Minivans car rental in London

Need a seven-seat vehicle for a family trip or a group airport run in London? Rent-Trip offers minivans car rental in London with 6 cars in the class, from £44 a day, weekly from £264 and monthly from £924.

Minivans car rental in London with six models on offer

Six seven-seat minivans make up our fleet: four MPVs and two passenger vans, four diesel and two petrol, four automatic and two manual. The line runs from the Volkswagen Sharan at £44 a day to the Mercedes-Benz V-Class at £176, so the choice is less about budget than about how you load and drive the car.

Which minivan fits a family of six with luggage

All six cars seat 7, so a family of six has a spare seat and boot room for cases. The MPV bodies — Volkswagen Sharan, Volkswagen Touran, Peugeot 5008, Ford Galaxy — sit lower to the ground, which makes loading a pushchair or a heavy case easier on the back. The two passenger vans, the Volkswagen Multivan and the Mercedes-Benz V-Class, stand taller and give passengers a more upright seat with sliding-door access. In our experience a family of six travelling with four large cases fits an MPV comfortably, while a group carrying sports kit or a folded wheelchair tends to prefer the van body.

Cheapest and most expensive minivans side by side

Automatic or manual — what the fleet actually has

• Automatic: four of the six minivans — Volkswagen Touran, Volkswagen Multivan, Ford Galaxy and Mercedes-Benz V-Class — with the V-Class the only rear-wheel-drive car in the group.
• Manual: two cars, the Volkswagen Sharan and the Peugeot 5008, both front-wheel drive and both on the cheaper half of the range.
• Left-hand traffic: every car is right-hand drive, so the gear lever sits on your left whichever body you pick.
• Stop-start traffic: an automatic takes the strain on the approach roads into the centre, where a manual means constant clutch work.
• Multi-storey ramps: a manual gives finer control on the tight spiral ramps of a car park; an automatic is easier on the exit queue.
• Booking: the gearbox is agreed with a manager when you book, so state your preference early if you need a specific car.

On my reading of our own bookings, drivers new to British roads do better starting with an automatic and switching to a manual once the roundabouts feel routine.

What minivans car rental in London costs per day, week and month

Rates for a seven-seat minivan run from £44 to £176 daily depending on the model, with a week from £264 and a month from £924. The daily rate is what you compare; the weekly and monthly figures are what most families actually pay.

How the daily rate turns into a weekly or monthly booking

A week is charged at six daily rates and a month at twenty-one, so the longer you book, the lower the effective daily rate. Longer bookings also spread the fixed work of delivery and hand-over across more days — one drop-off and one collection instead of several. The Volkswagen Sharan at £44 daily comes to £264 for a week and £924 for a month; the Mercedes-Benz V-Class at £176 daily scales the same way. Rent-Trip applies the multiplier to whichever of the six models you pick, so a mid-range car such as the Ford Galaxy at £79 daily sits between those two ends. Work out your trip length before you choose the model: a two-week family visit is two weekly rates, daily × 12, so the Volkswagen Sharan comes to £528 and the Ford Galaxy to £948.

Fuel policy on a minivan rental

Four of our six minivans run on diesel and two on petrol, so the choice of model decides what you put in the tank: the diesel Sharan, Touran and Galaxy sit alongside the petrol Peugeot 5008 and Multivan. On a long motorway run a diesel Sharan or Galaxy returns better economy, while the petrol Peugeot 5008 and Multivan cost less to fill. The car comes with a full tank and must go back full — full-to-full, with no other option offered. If the tank is not full at return, the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement. Keep the last fuel receipt — it is the simplest proof the tank went back full, and it settles any question at hand-over without a discussion.

The model you choose is the biggest lever on minivans car rental in London: the spread from £44 to £176 a day is four times over, driven by size, gearbox and badge rather than by distance. Automatic cars — the Touran, Multivan, Galaxy and V-Class — sit at the upper end, and the two manual cars, the Sharan and the 5008, at the lower. Trip length is the second lever, since the weekly and monthly multipliers cut the effective daily rate. Anything beyond the rate itself — the deposit, the insurance excess, delivery fees and any discount — is set out in the rental agreement and agreed when booking, so ask the manager to confirm it before the booking is fixed.

Minivans car rental in London delivery

You name the address and the time, a manager confirms both, and the minivan arrives with a full tank. This section covers how the hand-over works, what to allow for, and where the delivery area ends.

Having the minivan brought to your hotel or address

Rent-Trip brings a seven-seat minivan to any address in the capital, and the delivery address, the date and the time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed. Traffic on the approach roads into the centre varies through the day, so the manager confirms the time that suits your arrival rather than a fixed window. That covers a hotel in Mayfair, a flat near Canary Wharf, a house in Wembley or a stand at ExCeL London — if it sits inside our delivery area, we bring the car to the door. The vehicle comes clean with a full tank, so the first thing you do is load the boot and drive.

Airport delivery for a seven-seat minivan

Rent-Trip delivers minivans to Heathrow Airport (LHR), Gatwick Airport (LGW), Stansted Airport (STN), Luton Airport (LTN), London City Airport (LCY) and Southend Airport (SEN). All six sit inside our delivery area, and the meeting point is confirmed by the manager when you book.

• Heathrow (LHR): the busiest of the six, around 30.3 km by road from the centre and roughly 45 minutes without traffic.
• Gatwick (LGW): about 48.6 km by road, allow around 70 minutes.
• Stansted (STN): roughly 57.9 km by road, around 63 minutes.
• Luton (LTN): about 56.9 km by road, around 63 minutes.
• Southend (SEN): the furthest at 67.4 km by road, around 74 minutes.

What to have ready and what to agree when booking

The hand-over itself is short if the details are settled beforehand. Anything about documents, the driver, payment or the deposit is agreed with the manager when you book — we do not list those conditions here, because they are set out in the rental agreement. The same goes for road charges, tolls and any penalty notice: who settles them is agreed at booking, not assumed at the kerb. Delivery outside the places named above is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site, so if your address sits beyond the delivery area, say so early and the manager will tell you what is possible. One practical note from our own hand-overs: book the slot for the time you will be standing outside with the luggage, not for the flight number — landing times and baggage reclaim rarely line up, and a minivan waiting at the wrong hour helps nobody.

Minivans car rental in London charges and restrictions

Three charges matter on minivans car rental in London: the Congestion Charge at £18 a day, ULEZ at £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles, and the Dartford Crossing at £3.50 per crossing. Who settles road charges, tolls and penalty notices is agreed when booking, so raise it with the manager before the car is handed over rather than after a letter arrives.

Congestion Charge and ULEZ in a rental minivan

The Congestion Charge is £18 a day, running 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays, with no charge from 25 December through the New Year bank holiday. Paying by midnight on the third day after the trip carries a higher charge instead. ULEZ is £12.50 a day for vehicles that do not meet the standards, applies 24 hours a day except 25 December, and covers all 32 boroughs — the M25 sits outside it. Petrol cars need Euro 4 or better, diesel Euro 6, which in practice means diesel from September 2016 onwards. Four of our six minivans are diesel, so check the Euro standard on the TfL vehicle checker by registration plate before driving into the ULEZ — a penalty notice costs far more than the daily charge.

Tolls, penalties and who settles them

• Dartford Crossing (Dart Charge): £3.50 per crossing for cars, or £2.80 when pre-paid, payable by midnight the following day; a £70 penalty notice drops to £35 if paid within 14 days.
• Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels: £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.
• Congestion Charge penalty: £180, reduced to £90 within 14 days, rising to £270 after a charge certificate.
• ULEZ penalty: £180, reduced to £90 within 14 days.
• Settlement: who pays charges, tolls and notices on the hire car is agreed when booking and set out in the rental agreement.

Left-hand traffic, speed limits and the rules that catch visitors

Cars here are right-hand drive and traffic keeps left, per Highway Code rule 160, so a right-hand-drive minivan puts the driver nearest the centre of the road — which helps at tight junctions but takes a day to trust on multi-storey ramps. At roundabouts you give way to traffic approaching from the right (rule 185). Built-up limits are 30 mph, single carriageways 60 mph, dual carriageways and motorways 70 mph, but many zones are signed at 20 mph and the signs override the default. Holding a phone at the wheel costs £200 and 6 points, even stationary at lights, and children need a child seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12. Visitors on full foreign licences may drive for 12 months from their last entry into Great Britain — beyond that, ask the manager what applies before you book.

Documents for minivans car rental in London

Bring your full, valid driving licence — that is the core document for a seven-seat MPV, and a foreign licence can be used to drive here for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). The rest of the paperwork — the minimum age, the young-driver surcharge, the card for the deposit, the insurance excess and what the standard hire includes — is agreed when booking, because it is set out in the rental agreement rather than fixed on this page.

Full licence: a photocard or the older paper version, in date, with no endorsement that stops you driving a seven-seat vehicle.

Foreign licence: accepted for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain, so a two-week holiday or a month-long stay sits comfortably inside that window.

Passport or ID: not something we state as a requirement on this page — the documents you bring beyond the licence are agreed with a manager when the booking is confirmed.

Payment card: which cards we accept for the deposit and the hire charge is agreed when booking, not listed on this page.

Second driver: the paperwork for adding one, and any fee for it, is agreed when booking; we do not publish a figure for it here.

The 12-month rule matters most for the longer bookings. A family that lands at Heathrow on a Friday, collects a Volkswagen Touran and keeps it for three weeks is well inside the window, and the same applies to a monthly booking on the Mercedes-Benz V-Class — the licence does not need renewing or converting mid-rental. What it does mean is that the clock runs from your last entry, not from the date the car is collected, so if you were in the country earlier in the year, that earlier date is the one that counts. Mention it when you book and the manager will confirm where you stand before anything is fixed.

The rules you drive under are worth reading alongside the documents, because a seven-seat MPV makes them easy to break by accident. Keep left unless signs or markings say otherwise (Highway Code, rule 160) and stay close to the left edge when turning (rule 183); on roundabouts give way to traffic approaching from the right (rule 185), which is why traffic circulates clockwise. Speed limits are 30 mph in built-up areas in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 60 mph on single carriageways, 70 mph on dual carriageways and 70 mph on motorways, and lit roads default to 30 mph unless signs say otherwise — in parts of the capital you will see 20 mph zones, so read the signs rather than assume. 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 less than 2 years ago loses the licence. Seat belts are compulsory where fitted, and children need a child seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12, whichever comes first — up to £500. The drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80 mg per 100 ml of blood, 35 µg per 100 ml of breath and 107 mg per 100 ml of urine; Scotland runs 50 / 22 / 67.

In our experience the trouble is rarely the licence itself — it is a photocard left in a suitcase in the hotel room, or a paper licence folded into a wallet that nobody has looked at for years. Check both before you travel, and if the licence is due to expire during the hire period, deal with it before you fly rather than after you land.

Minivans car rental in London

Rent-Trip delivers the car to your address or airport and agrees the hand-over slot with a manager, so the first thing to settle is where the car will sit overnight — a driveway, a hotel forecourt or a paid multi-storey all change what you should book.

Is a minivan hard to park in central streets

Minivans car rental in London is a size question before it is a driving question: all six cars on this page are 7-seat, four are MPVs and two are passenger vans, and the taller van bodies are the ones that meet low car-park height barriers first.

• Passenger vans: the Volkswagen Multivan and Mercedes-Benz V-Class stand taller than the four MPVs, so check the barrier height posted at the entrance before committing to a car park.
• MPVs: the Volkswagen Sharan, Volkswagen Touran, Peugeot 5008 and Ford Galaxy sit lower and clear most standard-height barriers in shopping centres and station car parks.
• Spiral ramps: narrow multi-storey ramps are where a 7-seat body feels widest — take them in one movement and let following traffic wait rather than correcting mid-turn.
• Roof boxes: none of the six cars is listed with a roof box, so luggage goes in the boot, not on top.

Left-hand traffic and the first mile

All cars here are right-hand drive and United Kingdom drives on the left, which matters most in the first ten minutes after collection — the off-side mirror is the one facing the traffic, and that is the mirror to watch when pulling out of a parking bay. Automatic gearboxes on four of the six models (Touran, Multivan, Galaxy, V-Class) take the strain out of stop-start queues; the two manual cars, the Sharan and the Peugeot 5008, suit drivers who want to hold a gear on a steep ramp. On the road itself, built-up areas default to 30 mph (48 km/h) in England unless signs say otherwise, and many zones in the capital post 20 mph, so read the signs rather than assume the limit.

Where you leave the car can pull a daily charge behind it. The Congestion Charge is £18 a day, running 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, and ULEZ is £12.50 a day for vehicles that do not meet the emission standard — four of our six minivans are diesel, so check the Euro standard of the exact model against the ULEZ rules before you park inside the zone. Who settles road charges, tolls and penalty notices is agreed when booking, so raise it with the manager before the keys change hands.

Day trips out of town in a minivans car rental in London

A seven-seat minivan is a class that makes a day out of town work for a full group: six passengers plus a driver, with the boot still free for bags, a pushchair and a cool box. From the capital the classic runs are Oxford, Cambridge, Stonehenge, The Cotswolds, Bath, Brighton, Windsor, Canterbury and Cardiff & Wales, with Edinburgh and the Eurotunnel crossing to the continent as longer hauls. Each of those has its own page on our site, and the delivery address, date and time for any of them are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.

All six of our minivans seat 7, so the choice comes down to body style and drivetrain rather than seat count. The four MPVs — Volkswagen Sharan, Volkswagen Touran, Peugeot 5008 and Ford Galaxy — sit lower, which makes loading at a kerb or a multi-storey easier, while the two passenger vans, Volkswagen Multivan and Mercedes-Benz V-Class, stand taller and give passengers more headroom on a three-hour run.

Charges to check before you leave the city

• Congestion Charge: £18 a day, 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays — avoid the zone on your outward leg if you can.
• ULEZ: £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across all 32 boroughs — check the vehicle against the rules before you set off.
• Dartford Crossing (Dart Charge): £3.50 per crossing for cars, £2.80 if you prepay — the usual route for Kent and the coast.
• Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels: £4.20 at peak, £1.55 off-peak with Auto Pay — relevant if you head east rather than west.
• Who settles these: road charges, tolls and any penalty notices are agreed when booking, so raise it with the manager rather than assuming.

Right-hand drive, left-hand traffic

Every car we supply is right-hand drive and you keep left, per Highway Code rule 160, with roundabout traffic coming from your right under rule 185. Motorway limits are 70 mph (112 km/h) on a dual carriageway or motorway and 60 mph (96 km/h) on a single carriageway, and many signed zones sit at 20 mph — read the signs rather than the default. In our experience the first twenty minutes on the M25 are where visiting drivers lose concentration, so plan the outward leg for a quieter window and let a passenger handle the navigation.

The car goes out with a full tank and comes back full; fill up away from the motorway services, where the price per litre runs higher.