• Hybrid: 1 car — the Toyota Yaris, the only electrified option here.
• Hatchback: 13 vehicles, the largest body group on the page.
• Crossover: 9 vehicles, a step up in ride height without the SUV footprint.
• Estate and SUV: 1 each — the Volkswagen Golf Estate and the Kia Sportage.

A four-seat Fiat 500 or Hyundai i10 suits two adults with hand luggage, but four passengers with full-size cases will want a five-door hatchback or a Crossover instead. Check seat count and boot size against your party before you book, not at the hand-over.

Where Cheap Car Rental in London Delivers the Car

Rent-Trip brings the vehicle to you rather than asking you to collect it from a depot. Delivery covers any address in the capital and all six airports serving it, and the exact address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.

Delivery to an Address or an Airport

The same terms apply whether the car goes to a home, a hotel or a terminal forecourt — the drop-off point and the hand-over time are written into the booking once a manager confirms them. In our practice the airport runs are the ones that need the most lead time: a Gatwick pick-up at 06:00 has to be matched to a vehicle that is already clean and fuelled, and that is a scheduling job, not a five-minute one. Give the flight number and the terminal when you book.

Delivery outside these places is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site, so a request for a town beyond the delivery area is a conversation, not a guarantee.

How the Booking Is Agreed With a Manager

• Address and timing: the delivery address, the date and the time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed — nothing is locked in until that conversation happens.
• Airport details: terminal and arrival time decide where the car waits, so pass them on at the same stage.
• Outside the delivery area: arranged case by case, never promised on the site in advance.
• Money and paperwork: the deposit, the insurance excess, delivery fees and any discounts are set out in the rental agreement, not quoted here.
• Fuel: the car arrives with a full tank and comes back with a full tank.
• Condition: the vehicle is handed over clean and fuelled, ready to drive.

St Pancras & King’s Cross, Euston, Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, Canary Wharf, Wembley, ExCeL London and Mayfair all sit inside the delivery area, so an arrival by train can end with the car waiting at the station entrance rather than a taxi ride to an out-of-town depot. Central drop-offs are tighter on timing than airport ones — a Mayfair side street at 09:00 behaves very differently from a Heathrow forecourt — so build ten or fifteen minutes of slack into the agreed slot. If the train is late, tell the manager as soon as you know: the hand-over time is a booking detail agreed with a manager. Delivery fees for these points are confirmed in the rental agreement.

Charges That Affect Cheap Car Rental in London

Two daily charges apply on the road in the capital, and both are easy to plan for once you know the numbers. They are paid to Transport for London, and who covers them on a rental car is agreed when booking.

Congestion Charge in a Rental Car

The Congestion Charge is £18 daily, charged 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 on weekends and bank holidays, and it is not collected between 25 December and the New Year bank holiday inclusive. Pay on the day or in advance at £18; pay by midnight on the third day after the trip and it rises to £21. 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 the boundary and are themselves outside it. Who pays the charge on a rental car is agreed when booking — check it before you drive into the zone, because the boundary roads are the only free way around it. A PCN is £180, cut to £90 if paid within 14 days, and £270 once a charge certificate is issued.

ULEZ and the Daily Charge

The Ultra Low Emission Zone charges £12.50 daily for non-compliant cars, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week except 25 December, and covers all 32 boroughs — over 1,500 km², with the M25 outside it. Petrol cars must meet Euro 4 (roughly 2006 onwards) and diesels Euro 6 (from September 2016). A PCN is £180, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days. Check any car on the TfL vehicle checker by its number plate before you commit, and confirm with the manager who covers the charge — the answer is agreed when booking, not assumed.

Tolls and Crossings Worth Budgeting For

• Dartford Crossing (Dart Charge), M25: £3.50 per crossing for cars, or £2.80 prepaid; pay by midnight the day after, PCN £70, £35 within 14 days.
• Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels: £4.20 at peak (northbound 06:00–10:00, southbound 16:00–19:00 weekdays) and £1.55 off-peak with Auto Pay, 06:00–22:00 weekdays and all day at weekends.
• Fuel: petrol sits at £1.75 a litre and diesel at £1.99, so a full tank is a real line in the budget on top of the daily rate.

In our experience the crossings catch people out more often than the Congestion Charge does — a single Dartford round trip plus a tunnel run can add more to a day than the difference between two rental classes.

Documents and Driving Rules for Cheap Car Rental in London

Cheap car rental in London comes with a set of paperwork and road rules that catch out first-time visitors. A full valid foreign licence covers you for 12 months from your last entry to Great Britain, and the traffic keeps to the left with every car right-hand drive. Both are worth knowing before the booking is fixed.

Driving on a Foreign Licence

A full, valid driving licence from your home country lets you drive in England, Wales and Scotland for 12 months from the date you last entered Great Britain. Rent-Trip works with that rule rather than around it. The minimum rental age, the young-driver surcharge, the cards accepted and the territory limit are agreed with a manager when booking. Bring the licence you actually hold: an expired or provisional document is not the same thing as a full one, and the 12-month window runs from your last entry to the country, not from the day you collect the car. If your trip stretches past that window, raise it at booking — the answer depends on your route and dates, not on a fixed rule we can quote in advance.

Left-Hand Traffic and Right-Hand Drive

• Keep left: hold the left-hand side of the road unless signs or markings say otherwise — Highway Code, rule 160.
• Turning: stay close to the left edge when you turn — rule 183.
• Roundabouts: traffic already on the roundabout comes from your right, so give way to it — rule 185; you travel clockwise around the circle.
• Speed limits: 30 mph in built-up areas across 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. Many city zones post 20 mph, so read the signs rather than assume.
• Phones: holding and using a phone, satnav or tablet is banned, even at a red light — £200 and 6 penalty points, and a driver who passed their test under 2 years ago loses the licence. Hands-free is allowed if the device does not block your view.
• Seat belts: compulsory where fitted; children need a child seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12, whichever comes first — a fine of up to £500.
• Drink-driving: in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the limit is 80 mg per 100 ml of blood, 35 µg per 100 ml of breath, 107 mg per 100 ml of urine; Scotland sets 50 / 22 / 67.

The rules above apply to every driver on the road, whatever the car. In our experience the two that cost visitors most are the roundabout priority and the phone rule — both are easy to break in the first hour after a long flight, when the instinct is to check a map at a junction. Ask a manager at booking which documents your licence type requires, and confirm the minimum age and card conditions at the same time; none of that is fixed on the site, and getting it wrong on the day delays the hand-over.

Fuel and Hand-Back on Cheap Car Rental in London

Cheap car rental works best when you know the hand-back terms before you drive off, because a missed refuel is the most common surprise at the end of a booking. Every car in our fleet leaves with a full tank and must come back full. That single rule covers the whole fuel policy — there is no pre-paid tank option and no full-to-empty arrangement on the site. The car also comes clean, so you get it in the same state you are expected to return it.

The Full-to-Full Rule

• Full tank out: the car is supplied with a full tank at hand-over, whatever the model or class.
• Full tank back: it must be returned with a full tank at the end of the rental period.
• Missing fuel: if the tank is not full on return, the missing fuel is charged, plus a refuelling service fee.
• Where the figures live: both charges are set out in the rental agreement, not on this page.
• No alternative: a pre-paid tank and full-to-empty are not offered on the site.

Refuelling Before Hand-Back

All 23 petrol cars in the fleet take standard unleaded; the single hybrid, the Toyota Yaris at £25 a day, runs on petrol too and needs no charging cable. Petrol locally was 1.75 pounds a litre and diesel 1.99 pounds a litre at the last check, so a fill-up on a small hatchback is a modest line in the trip budget rather than a shock. Filling up away from the busiest forecourts — the ones beside the big stations and motorway services — usually means a shorter queue and a lower pump price, and it keeps the last hour of your booking free for the drive back rather than a wait at the nozzle. In our experience the drivers who get caught out are the ones who leave the refuel to the final few miles; a station 10 minutes from the hand-back point is easier than hunting for one in traffic.

Hand-Back, Charges and the Agreement

Hand-back follows the same pattern as delivery: the address, the date and the time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, and the return is arranged to match.

Two daily charges can land on a rental here and both are worth planning around before you hand the keys back. The Congestion Charge is £18 daily, running 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays. ULEZ is £12.50 daily for non-compliant cars, 24 hours a day across all 32 boroughs. Who pays road charges, tolls and penalty notices is not fixed by the site — it is agreed when booking, so raise it with the manager at the same time as the return time.

The deposit, the insurance excess, delivery fees and any discounts sit in the rental agreement rather than in the headline rate.

Why Cheap Car Rental in London Suits a Short Trip

A short trip is where a hire car earns its keep fastest: the airport run, the hotel drop-off, the day out of town and the drive back, all inside two or three days. Our fleet starts at £22 a day, and 24 cars across four classes mean you can pick the size you need rather than the size you are given.

Where the Money Goes on a Two-Day Booking

• Short hire, low entry: 10 Economy cars start at £22 a day, and the Fiat 500 sits at that rate — a two-day city break needs no bigger footprint.
• One class up, same floor: 9 Crossover cars also start at £22, so boot space for airport luggage costs nothing extra at the entry point.
• Comfort when it counts: 4 Comfort cars start at £23, with the Volkswagen Golf Estate offering an estate body for longer motorway runs.
• The SUV exception: 1 SUV, the Kia Sportage, starts at £35 — worth it only if you genuinely need the height and the 1.6 L engine.

The trap on a short booking is paying for capability you never use. The Renault Clio at £72 a day is the most expensive car on this page — nothing about a two-day city break requires it. In our experience, a two-day trip with two people and two cabin bags is fully served by the Economy group, and the difference goes on fuel and the charges below instead.

What a Short Trip Actually Costs Beyond the Day Rate

Cheap car rental in London is only part of the bill, and a short trip meets the same fixed charges a long one does. The Congestion Charge is £18 daily 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 at weekends and on bank holidays. ULEZ is £12.50 a day for non-compliant cars, 24 hours a day across all 32 boroughs. Who pays them is agreed when booking.

Fuel follows the same logic at short range. The car comes with a full tank and goes back with a full tank; anything missing is charged with a refuelling service fee as set out in the rental agreement. Petrol was £1.75 a litre and diesel £1.99 a litre on 19.10.2026, and 23 of our 24 cars run on petrol — so the cheaper pump price is also the one most of the fleet takes.

Why Two Days Beats a Week Here

Weekly rates start at £132 and monthly at £462, both built as daily × 6 and daily × 21 — a structure that only pays off if you actually keep the car that long. For a two-day visit, the daily rate is the honest comparison, and the entry point stays at £22. Book the smallest class that fits your luggage and your passengers — a Kia Picanto or a Fiat 500 covers two people and two cabin bags, while a 5-seat Crossover such as the Citroen C3 Aircross adds boot space for the same £22 entry point. Delivery to any address in the capital or to Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City or Southend removes the transfer leg entirely, and the address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.