One of the most common complaints from consumers about the car hire process is that they don’t know what to expect in terms of a reasonable price. A majority of consumers feel that there is not much transparency in terms of pricing, and that when they search for a car hire, they feel like they might as well throw a dart at a price board and go with the one it hits.

While I can’t instantly get the entire car hire industry to disclose their pricing practices, I can give you some help by creating an example you can use as a general reference. For this example, we are going to look at reserving an Avis car hire at Birmingham Airport.

I’m going to base my example on a pick-up date and time of Monday, 11/15 at 1:00 PM, and a return date and time of Thursday, 11/18 at 8:00 AM.

When I conduct this search through Avis.com, the best base rate returned to me is $77.99 USD. This is for a “small” car hire, which is a Peugeot 207 or similar. Two important notes about this car hire:

-It’s manual

-The base rate is not the final rate. When taxes and surcharges are added, the estimated total is $129.13.

If I want an automatic car hire, the best base rate available is $93.99, and it is for a “medium,” which is a Vauxhall Astra or similar. However, once again, after taxes and surcharges, the estimated total is increased to $147.92.

Also, keep in mind that if you are under the age of 25, you will have an additional daily surcharge added to your total car hire rate.