I'm hiring a car for 3 weeks in the UK in July. When I hired a car in Ireland a few years ago, I was very happy that it was narrow (for the skinny, stonewall-line roads), but wished it was bigger on the few nights in which I had to sleep in it.
Are the roads a bit wider in England and Wales? If so, if I'm not planning to leave paved, or gravel, roads (except to camp), is there any reason to want 4x4 ?
Thanks
Having recently spent two weeks each in Scotland, England, and Ireland (plus NI), I don't recall Irish roads as being especially narrower or more closed in than England - and certainly not narrower than Scotland, where passing bays were the norm once you were in the countryside.
We rented smallish cars (Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla) - and they were all manual, because it was substantially cheaper (apparently automatic transmission is considered a luxury item). We had no intention of sleeping in them, and nor did we have any need for a 4x4 - all of our destinations and accomm were on the bitumen.
We use www.carhire3000.com to rent cars overseas, but www.economycarrentals.com looks competitive as well.
You'll find the same "stonewall-line" roads all over England once you get away from main towns and main roads.
4x4 would only be useful if you intended to camp in very remote areas, most cars can manage a hundred or so yards off a paved road. If you intend to sleep in the car, you might want to consider a small estate car.
Have used small-mid sized hatchback cars with stick shifts here in the UK for around 30 years and haven't had many problems with accessing places, even in the days when I was working as an outdoor instructor and driving a Mark 1 VW Golf.
All of the cars have been used to access basic or not-so-basic campsites in the UK.
Whilst 4x4 vehicles may get you almost anywhere in the UK, unless you're dealing with snow and ice, there's no real need to have one in my opinion. Trying to negotiate some roads in the Yorkshire Dales or the Lake District was a pain last year - the roads were wide enough for two regular size cars to pass when going in opposite directions.
Put a 4x4 or a large car in one lane and it becomes and interesting situation or a bigger pain on roads such as the one connecting Langdale with Little Langdale that starts off near The Old Dungeon Ghyll pub...
Turned out that I knew the driver of the Beemer that caused one of the biggest problems because I used to work for him! Pure coincidence I hasten to add...
Whilst 4x4 vehicles may get you almost anywhere in the UK, unless you're dealing with snow and ice, there's no real need to have one in my opinion.
And there's even a lot of real-world evidence to demonstrate that a 4x4 is not an improvement in snow and ice either ... especially ice.
And in fact that over-confidence can lead to higher rates of grief.
4X4s are only really suitable for Central London - that's why they're called Chelsea Tractors!
Apparently there are more 4x4s registered in the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea than in the whole of Sweden
Toorak Tractors we call them (Toorak being one of the most expensive suburbs in the whole country) ... and our street at school peak hours is full of Merc or Beemer SUVs (black or silver the preferred colours), with mum driving the lazy little darlings (Emily and Tristan) to and fro.
In my day we walked six miles to school barefoot in freezing rain ... etc, etc.
I'm going to argue that Ireland has more narrower roads than the UK - this is a country in which an unlit dual carriage motorway is considered the height of driving conditions (and it is all downhill form there) and single lane with soft shoulders is considered par for the course as a top of the line road. Considering the higher the number the lower the quality, I have spent too much time in Ireland on roads that are numbered such as R2323.
