Car hire

[Arizona Kid]

13 hours ago, Gary D said:

You mean the driver will expect the foreigner pick up the fines, even had a taxi in manila ask us to pay the 200 peso fine for a makebelieve infraction.

I'm confused on why you wouldn't tell the taxi driver to pack sand after he asked you to pay?

[Gary D]

3 hours ago, Arizona Kid said:

I'm confused on why you wouldn't tell the taxi driver to pack sand after he asked you to pay?

face

[stevewool]

Having problems trying to hire a car so it may be better once we are there rather then on the internet here in England, I can hire a vehicle from the airport through the regular companies but the price is a lot more then I thought, I have asked family and they came back with grab which I have been told is like ubar , but again you hire the driver too, don’t fancy paying for a stranger to go on a two holiday unless the hire is so cheap.

So far a car to hire for 2 weeks mid January range from 42,000 to 84,000 peso, that’s a small car then a 4x4 and picking it up from Manila airport.

[Gary D]

1 hour ago, stevewool said:

Having problems trying to hire a car so it may be better once we are there rather then on the internet here in England, I can hire a vehicle from the airport through the regular companies but the price is a lot more then I thought, I have asked family and they came back with grab which I have been told is like ubar , but again you hire the driver too, don’t fancy paying for a stranger to go on a two holiday unless the hire is so cheap.

So far a car to hire for 2 weeks mid January range from 42,000 to 84,000 peso, that’s a small car then a 4x4 and picking it up from Manila airport.

We pay a local company 1500p for 12hrs or 2500p overnight. That is usually for a vios, I think the Inova was the same price. You should be able to trim it a bit for a week or two. A friend paid I think 1500p a day for a month hire.

[Marvin Boggs]

Not sure if this will help you, but the way we rented cars here a few times is to contact the rental company directly.  Few will be able to handle an online reservation / payment transaction, as you are probably discovering.  We contact them directly, discuss the rates, and reserve the car.  Normally they are run by a gas station, which is not convenient to your airport -- no problem, they will pick you up.  I was a little skeptical since they did not even ask for a deposit on reservation, so we called in a few times to re-confirm as the date was getting closer.  The whole process was a little sketchy compared to what we are used to back home, but it worked out fine really.  Since then, we have discovered a lot of things work better this way when traveling in the Philippines, and modern online booking is not always preferred. 

I think we paid 20,000 pesos for a full week in a Mitsubishi Montero (payable in cash, up front).  

 

 

[Marvin Boggs]

On 9/14/2019 at 5:43 PM, Gator said:

 

I’d also request that to have a car without full tinting on the windshield -  had one of those once and could barely see the road at night. 

Great point about the tinting.  I discovered after we bought our little truckster just how bad the tint was messing with my perception.  The first to go was the massive strip across the windshield top and bottom...."there, now I can see forward".  Then I realized the side mirrors were practically useless trying to see thru all that tint on the door windows, so that was next to go..."wow, now I can change lanes."  But the huge revelation was finally removing the tint from the rear window, which was causing my rear view to be not just dark, but blurry.  Traffic is dangerous as hell as it is, no need to voluntarily cut your visibility in half.   

[Gary D]

23 hours ago, Gary D said:

We pay a local company 1500p for 12hrs or 2500p overnight. That is usually for a vios, I think the Inova was the same price. You should be able to trim it a bit for a week or two. A friend paid I think 1500p a day for a month hire.

Correction, the vios is 1000p and the Inova 1500p. What does worry me is insurance, they will have third party by law but comp mmmm. Asked yes sir but never sure if being given bull, especially when using mom and pop set ups. I suspect someone will set up a hire business using friends and neighbours cars to give them a little pocket money or even help with the repayments.

[Arizona Kid]

P3k per day here for a newer van. It's worth it in my opinion. The drivers know the roads much better than me. Don't have to worry about anything and the aircon works great. 

[earthdome]

If you have a smart phone install the Grab app, that is a ride sharing app similar to Uber. Book a few short rides in Manila and ask the driver what he would charge to take you to your destination. I found all the Grab cars and drivers were very nice in Manila. Some I spoke with will do longer trips. One guy mentioned he did a 3 day trip to Baguio. Likely price would be 2-3k per day plus gas and tolls.

I only used a taxi a few dozen times in Manila. Out of those I had at least 2 sketchy rides. One where the driver had a fake meter and another where the driver was taking us to a different destination than we asked, i.e. a hotel he gets a kickback from instead of where we wanted to go.

Grab is so much nicer an experience than a taxi in Manila.

[earthdome]

I rented a car in Manila last year for a week long trip to northern Luzon. I think it was Manila Car Rental. As with many other things, renting a car isn't the smooth seamless process you get in the west. Expect delays, going to a specific bank to put down a deposit, etc. Also they tried to get a hefty long nose tax from me on the rental until I mentioned that my asawa was concerned about the cost. i.e. They tried to upsell me to the most expensive rental they had by stating the Innova I wanted wasn't available. They also tried a few other tricks to get extra out of me. For example wanting me to pay 500 pesos up front for a cleanup fee when the driver dropped off the car. Asking if he would give me a receipt for that ended that conversation. And it only cost me 150 pesos for a car wash on my return. Take plenty of pictures of the car when you pick it up. All in all everything worked out fine just be alert to keep them on the up n up.

Also make sure your phone's GPS works well and you have a good data signal for your mapping app. Waze helped route me around some bad traffic but it can then take you off the beaten path.

BTW, look out for those jeepney's trying to squeeze you out from both sides on EDSA or some other major street in Manila.