Hired a BMW 520d (4th May 2012)
Having sold my Nissan Almera 1.6 SVE last year, travelling to holiday destinations is a bit of a mission.
By hiring a posh car for under £300, I could see if they are actually much different while providing a lot more freedom and flexibility for the journeys to, during and from our holiday in Hereford.
Choice of Vehicle
- BMW 3-series Touring (alternative is Mercedes C-Class Estate)
- Was upgraded to the BMW 520d Touring!
Itinerary
- SixT location: N7 9QJ (1 Brewery Road, off Caledonian Road.)
- Clockwise practice loop, small roads to South.
- Collect vehicle on Saturday 8am
- Arrive in Fleet on Saturday
- Fish & Chips for Saturday lunch
- Attend wedding party Saturday evening
- Stay in Fleet through Sunday
- Leave some luggage in Fleet. (My suit, for example.)
- Depart from Fleet on Monday (very) early
- Arrive in Hereford on Monday morning
- Stay in Hereford through the week
- Return from Hereford Friday afternoon
- Drop bicycles in Fleet
- Collect any left luggage from Fleet. (My suit, for example.)
- Arrive in London on Friday (very) late
- Return vehicle on Saturday 8am
- Bus from SixT to flat
Extras
- Will do DVLA check at the office, 8am Saturday. (Or can turn up on Friday.)
- Can’t be picked up on Saturdays. 91 bus goes past King’s Cross.
- Extra driver booked for all 8 days
- Completely avoids the congestion charge zone and operating times.
- Collect with full fuel. Return with full fuel via local garage.
Fuel Economy
58 litres is all it took for the diesel fuel pump to stop. I wedged 2 more into the tank, making it a nice, round 60.00 litres. Quite pleased to get it exact; that almost never happens. That’s all it needed for the entire round trip!
SixT sent a letter to us summarising the car hire, all the charges and included the distance. We travelled 549 miles in total.
Google’s search box can act as a fairly natural calculator, if you give it the right magic words: 60 litres / 550 miles in mpg = 34.7 miles per gallon.
Bearing in mind:
- It’s a big machine.
- There were a lot of steep hills.
- Tricky winding lanes.
- Crawling while confused about navigation.
- Stuck in gridlocked school run traffic and cramped high streets twice.
- All while in heavy rain on a couple of occassions.
Pretty good going!