Self-drive car rental

Self-drive car rental in London puts 147 cars at your disposal, from £22 a day, delivered to any address in the capital and to Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend airports. A week of errands across the city or a run out to the Cotswolds starts with one call: you agree the delivery address, date and time with a manager, and the car arrives clean with a full tank.

What self-drive car rental in London means with delivery to you

How delivery to your address works

Rent-Trip brings the car to you instead of asking you to collect it from a depot, and the delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed. We deliver the car to any address in the city and to Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), Stansted (STN), Luton (LTN), London City (LCY) and Southend (SEN). That covers a hotel in Mayfair, a flat near Canary Wharf, a terminal meet at Heathrow or a venue drop at ExCeL London — the same car, handed over where you already are. Delivery outside these places is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site — so name your address early in the conversation, before dates get locked in, and you will know within that first exchange whether it can be done. Our fleet is 147 cars on this page, all right-hand drive for left-hand traffic, supplied clean with a full tank.

What is agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed

Nothing is automatic: you tell us where the car should appear and when, we confirm what is possible, and only then does the reservation become final. The delivery address, the date and the time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed. The same conversation settles the things that carry a figure — the deposit, the insurance excess, delivery fees and any discount are set out in the rental agreement, not quoted on this page. Read them at that stage rather than at hand-over, because the agreement is the document that governs the whole rental.

• Not a chauffeur service: you drive, you park, you choose the route; the car is yours for the booked period and nobody else is at the wheel.
• Not a depot pick-up: the car is delivered to the address agreed with a manager, so the hand-over happens where you already are, on the date and at the time confirmed in that conversation.
• Not a one-way fuel deal: the car comes with a full tank and must go back with a full tank; the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement.
• Not a taxi or a transfer: a self-drive rental is a car for the day, the week or the month, priced per day and multiplied out for longer bookings.

Driving here on your own licence

Drivers holding a full, valid foreign licence may drive in Great Britain for 12 months from their last entry into Great Britain, and that 12-month window is the one thing to check before you book a long stay. Traffic keeps left and roundabouts run clockwise, so give way to traffic approaching from the right — Highway Code rules 160, 183 and 185 cover the mechanics. Speed limits are 30 mph in built-up areas, 60 mph on single carriageways and 70 mph on dual carriageways and motorways, though many city zones post 20 mph and the signs always win over the default. The minimum rental age, the young-driver surcharge and the cards accepted are agreed when booking.

In our practice, the drivers who enjoy this most are the ones who book the car for the awkward middle of the trip — the airport run at 05:00, the Saturday out to Oxford or the Cotswolds — and leave the centre to the train. Tell the manager your address and your dates first; the rest of the booking follows from those two facts.

Choosing a car for self-drive car rental in London

For self-drive car rental in London the page lists 147 cars across 14 classes and 32 brands, and the choice comes down to three questions: how many seats you need, whether you want an automatic or a manual, and what fuel you are comfortable with. Everything below is drawn from those three numbers.

Classes and what each one is for

A category's «from» price is its entry car, not the ceiling of the category — the spread inside one category can be wide, so read the model line, not the category line.

Automatic or manual, petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric

101 of the 147 cars are automatic and 46 are manual; 100 run on petrol, 24 on diesel, 13 are hybrid and 10 electric. Electric is the smallest group at 10 cars — from the Nissan Leaf at £71 a day, with the Volkswagen ID.4 and Mercedes-Benz EQA at £171, the BMW i4 and Mercedes-Benz EQE at £309, and the Tesla range alongside them. Petrol dominates for a reason: it is the easiest fuel to refill on a full-to-full policy, since the car goes out with a full tank and comes back with one. Weekly is daily × 6 and monthly is daily × 21, so a longer booking is the lever on cost, not the gearbox.

Seats from 2 to 17 for families and groups

• Five seats: 98 cars — the default, covering everything from the Kia Rio to the BMW X5.
• Four seats: 18 cars, including the Fiat 500, Mini Cooper and the Porsche 911 Carrera S.
• Two seats: 15 cars, mostly convertibles and Exotics such as the Mercedes-Benz SL 43 AMG and the McLaren 570S.
• Seven seats: 9 cars — the Volkswagen Sharan, Kia Sorento, Peugeot 5008, Ford Galaxy and Mercedes-Benz V-Class among them.
• Eight, nine and twelve seats: four cars in total, all passenger vans from the Ford Tourneo to the Ford Transit 12 Seater.
• Seventeen seats: one car — the Ford Transit 17 Seater, the largest vehicle on the page.

Children need a child seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12, whichever comes first, and the fine for getting that wrong runs to £500. Tell us the ages when you book, because the seat has to match the child, not the car.

What we would pick for a London week

For two people doing the museums and a couple of day trips, the Kia Rio or Hyundai Kona at £31 and £36 a day is hard to argue with — both five-seat petrol manuals, one an Economy hatchback and one a Crossover, so the difference is body style rather than budget. Add a third passenger and a suitcase each, and the Volkswagen Golf Estate at £31 a day earns its keep on boot space alone. Groups of six or seven should look at the minivans from £44 rather than squeezing into an SUV, and anyone planning to spend the week inside the Ultra Low Emission Zone should check the car against the standard — the zone charges £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles, and petrol cars meeting Euro 4, diesels meeting Euro 6 and electric models do not pay it. At Rent-Trip the exact car is confirmed when the booking is agreed with a manager, so if one model matters to you, say so then.

Cheap self-drive car rental in London and the top of the range

The range on this page runs from £22 a day to £3,300 daily. Both ends are real cars in our fleet, bookable the same way, and neither is a placeholder for a "from" figure that nobody can actually get.

The cheapest cars on this page

The cheapest cars on this page 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 five-seat Crossover with a 1.0 L petrol engine, 120 hp and a manual gearbox; the Rio is an Economy hatchback with 99 hp from the same 1.0 L manual setup. Both are front-wheel drive, so the choice between them is body style and ride height, not budget. Economy runs from £22 to £72, Crossover from £22 to £58 — the entry car in a class is never the ceiling of it. One class up, the Volkswagen Golf Estate at £31 a day adds an estate boot and 130 hp, and the Comfort class as a whole starts at £23. In our experience most people who ask for "the cheapest" end up in the Golf Estate once they see how little the step costs over a week.

Luxury, sports and exotic cars at the other end

The most expensive car on this page is the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ at £3,300 a day. Luxury starts at £294 with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Exotic at £954 with the McLaren 570S, Sports at £404 with the Jaguar F-Type, and Convertibles at £80 with the Audi A3 Cabriolet — four very different entry points into the top of the range. At this level the class "from" price tells you almost nothing: a Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII at £2,000 and a Ferrari 296 GTB at £1,100 sit in different classes but the same conversation. The same holds lower down — the Mercedes-Benz GLC at £299 is a Premium car, while the S-Class at £294 is Luxury, so read the model, not the label. If a specific car is the reason for the booking, name it when you first speak to a manager rather than picking a class and hoping.

Where the value sits in the middle

• Comfort, £23–£80: fifteen cars including the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla and Vauxhall Astra — the band where most week-long bookings land.
• SUV, £34–£49: ten cars from the Hyundai Tucson at £34 to the Kia Sorento at £49, mostly five-seat and mostly automatic.
• Electric, £71–£500: ten cars from the Nissan Leaf at £71 to the Porsche Taycan Turbo S at £500, a spread of seven times inside one class.
• Minivans, £44–£176: six seven-seat cars from the Volkswagen Sharan at £44 to the Mercedes-Benz V-Class at £176.
• Passenger vans, £90–£168: five vehicles seating 8, 9, 12 and 17, from the Ford Tourneo to the Volkswagen Transporter 9 Seater.

Weekly pricing is daily × 6 and monthly is daily × 21. A £31 Comfort estate over a month costs less per day than a £22 city car hired for a single day — work out the days first, then the car.

Driving a self-drive car rental in London on the left

Driving here means you drive on the left, in a right-hand-drive car, under the Congestion Charge and the Ultra Low Emission Zone. The 147 cars on this page are right-hand drive throughout, so the layout matches the road from the first minute.

What left-hand traffic changes for a first-time driver

Traffic keeps to the left, in line with rule 160 of the Highway Code, and you turn closer to the left kerb under rule 183. Roundabouts run clockwise and you give way to traffic approaching from the right, which is rule 185. The habit that catches people out is not the motorway — it is the quiet residential street after a junction. Keep the centre line on your right and the kerb on your left, and the position resolves itself. In our experience the first 20 minutes are the adjustment; after that the mirror check settles into the new geometry.

Speed, drink and phone rules that apply on the day

• Built-up areas: 30 mph in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with many local zones signed at 20 mph — the sign beats the default.
• Other roads: 60 mph on a single carriageway, 70 mph on a dual carriageway and 70 mph on a motorway; lit roads default to 30 mph unless signed otherwise.
• Alcohol: England, Wales and Northern Ireland set 80 mg per 100 ml of blood, 35 µg per 100 ml of breath and 107 mg per 100 ml of urine; Scotland sets 50 / 22 / 67.
• Phones: holding a phone, satnav or tablet is banned even at a red light — £200 and 6 penalty points, and drivers who passed under 2 years ago lose the licence; hands-free is allowed if it does not block your view.
• Seat belts: a belt is required where fitted; children stay in a child seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12, whichever comes first, with a fine of up to £500.

Congestion Charge, ULEZ and the crossings

The Congestion Charge is £18 a day when paid on the day 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, 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 — and those roads themselves are outside or on the boundary. A PCN is £180, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days, and £270 after a charge certificate, with 28 days to pay.

The ULEZ charges £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, except 25 December, across all 32 boroughs; the M25 is outside it. Petrol cars and vans must meet Euro 4 (roughly 2006 onwards) and diesel Euro 6 (September 2016 onwards), and you can check any registration on the TfL vehicle checker before you set off. Dartford Crossing is £3.50 per crossing for cars, or £2.80 prepaid, usually 6:00–22:00 every day, payable by midnight the following day. Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels are £4.20 at peak and £1.55 off-peak with Auto Pay from 21 September 2026.

Who pays road charges, tolls and penalty notices on a rental car is agreed when booking — we do not assume it either way. Ask the manager to confirm it alongside the delivery address and time, and check the ULEZ status of the exact model you are given, not the class.

Documents and the first mile

A full, valid foreign licence can be used to drive for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland). The minimum age, the young-driver surcharge and the cards accepted are agreed when booking, as is the territory limit. Fuel is full-to-full: the car comes clean with a full tank and goes back full, otherwise the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement. Petrol was £1.75 a litre and diesel £1.99 on 19.10.2026, so filling up before return is the cheaper habit.

Charges with self-drive car rental in London

Two daily charges apply in this city, and both are set by Transport for London rather than by us: the Congestion Charge and the ULEZ charge. A third, the Dartford Crossing toll, applies only if your route crosses the Thames east of the city.

• Hours: the Congestion Charge runs 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday, 12:00–18:00 on Saturday, Sunday and bank holidays; not charged from 25 December to the New Year bank holiday inclusive.
• Rate: £18 a day if paid on the day of travel or in advance, £21 if paid by midnight on the third day after the journey.
• Electric cars: the 100% Cleaner Vehicle Discount ended on 25.12.2025; from 02.01.2026 electric cars pay £13.50 instead of £18 with Auto Pay, and there is no discount without it.
• Penalty: a PCN is £180, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days, rising to £270 after a charge certificate; you have 28 days to pay.

ULEZ and the Dartford Crossing

The Ultra Low Emission Zone covers all 32 boroughs, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week except 25 December, and costs £12.50 a day for a vehicle that does not meet the standard — petrol cars and vans from Euro 4, diesel from Euro 6, motorcycles Euro 3. The M25 is outside the zone. A PCN here is also £180, £90 within 14 days, and you can check a vehicle on the TfL vehicle checker by its number plate. The Dartford Crossing (Dart Charge) on the M25 is £3.50 for a car per crossing, or £2.80 with pre-payment, charged 6:00–22:00 every day including weekends and holidays; pay by midnight the following day. The PCN is £70, £35 if paid within 14 days, £105 if unpaid. 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, from 6:00 to 22:00 on weekdays and all day at weekends. Who pays these charges on a rental car is agreed when booking, not assumed.

Fuel, the tank and the rental agreement

The car is supplied with a full tank and must be returned with a full tank — full-to-full, with no other fuel option on the site. Fuel itself, at the time of writing, runs at £1.75 a litre for petrol and £1.99 for diesel. The deposit, insurance excess, delivery fees and any discounts are also set out in the rental agreement — read those lines at the booking stage rather than at hand-over, because that is where the final figure for your trip is fixed. Parking penalties and traffic fines are not something we can price for you in advance either; who pays them on a rental car is agreed when booking, and the manager confirms the detail then.

Self-drive car rental in London for airport runs

Heathrow sits 30.3 km by road from the centre and takes about 45 minutes without traffic; Gatwick is 48.6 km and 70 minutes, Stansted 57.9 km and 63 minutes, Luton 56.9 km and 63 minutes, London City 14.5 km and 33 minutes, Southend 67.4 km and 74 minutes. Those are the numbers a self-drive rental actually turns on: you leave when you like, with your own boot packed, and nobody is watching a clock but you.

• Heathrow with two passengers and two cases: the Kia Rio or Hyundai Kona at £31 and £36 a day covers 30.3 km each way with room to spare; the Golf Estate at £31 adds the boot if the cases are large.
• Gatwick at 48.6 km: an automatic Comfort car such as the Seat Leon at £23 keeps the M23 leg relaxed, and the Toyota Corolla Hybrid at £31 returns better fuel figures over the 70-minute run.
• Stansted and Luton at 57.9 km and 56.9 km: the Toyota RAV4 at £40 or Kia Sportage at £35 give the raised seating and boot space that early-morning motorway miles reward.
• London City at 14.5 km: the Fiat 500 at £22 or Toyota Aygo at £32 handles the short hop and the tight parking at the other end.
• Southend at 67.4 km: the longest of the six, so a Comfort estate or an SUV earns its keep; the Volkswagen Passat Variant at £36 is an estate body with automatic gears.

Day trips out of the city

Oxford, Cambridge, Stonehenge, The Cotswolds, Bath, Brighton, Windsor and Canterbury all sit within a day's drive, and the return leg is where the class matters most. A five-seat Comfort hatchback such as the Ford Focus at £24 or Volkswagen Golf at £24 covers two adults and a picnic without strain; add two children and the boot fills fast, so the Kia Ceed Sportswagon at £31 or Toyota Corolla Touring Sports at £36 is the better arithmetic. For a group of six heading to the Cotswolds, the seven-seat minivans from £44 beat two separate cars on both seats and parking. Plan the day around the full 24 hours of the hire rather than half of it — the return leg after a full afternoon out is the part people underestimate.

When the airport run is at 05:00

Tell the manager the flight time and the terminal, and the pickup time follows from the check-in window you need. The delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, so a 05:00 hand-over is a conversation to have early rather than an assumption. The 147 cars on this page are all right-hand drive and supplied clean with a full tank — one less stop on the way to the terminal. In our practice the drivers who book the awkward hours are the ones who confirm the address and the time in the same message, so nothing is left to the morning itself.

Comparing self-drive car rental in London classes side by side

Fourteen classes and 32 brands on one page make the choice look harder than it is.

The four numbers that decide the class

The comparison that matters is not badge against badge but seats, gearbox and fuel against the trip you have planned — and the counts below settle most of it before you open a single model page.

The manual units number 46 and cluster in Economy and Crossover; the diesel units number 24 and sit mostly in the larger SUVs, minivans and commercial vans. If you have only ever driven an automatic, filter on gearbox first — it removes more cars from the list than any other single choice.

Economy against Comfort, Crossover against SUV

Economy runs from £22 to £72 across 14 cars, Comfort from £23 to £80 across 15, and the overlap is the whole story: the Seat Leon at £23 is a Comfort car cheaper than the Kia Picanto at £27 in Economy. Crossover starts at £22 with the Citroen C3 Aircross and reaches £58 with the Ford Puma; SUV starts at £34 with the Hyundai Tucson and stops at £49 with the Kia Sorento, so the two bands cross rather than stack. What you buy with the step up is boot volume, ride height and sound insulation on motorway miles — not seats, since almost every car in both is a five-seater. Read the model line and the daily figure together, and the class label stops mattering.

• Comfort: the Seat Leon at £23, Toyota Corolla at £31, Mini Cooper at £37 and BMW 1 Series at £63 are automatic; the Ford Focus, Volkswagen Golf and Vauxhall Astra in the same class are manual.
• SUV: the Toyota RAV4 at £40, Hyundai Tucson at £34, MG HS at £36 and Kia Sorento at £49 are automatic, which suits the class's motorway role.
• Electric: all 10 electric cars are automatic by construction, from the Nissan Leaf at £71 to the Porsche Taycan Turbo S at £500.
• Economy: mostly manual, with the Toyota Yaris at £25 and Honda Jazz at £32 the automatic exceptions.

Say which gearbox you need when the booking is agreed with a manager, because the exact car is confirmed at that stage.

What to read in the rental agreement before you drive away

The rental agreement is the document that fixes the figures this page deliberately leaves open: the deposit, the insurance excess, delivery fees and any discount. Read those lines at the reservation stage rather than at hand-over, because that is where the total for your trip is settled.

The lines that carry a number

• Deposit: the amount is set out in the rental agreement, not quoted on this page; confirm it when the booking is agreed with a manager.
• Insurance excess: also in the agreement, and worth reading alongside the deposit so you know the total exposure rather than two separate figures.
• Delivery fees: the address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, and the fee for that delivery is set out in the same document.
• Discounts: any reduction is in the agreement; weekly is daily × 6 and monthly is daily × 21, and those multipliers are the only longer-booking arithmetic on the site.
• Fuel: full-to-full, with no other option offered — a short tank on return means the missing fuel plus a refuelling service fee, as set out in the agreement.

Charges the agreement does not set

The Congestion Charge, the ULEZ charge, the Dartford Crossing toll and the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnel charges are set by Transport for London and the government, not by us, and who pays them on a rental car is agreed when booking. Who pays parking penalties and traffic fines on a rental car is agreed when booking too, and the manager confirms the detail at that stage. Ask about all of it in the same conversation as the delivery address — one exchange, one set of answers, nothing left to discover at the kerb.

Territory, age and the licence

The minimum rental age, the young-driver surcharge, the cards accepted and the territory limit are agreed when booking; none of them is a figure on this page. A full, valid foreign licence can be used to drive for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain, and that window is the one date to check before committing to a long stay. Bring the licence question up first if your stay runs past the 12-month mark, since it changes what you can book rather than how much you pay.

Delivery of self-drive car rental in London

With self-drive car rental in London the car arrives where you already are and goes back the same way: the drop-off point, the day and the hour are settled with a manager before the reservation is locked, and the collection is booked in that same exchange. Nothing about the hand-over runs on autopilot, which is why naming your drop-off point early is the single most useful thing you can do.

Where the car can meet you

We bring the car to any address across the capital and to six airports — Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW), Stansted (STN), Luton (LTN), London City (LCY) and Southend (SEN). In practice that means a hotel in Mayfair, a flat near Canary Wharf, a terminal meet at Heathrow, a venue drop at ExCeL London, a match at Wembley, and the stations at St Pancras & King's Cross, Euston, Paddington, Victoria and Waterloo.

The state the car comes in and goes back in

The car is supplied clean with a full tank and must be returned with a full tank; there is no other fuel option on the site. Petrol was £1.75 a litre and diesel £1.99 on 19.10.2026, so the fill-up before return is worth planning into the last hour rather than leaving to the morning of the flight. The 147 cars on this page are all right-hand drive for left-hand traffic, so the layout matches the road from the first minute of the return leg as well.

Work backwards from the flight rather than forwards from the trip: the return time is agreed with a manager alongside the delivery, and the fuel stop and the drive to the terminal both sit inside it. For an early departure, returning the car the evening before removes the 05:00 risk entirely; for an afternoon flight, the morning return leaves room for the refuel. In our practice the bookings that go smoothly are the ones where the return time was named in the same message as the delivery address — the two halves of the rental are one arrangement, not two.

Long-stay self-drive car rental in London

A month changes the arithmetic. Monthly is daily × 21, so a Comfort car at £23 a day works out at £483 for the month against £690 for thirty separate 24-hour hires — and the longer the booking, the less the daily rate matters and the more the fuel and the charges do.

Why the monthly multiplier matters

Weekly is daily × 6 and monthly is daily × 21; those are the only longer-booking rules on the site, and they do the work that a discount would otherwise do. Take the Hyundai Kona or Kia Rio at £36 and £31 a day: a month at × 21 is a different proposition from thirty days at the daily rate, and the gap widens as the class goes up. The practical consequence is that a slightly dearer car over a month can cost less in total than a cheaper one hired day by day — work out the days first, then the class, then the model.

Living inside the charging zones

A long stay in the capital means the Congestion Charge and the ULEZ become a weekly line rather than a one-off. The Congestion Charge is £18 a day paid on the day or in advance, £21 if paid by midnight on the third day after the trip, and it does not apply from 25 December to the New Year bank holiday inclusive. The ULEZ is £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle, 24 hours a day except 25 December, across all 32 boroughs. Electric cars pay £13.50 instead of £18 on the Congestion Charge with Auto Pay from 02.01.2026, and there is no discount without it — which is why the 10 electric cars on this page matter more on a month than on a weekend.

What to sort out before a month-long booking

• The 12-month licence window: a full, valid foreign licence can be used for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain, so a stay that runs past it needs the question raised at booking, not on day 300.
• The parking reality: a car kept for a month needs somewhere to live; the delivery address is agreed with a manager, and it is worth confirming that the address can host the car for the whole period.
• The fuel habit: full-to-full on a month means repeated fill-ups, and petrol at £1.75 a litre against diesel at £1.99 makes the fuel choice a running cost, not a one-off.
• The class that fits the week, not the weekend: an estate or a crossover with a large boot serves a month of shopping and airport runs better than a two-seat convertible that suits a single sunny afternoon.

Mistakes that spoil self-drive car rental in London

Most of the trouble on a self-drive rental comes from four habits, and none of them is about the car. They are about the order in which things get decided — address, dates, class, charges — and getting that order right removes the friction before it starts.

Leaving the address to the last minute

Name the address in the first exchange and the rest of the booking follows from it; leave it until the eve of collection and you may find the answer is no. Where the car should appear, on which day and at what hour — all three are settled with a manager before anything is locked in, and a drop outside the covered places is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site. The same applies to a terminal meet: say Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City or Southend by name, not "the airport", because the six sit at very different distances and the timing differs accordingly.

Assuming the class means a specific car

At Rent-Trip the exact car is confirmed with a manager at booking, so a request for Comfort alone leaves open whether it is the Volkswagen Golf, the Ford Focus or the Vauxhall Astra. The same goes for the gearbox: 46 of the 147 cars are manual, and they cluster in Economy and Crossover, so an automatic request narrows the list sharply. If one model is the reason for the trip — a convertible for an anniversary, an estate for the boot — say so when the reservation is agreed with a manager rather than picking a class and hoping.

Forgetting the charges

The Congestion Charge, the ULEZ charge, the Dartford Crossing toll and the Blackwall and Silvertown tunnel charges are set by Transport for London and the government. Who pays them on a rental car is agreed when booking, so ask in the same conversation as the address rather than discovering it afterwards. The ULEZ standard is worth checking against the exact model you are given — petrol cars and vans from Euro 4, diesel from Euro 6 — and the TfL vehicle checker does that by number plate before you set off.

Driving the first mile on old habits

The habit that catches people is not the motorway but the quiet residential street after a junction, where the centre line belongs on your right and the kerb on your left. Keep left, take roundabouts clockwise and give way to traffic approaching from the right under Highway Code rules 160, 183 and 185. Built-up areas run at 30 mph, single carriageways at 60 mph, and dual carriageways and motorways at 70 mph, though many zones post 20 mph and the signs always win. Give the first 20 minutes your full attention and the geometry settles.