Long-term car rental

In our London long-term car rental fleet, a crossover like the Hyundai Kona costs £36 a day and the Kia Rio £31 — on a monthly booking that is £756 and £651, with 24 cars to choose from across Economy, Crossover, Comfort and SUV.

How long-term car rental in London is priced week by week and month by month

Long-term car rental in London runs on one daily rate and two fixed multipliers: a week is the daily rate × 6, a month is the daily rate × 21. Nothing else changes the arithmetic — the length of the rental does not. Our 24 cars sit between £22 and £72 a day, so a month starts from £462 and a week from £132.

What a month of long-term car rental starts from

A month of long-term car rental starts from £462 — the £22 daily rate × 21. Two cars carry that £22 rate on this page, the Citroen C3 Aircross and the Fiat 500, and both are petrol manuals with front-wheel drive, at 1.2 L and 1.0 L. The C3 Aircross is a five-seat Crossover with 110 hp, the Fiat 500 a four-seat Economy hatchback with 70 hp. At the other end of the fleet the Renault Clio sits at £72 a day, which makes a month of it £1,512 on the same multiplier. Because ×21 is fixed across all 24 cars, the cheapest month and the dearest month differ by exactly the same ratio as their daily rates — compare the day rate, not the total.

Classes and daily rates across the long-term fleet

Economy and Crossover both start at £22 a day, Comfort at £23, and the single SUV at £35. Economy is the widest group at 10 cars and reaches up to £72; Crossover spans £22 to £49 across its 9 cars; Comfort tops out at £34 with 4 cars. On a month-long booking the class you pick matters less than the daily rate inside it: the widest class is not automatically the cheapest month. Gearboxes split 21 manual to 3 automatic, and the automatics — the Seat Leon, the Toyota Yaris and the Kia Stonic — are worth knowing about if you would rather not work a clutch on the left. Petrol covers 23 of the 24 cars, the hybrid Yaris being the exception.

Why a week of long-term car rental is charged as six days

We price a week at the daily rate × 6 and a month at × 21 — no other multiplier applies. That holds whether you take the Kia Picanto at £27 a day or the Vauxhall Mokka at £49, and it holds for the estate body on this page, the Volkswagen Golf Estate at £31 a day in Comfort. Book three months and the rate stays daily, so duration never rewrites the rule. The practical consequence is that you can price any stay yourself before you call: multiply the day rate by 6 for each week or by 21 for each month, and the figure you reach is the one the booking is agreed on. Longer bookings do not unlock a different multiplier — they simply repeat the same one.

Long-term car rental in London or buying and leasing a car

Three ways to keep a car for months — buying it, leasing it on a contract, or renting it for the exact weeks you need — cost very different amounts of commitment. The choice comes down to how long you are actually staying and how much of your money you want tied up in a vehicle.

When long-term car rental beats buying

Buying ties capital, insurance and resale to one address, while a long-term rental is fixed for the weeks you actually stay. Ownership also brings fixed costs that follow the registered keeper rather than the driver, and those are set out in the rental agreement only where a rental is concerned.

Resale takes weeks on its own: a private sale needs photographs, viewings and a buyer who turns up. Under a year of ownership, depreciation plus the fixed costs usually outrun what the car returns at the end. In our practice, most guests who compare the two are here on a posting or a long project and cannot say today where the car would be sold. If your stay has a known end date, price the rental against the whole cost of ownership, not against the sticker price of a used car.

Long-term car rental against a leasing contract

Leasing is a fixed multi-year contract, while our long-term rental is agreed for the dates you name. The differences that matter for a short stay:

• Term and exit: a lease runs for years and is expensive to end early, whereas our rental covers the dates you name and is agreed with a manager.
• Paperwork: leasing asks for a credit check and a permanent address, while what a rental booking needs is agreed when booking.
• Vehicle choice: a lease locks you to one car for its whole term, while the 24 cars on this page let you move between classes on separate bookings.
• Upkeep: servicing and tyres sit with the leaseholder, and on a rental they are set out in the rental agreement.

Matching the car to the stay

Economy and Crossover both start at £22 a day, Comfort at £23 and the single SUV at £35 — the full span of the fleet runs to £72. A month is charged at the daily rate × 21, so the class you pick sets the whole bill. On a stay of several months, moving from the SUV to a Crossover changes the monthly figure more than any haggling over a single day. Ask which class suits your mileage before you commit: the longest trips in our local bookings are usually the airport runs, where a larger boot earns its keep.

What the agreement sets out

Long-term car rental in London runs on a simple hand-over rule and a written agreement. The car arrives clean with a full tank, you return it the same way, and everything else — deposit, insurance excess, delivery fees and any mileage limit — is set out in the rental agreement rather than promised in a headline.

Fuel, cleanliness and hand-over on a long-term hire

The car comes clean with a full tank and must be returned full — full-to-full is the only fuel option we offer. There is no pre-paid tank and no full-to-empty arrangement on the site, so the level you receive is the level you owe back. On my own bookings the tank check at pick-up takes about a minute and saves an argument at drop-off. Photograph the fuel gauge and the odometer when the car arrives — the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement, and a dated photo settles the level faster than memory. Rent-Trip delivers the vehicle washed and fuelled, and the hand-over is arranged with a manager at the address you name. Petrol is the fuel for 23 of the 24 cars on this page and just one runs on hybrid power, so a full tank is a routine stop rather than a hunt for a charging point.

Deposit, excess and mileage on a long-term hire

• Deposit: the amount and how it is held are set out in the rental agreement, not quoted as a figure before you book.
• Insurance excess: the excess that applies to damage is written into the same agreement and confirmed when the booking is agreed with a manager.
• Mileage: whether a mileage limit applies to your dates is agreed before the booking is fixed.
• Delivery fees: delivery to an address in the city and to its six airports is part of the service; any fee attached to your specific booking is stated in the agreement.

The practical consequence is that the mileage limit and the excess are agreed when booking, so a month-long rental never turns into a negotiation at the end of the hire. Ask for both in writing when the manager confirms the dates — that is the moment they are still open to discussion.

Documents for a long-term hire

A full valid foreign licence lets you drive for 12 months from your last entry to Great Britain, which covers England, Wales and Scotland. The clock starts at the border, not at the start of the booking, so a stay that began in early spring runs out of driving time in early spring the following year — check the date before you commit to a three-month booking. Bring the licence itself to the hand-over; the rest of what the agreement requires is confirmed with a manager when the booking is agreed. On a long hire the licence date matters more than the car: a driver whose 12 months expire mid-booking cannot simply extend, so plan the booking to finish inside the window.

Delivery of long-term car rental to your address or airport

Long-term car rental with Rent-Trip comes to you: we deliver the car to any address in the capital and to six airports, and the address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the rental is fixed. Nothing about collection is left to guesswork on the day.

Where we deliver long-term car rental

Rent-Trip delivers to any address in the capital and to Heathrow Airport (LHR), Gatwick Airport (LGW), Stansted Airport (STN), Luton Airport (LTN), London City Airport (LCY) and Southend Airport (SEN). Those six airports cover the main arrival routes into the south-east: Heathrow alone handled 84,481,178 passengers, Gatwick 42,775,241, Stansted 29,758,490, Luton 17,770,247, London City 3,737,888 and Southend 719,513. Delivery outside these places is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site — tell the manager your postcode first if you are staying beyond the capital.

Fixing the date and place for long-term car rental

• Address first: the delivery address, the date and the time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, so have the full postcode ready.
• Airport arrivals: name the terminal and your flight landing time — the six airports above are inside our delivery area, and the drive in from Heathrow is 30.3 km, from Gatwick 48.6 km.
• Long stays: for a booking running weeks or months, agree the start date before you travel, not on landing day.
• Changes: anything not settled at booking — an extra stop, a later hand-over — goes back to the manager rather than being assumed.

Hand-over and the tank on long-term car rental

The car comes clean with a full tank and must be returned with a full tank — full-to-full is the only fuel option we offer, and no pre-paid tank or full-to-empty arrangement exists on the site. In our practice the fuel level is the single most common thing to argue about at the end of a long booking, so check the gauge with the manager when the car arrives and note it. If the tank comes back short, the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement. Deposit, insurance excess and delivery fees are likewise set out in the rental agreement, never quoted on this page.

Driving long-term car rental in London on the left and inside the charging zones

A long-term booking puts you on the left-hand side of the road in a right-hand drive car, and inside two charging zones that run on different clocks.

Congestion Charge and ULEZ on a long-term booking

The Congestion Charge and ULEZ bill separately, and the second one covers the whole of Greater London.

The Congestion Charge applies 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 sit outside or on the boundary. It is not charged from 25 December to the New Year bank holiday inclusive. A PCN is £180, cut to £90 if paid within 14 days.

ULEZ reaches all 32 boroughs and the City of London, more than 1,500 km²; the M25 itself stays outside it. Petrol cars must meet Euro 4 and diesels Euro 6, which in practice means petrol from 2006 and diesel from September 2016. Who pays the charges and any penalty on a hired car is agreed when booking, so settle it with the manager rather than assuming.

Left-hand driving and the rules that catch visitors out

• Keep left: hold the left-hand side of the road unless signs or markings say otherwise, and turn closer to the left kerb (Highway Code, rule 160 and rule 183).
• Roundabouts: traffic already on the roundabout comes from your right and has priority (rule 185), and you travel clockwise around the island.
• Speed: 30 mph in built-up areas, 60 mph on a single carriageway, 70 mph on a dual carriageway and a motorway; lit roads default to 30 mph, but watch for 20 mph signs across the capital.
• Phones: holding a phone, satnav or tablet is banned even at a red light — £200 and 6 points, and drivers within 2 years of passing lose the licence. Hands-free is allowed if the device does not block your view.
• Seat belts: required where fitted; children need a car seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12, whichever comes first, with a fine up to £500.

Tolls and fuel on a longer booking

Dartford Crossing on the M25 takes £3.50 per crossing for cars, or £2.80 if you pre-pay, and payment is due by midnight the following day; a PCN is £70, £35 if paid within 14 days. Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels charge £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. Petrol was £1.75 a litre and diesel £1.99 on 19.10.2026, so a month of commuting adds up. In our experience, drivers on a monthly booking check the ULEZ status of the exact model before confirming — a compliant car removes a daily charge from the whole booking.

Choosing a car for long-term hire in London by seats, fuel and gearbox

Across our 24 cars the mix is narrow in a useful way: 22 take five people, 2 take four, 23 run on petrol and 1 is a hybrid, 21 have a manual gearbox and 3 are automatic. Those four numbers decide almost everything about how a long stay feels — the seat count sets who fits, the fuel and gearbox set how the weeks of commuting actually go. A long stay rewards picking on those three axes first and the badge second.

• Five seats (22 cars): Economy hatchbacks, all nine Crossovers, the Comfort models and the single SUV — enough boot for a weekly shop and two child seats in the back.
• Four seats (2 cars): Fiat 500 and Hyundai i10 — city-length cars that park in spaces the five-seaters drive past, but the rear bench takes two adults only.
• Estate body (1 car): Volkswagen Golf Estate — the one body style on this page built around luggage rather than passengers, at £31 a day.

A four-seat car is the right answer for a couple staying months in a borough where parking is tight; a five-seat Crossover covers a family plus grandparents visiting for a fortnight.

• Petrol (23 cars): every class is covered, from the £22 Citroen C3 Aircross and Fiat 500 up to the £72 Renault Clio, so the fuel type never forces you into a bigger car.
• Hybrid (1 car): Toyota Yaris, 1.5 L, 116 hp, automatic — the only hybrid on the page and the one to book early if stop-start traffic is your daily route.
• Manual (21 cars): the default across Economy, Crossover, Comfort and the SUV; cheaper to run and the norm on British forecourts.
• Automatic (3 cars): Toyota Yaris, Seat Leon and Kia Stonic — book these first if you have never driven a manual on the left.

Petrol sat at £1.75 a litre and diesel at £1.99 on 19.10.2026, so the manual petrol hatchbacks remain the cheapest thing to keep on the road over a month.

Matching the car to the stay

The £22–£72 daily spread maps onto how you will use the car rather than what you can afford. A single traveller working central weeks does well on the Kia Picanto or Peugeot 208 at the lower end; a couple with luggage heading out to the Cotswolds or Bath at weekends wants the Golf Estate or a Crossover with the 1.2 L engine. Rent-Trip's advice from the bookings we take: choose the gearbox before the model, because 21 of the 24 cars are manual and swapping later means changing class. At monthly rates — daily × 21 — a Comfort automatic costs less over a month than four separate weekly hires of the same car, so fix the specification at the start and keep it.

Extending and running long-term car rental in London month after month

Long-term car rental in London runs on a simple rhythm: the daily rate stays the rate you booked, and every extension is agreed with a manager before the current period ends. Nothing about the pricing changes because a booking gets longer — weekly stays at daily × 6 and monthly at daily × 21, so a second month is calculated the same way as the first. What does change is how much you notice the small things: fuel, charges and the condition of the car.

Keeping the car between bookings

• Ask before the end date: message the manager a few days ahead, and the manager confirms whether the same car can stay with you.
• The rate carries over: an extension is priced with the same × 6 and × 21 multipliers, and the dates are agreed with the manager.
• Availability decides: with 24 cars on this page, a specific model can be out on another rental, so the sooner you confirm, the better the chance of keeping the one you have.
• Paperwork follows the dates: the rental agreement is updated to cover the new period, and any change to deposit, excess or mileage is set out there.
• Fuel: full-to-full is the only option we offer — return it full and no fuel charge is added; the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are set out in the rental agreement.
• Cleanliness: the car comes clean with a full tank, and a monthly wash keeps the interior usable when you are living out of it.
• Servicing: routine maintenance on a car you hold for months is arranged through the manager, not by turning up unannounced.
• Charges and penalties: the Congestion Charge at £18 a day and ULEZ at £12.50 a day for non-compliant cars apply to the vehicle, and who pays road charges, tolls and penalty notices is agreed when booking — check that line before you drive into the centre.

What a second or third month actually costs

A month of long-term car rental starts from £462 — the £22 daily rate × 21 — and the top of the range sits at £72 a day, so the monthly equivalent of the most expensive car on the page follows the same × 21 rule. The single SUV starts at £35 a day and the Comfort class at £23, which means the spread between an Economy hatchback and a larger car is a matter of a few pounds a day, not a different pricing system.

In our experience, the people who extend most often are the ones who booked a Crossover for a fortnight and then found they needed it for a season — the £22 Citroen C3 Aircross and the £22 Fiat 500 are the two cheapest cars on this page, and both are easy to keep.

If you move from a flat in Mayfair to a house near Wembley, tell us before the next period starts rather than after. One practical note: the delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, and the same applies to a change of address mid-rental.