Today I have hired a car

[GoingDownLikeBHS]

Massive first world problem. On holiday in Scotland, usually fairly confident driver but never been to this area before. So today I have to pick up a hire car, thinking we'd have a nice drive along the coast. Never hired a car before. It seems a massive amount of twatting about to get it, wondering if this is why I'm so nervous? I have form for being really shit at basic stuff, I am the only adult/driver so no one to ask.

Do you have any tips or things to avoid? For example it says I have to return it with the same amount of petrol. How? How will I know what's in the tank? In my car you can look at how many miles are left before you need to refuel but its an old car and I assume its just an estimate. So if I am refilling the hire car before returning it, what do I do, put the nozzle in, guess a cash amount and then replace the nozzle, turn the engine on and check?

Anyway that's just one question I have, but I don't know what the others are - how can I know what I don't know and therefore need to know. If you think that's a silly question, then you can see why I doubt my ability to be in charge of a hire car!!

Usually it's handed over with a full tank. So return It full. Or else take a photo of the fuel gauge.

Take photos over the car or a video to ensure you've accurately recorded the state of the car. I refuse all extras (superCDW etc) and I have an annual excess insurance which costs about £40.

For example it says I have to return it with the same amount of petrol. How? How will I know what's in the tank

You can work out the cost of fuel from multiplying how far you've driven by the cost of fuel. Unless it's a gas guzzler, it will be about 13-14 p per mile:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/advisory-fuel-rates

You can probably get away with rounding down to the nearest fiver. The company itself won't put any fuel in, they'll leave all of this to the hirer to deal with so as long as it looks approximately the same, it will be fine.

But I think you're overthinking/worrying unnecessarily. Assuming you're from the UK, you don't have a language barrier, different driving rules/culture or side of the car/road to worry about so it will be fine. I've hired a car a few times a year in the Isle of Man for ages now and it's really easy. I just pick the car up at the desk and go outside and pick up my car. I've never had an issue with excess charges or fuel problems.

Take a video whilst you walk around the car when you pick it up to check for damage. Take a photo of the fuel indicator, take a photo of the mileage.

You'll get it with a full tank, so fill it up close by just before you return it. You'll get a form with it with any existing damage listed. The last one I hired was 3 years old and the list was long. Europcar give you 24 hours to report any damage not noted, although I never check 😂. It's far cheaper to take out the damage waiver with a 3rd party, mine cost £45 for a year, which is what Europcar wanted for a day. They will block out the excess on your credit card if you don't take their waiver. It all sounds like a faff but they are just covering themselves, I've never had any problems with the big companies.

They gave it to me saying it had "2 bars" - 1/4 full. But after about 20 miles it was flashing fuel low so I filled up, in fact I put much more than I need, so not end of world its a tiny car, will be returning it with more petrol in than I began with. Happy to write it off.

At the pick up it was a nightmare, they'd given me a huge brand new top of the range diesel whatever, an automatic, with black interior and entirely digital display. there was no way I could cope so I went back and asked for something smaller. All this was done in an underground car park so dark we had to put phone torches on to see anything and even with 3 of us going round the new smaller car it seemed pretty unlikely we'd spot anything. Got it back to apartment and it looks perfect, not a mark on it.

Yesterday I just happened to google the provider - Green Motion. Apparently this is the worst car hire agency in the world. Well, it's been slammed in the Guardian, and every sort of review platform you can google. On returning it (tomorrow) I am to expect staff who ae incentivised to find something wrong with it, so very worried. This is why I posted in the first place, I knew that something would go wrong (in my query about fuel I said "for example" - it wasn't my only concern far from it).

Finally, when they gave me the car they gave me this list of stuff included and I had to sign it immediately - it said it had an instruction manual, a rear parcel shelf, a puncture kit - all seems fine, bit obvious yeah? And a 3 pin plug, cable and fast charge cable. But its petrol only. What are these items and why would I need them? And they aren't in the car anyway.

So I reckon they do this so they can charge for it (I assume it will be in the £hundreds). Stupid of me not to check, but how was I to know they've pretended to include a charging cable etc in a petrol car? Can't get through on phone, what a surprise, so Ive emailed them, and lets see what happens in the morning.

Well you've got it now, try to stop worrying and enjoy your trip

If they are a pain when you return it, worry about it then

In future Google companies before you use them

Tip.for the future, when you are asked to sign just add the words "unchecked" so it's clear you were asked to sign. Before you had a chance to check