Rental car, taxi or Uber: which is cheapest?

Rental car, taxi or Uber: which is cheapest?

GO Rentals has attempted to get to the bottom of a question on many savvy travellers’ minds… which is cheapest, a rental car, metered taxi or Uber? And the answer is… it depends. To work out the most cost-effective and … Continue reading

GO Rentals has attempted to get to the bottom of a question on many savvy travellers’ minds… which is cheapest, a rental car, metered taxi or Uber?

And the answer is… it depends.

To work out the most cost-effective and convenient way to travel in destination, James Dalglish, general manager of GO Rentals explained that “many variables” had to be considered. And his firm has crunched the numbers across 85 cities around the world.

“The absolute cost also depends quite strongly on just precisely where in the world you are,” he said.

In Milan, the cost of a taxi for the distance from the airport to city centre is around €151.32 – 498% more than hiring a car – while in Cairo the cost of hiring a car ($61.74) is 91% more than a taxi. In Beijing, the price is roughly the same.

Tourists in Dublin will be best to avoid Uber, which typically costs 36% more than a metered taxi in the city, but in Los Angeles it is as much as 132% cheaper to request an Uber than hail a cab.

Uber came out cheaper in all but 15 of the cities analysed, with other Mumbai, Dubai, Helsinki, Rome and Madrid among other exceptions.

You can read the full analysis here.