Renting Car in India



Booming economy in India brought quite a number of car rentals companies these days. But from the customer service perspective, car rental companies has to go long way to fulfill the western tourists expectation. Unlike Avis and Budget Car, in Chennai most of them are owned by small business owners and operated over by cell phone.

How to rent the car in Chennai

It is always better to ask your ticketing agent to book your rental cars . As many rental car companies doesn't have website they rely on word of mouth marketing, tie up with local tourist operators and travel agents. So you will be treated well if you book your rental car through travel agents.

Hire car with chauffeur

Another point of note is, Car hire companies in India will discourage you the self driving cars and ask you to take the car with a driver. This article recommends to take the car with driver option. Why! Indian Roads are not friendly new drivers. The taxi ,auto drivers are very illiterate on roads many won't follow the DMV rules . You will be shocked to see the Chennai drivers shaking their legs out of car window for left & right turn signals. And they notoriously jeopardize other pedestrians as well as on coming . The cops are very corrupted and the Indian juridical system is very slow. The DMV never give accident report easily until you make the payment under the table. $ 6000.00 is more than enough to clear your name from Hit and Run charges. Things are getting better now . So it is better to hire a car with driver.

Treat your rental car Driver

Better have cash in your wallet to tips your rental car driver. Whenever there is more than 2 hrs of waiting time, make sure you tip him some Rs 20 or 30 Rupees for tea break. Another important point is demand English speaking driver when you book the car for rental. Except in big cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, delhi, Chennai you can hardly find communicative customer oriented chauffer. Most of the Indians are shy at a sight. Questions like How are you? how is your family? did you have your break fast? How many children you have? Did you work late night yesterday? Such questions surely please them and earn you the better service.

Required documents to book the car in India

If you are a foreigner and visiting India for short time vacation then better have copy of your passport and cash ready. Many car hire companies prefer cash over the credit card so they don't need to pay the VAT . But established service provider demands credit card payment over the cash also the driving license. Indian DMV doesn't have the driver performance point system. There is no Social Security number to track your records. So, You can knock as many pedestrians and hit as many vehicles on the road you don't get point on your license. But make sure you have the deep pockets.

Most car hire companies have a wide range of cars to choose from. Honda City, Toyato Camry, Logan car, Ford Fiesta are considered executive . Mercedez Bense is treated as super luxury car. The most small sedan car would be TATA Indica diesel sedan runs on both petrol and diesel. Can accommodate 3 passenger and one driver. Economy car will cost you INR 550 per day . That minimum charge will cover 100 Kilometers and should be with in the city limit. Any thing above will be charged as extra .

One last thing to consider , ask the pickup/drop off service 20 minutes early of your scheduled time. Because Indians are not time sensitive and well known for being late with shameless lame excuse.