Market report · United Kingdom
Hiring a car at Manchester Airport
What the headline price leaves out here, measured across 22 searches of this market, the largest returning 452 cars.
Assume you will pay it.
About 41% of the rental itself. One fee per rental, not per person.
Pre-authorised on the main driver's card, and released after you return the car.
Almost everything here. Book early, keep checking, rebook if it drops.
What this means for your booking
- The cheapest sticker is usually not the cheapest car. With 96% of suppliers charging about €123 for a second driver, two cars advertised a few euro apart can be €123 apart by the time you drive away. We put that fee into every price the moment you say you need one.
- A month is not four times a week. The median week here is €296 and the median month €1329 — worse per day, which is why back-to-back rentals often beat one long booking on hires of 40 days or more.
- The airport is usually the cheapest place to collect. In every market we have measured, that held — town pick-ups cost more, not less, because the suppliers compete at the terminal. See every pick-up point here.
Getting to the car
If you land late. 56% of the suppliers we priced shut by 22:00, and the typical desk closes at 22:00. A delayed flight is the difference between collecting your car and paying for a night you did not plan. Measured across 431 offers that publish their desk hours; a supplier that does not publish them is not counted as open.
Not every supplier here hands you the keys in the terminal. Across 22 searches, this is how collection splits:
Budget time for a shuttle. 85% of suppliers here are off-airport, which is usually why they are cheaper. It is a real cost in minutes at both ends, and worth weighing against the saving.
16 suppliers appeared here across our searches, at several separate pick-up points. See which is nearest you and what each costs.
The fine print, measured
These conditions vary more between airports than most people expect. We measure each of them everywhere we sweep: deposits · debit cards · second-driver fees · desk hours.
Return it with the level you got. Cheaper than full-to-empty deals, but check the gauge at pick-up and photograph it.
Check the cap before you book a long drive — the supplier sets the excess rate and we cannot see it.
Well short of universal — filter for it if you plan to drive out of the country.
More flexible than most markets, but still check before you travel.
Deposit banding, as the suppliers classify it themselves: average deposit 38% · low deposit 21% · high deposit 21% · no deposit 10% · low deposit option available 10% · deposit-free option available 10%.
What each supplier actually costs here
16 suppliers appeared in our searches. These are the ones you are most likely to be offered — chosen by how often they came up, then ordered by what they really cost, which is rarely the same order as the advertised price.
Prices are for a one-week hire. Mixing rental lengths would make the column meaningless — a fee charged once per rental is a very different share of a week than of a month — so this table is built from week-long searches only.
| Supplier | Advertised 1 week |
With 2nd driver | Deposit held | Full cover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U-Save cheapest all-in · seen 204 times |
€121 | €251 +€131 |
€2,335 | €74 |
| GreenMotion · seen 180 times |
€171 | €301 +€131 |
€1,750 | €67 |
| Keddy · seen 144 times |
€161 | €317 +€156 |
€820 | €81 |
| Europcar · seen 156 times |
€222 | €383 +€161 |
€295 | €95 |
| Drivalia · seen 912 times |
€291 | €413 +€122 |
€1,750 | €87 |
| Arnold Clark · seen 357 times |
€318 | €440 +€122 |
— | €90 |
| SIXT · seen 444 times |
€429 | €587 +€158 |
€725 | €144 |
Deposits vary far more than prices. U-Save holds €2,335 on the main driver's card against Europcar's €295. It is released after you return the car, but it has to fit.
"With 2nd driver" is the advertised rental plus that supplier's additional-driver fee — our definition of the total, and the only one we rank on. Full cover is quoted separately and never added in: many travellers hold annual excess insurance or rely on a card, and folding in an assumed purchase is precisely the trick this site exists to expose. Medians across 22 searches; a supplier that does not publish a fee is not counted as free. How we measure this.
Price it for your dates
Every supplier, ranked by the total you actually pay.
How these numbers were measured
We search this market on a schedule through DiscoverCars, at several rental lengths, and keep what came back. Each figure above is the median across 22 searches, not a single snapshot and not an estimate.
- Second-driver share — the percentage of priced offers whose supplier charges a fee for an additional driver. Offers that do not publish a fee are excluded from the share rather than counted as free.
- Typical fee — the median fee for the whole rental, not per day. One fee per rental, however many drivers.
- Deposit — the median amount the supplier pre-authorises on the main driver's card at the counter. It is released after you return the car.
- Cancel free — the share of offers that can be cancelled without charge.
Car hire is priced dynamically and these are typical values, not quotes. Availability and price are confirmed on DiscoverCars before you pay. We publish the aggregates; the underlying records stay ours.
Measured from 22 searches of this market between 20 September 2026 and 23 September 2026. Car hire is priced dynamically: these are typical values, not quotes, and the only way to know your price is to search your dates. Prices and availability come from DiscoverCars and are confirmed there before you pay.