10 things to do when renting a car

The post below is a ready reckoner of 10 things to do when renting a car, be it any country or place. Of course, this specifically helps if you plan to self drive in Turkey or plan on renting a car in Turkey.

1. Check the license rules. Does it allow you to rent a car for the period you are looking for with the license you currently have, assuming it’s not an international license. Countries like Dubai do not allow it at all. All other countries we have been to whether left or right hand drive allow for 30days typically on a foreign license. Renting a car in Turkey will not be difficult in this respect as they allow based on your home country license.
2. Understand the traffic rules well before starting. Some countries are very strict in execution of traffic laws while the others are lax. Simple example could be traffic rules in India are only followed at heavy traffic intersections or when there is a traffic policeman in the vicinity. Turkey has a law on infants and toddlers being in the car seat, however it’s not followed very strictly, to the point that the car rental companies don’t even have options for all ages (3yr olds in our case).
   Self drive in Turkey can get a little on the edge in cities like Istanbul especially if you’re not used to driving in cities like Mumbai. and even if you are, you may not want to do that on a holiday.
3. Check the tariff – by KMs or fuel
   You will have to clearly understand how will you be billed to avoid any confusions at the end. The more known rental chains have these rules even on their websites. There is always scope of negotiation with the smaller providers or where is significant competition (like Seychelles, as it’s a major tourist destination and there is no public transportation at all)
4. Check if it will be with or without fuel –
   If you have give back the car with a full tank and have a flight to catch that morning itself, it may be advisable to get the tank full the previous night to avoid any last minute rush and stress about catching the flight. You could even speak to the person where you intend to drop the car to ensure you’re able to return the car swiftly and have enough time for checking in the flight. Renting a car does take some time while both picking up and returning and budget for this time both while landing and catching a flight.
5. Insurance
   All the rentals cover insurance and its built in the total tariff that they quote you. For the unorganized market, they will just state an absolute figure in USD or Euro that they will charge in case there are any damages. The Insurance in those countries is not stringent again. Self drive in Turkey will not be a challenge in this respect.
6. Baby seat
   Our experience with a baby car seat has been very varied in all the places we have rented cars. You will not find one easily in India or Seychelles. In Turkey, we had pre-booked it but we always had to request for it again while taking the car and sometimes they did not have the car seat (by age) that we were looking for. In UK, we had prebooked it in one case and in the other we hired the car on the go. Both cases all varieties of car seats were available and it was not a hassle at all. If its not much of an issue, carry your own car seat. Flight usually will not count it towards your baggage allowance and you can be assured of having one, no matter which entity you rent from.
7. Thoroughly check the car and show in case of any scratches or broken bits to the person handing over the car. You can take pictures and make sure nothing gets missed.
8. Understand the procedure to return the car. This comes in very handy when you have a flight to catch in a rush.
9. Take the contact numbers in case of emergency. This helps even when suddenly something in the car stops working or there is any other issue with the car. Keep these numbers handy with you in the car at all times.
10. Accident rules, what to do in case of an accident and deposits. Part of this will be covered in Insurance and the other part you can explicitly check with the rental company.

While this is a list of things to check while renting a car in Turkey or anywhere in the world, the decision to rent a car should be based on factors like – public transport availability and ease of use, economics of renting a car vs renting a chauffeur driven car (places like India, it may just be equally economical to hire a cab or taxi even for longer road trips), ease of navigation (presence of detailed google maps or other such applications) especially if you’re not conversant in the local language and people there are not expected to understand English/ or the language you are comfortable with very well.

You can take a look at this post to know more about self driving in Turkey.