Hire desk
Six briefs, written the way we would explain it across the counter if there were no queue behind you. Paperwork first, because that is where the money is lost, then the roads that make or break a hire week in the Lowveld.
The six briefs
Excess bands and waivers explained
The excess is the one number on a hire contract that can ruin a month. It is also the number most readers skim. Here…
Long Tom Pass in a hired car
The R37 from Sabie up to the summit and down into Mashishing is the best drive within an hour of Mbombela and the one…
Gravel roads and gate times
A reserve day in a hire car is governed by two things nobody mentions at the counter: the hour the gate opens and the…
Cross-border hire paperwork
Mbombela sits two hours from two international borders, which is why the counter spends so much time on letters of…
Seven days in a luxury saloon
We keep hire cars for a week rather than an hour, because a week is what it takes to find the flaw. This was a…
Hire first, then buy
People spend four hundred thousand rand after twenty minutes behind the wheel on a route the salesman chose. Hiring…Every rand figure on this site is indicative and moves with season, class and availability. Winter is peak here; the same car can cost half as much again in the dry months as it does in February rain.
Send us the contract before you sign it
Five minutes of reading at this desk has saved readers five-figure excess claims more than once. Tell us the car class, the dates, the route and the counter, and we will come back with the figures that matter.