What to check before renting a self-drive car

Before you book, check five numbers: the security deposit and its refund window, the kilometres included per day, the charge per kilometre beyond them, the fuel policy, and the cancellation cut-off. At handover, photograph the car with the person giving you the keys and get the damage list agreed in writing. The deposit is the one to press hardest on.

How much is the security deposit and when do you get it back?

The complaint we hear more than any other, about this industry rather than any one firm: the deposit went in fast and came back slowly, or came back short. Not the cars. Not the day rates. The deposit.

Ask three questions, in roughly these words, and listen for whether you get numbers or feelings.

How much is the deposit? How is it paid, and to whom? And how many hours after I return the car does it come back to me?

A straight operator answers with figures. Ours are Rs 5,000 on a small car, Rs 10,000 on a large one, and Rs 25,000 to Rs 60,000 on the premium 4x4s and luxury cars. Paid at pickup by UPI or cash, on top of the rental (not inside it).

We also hold a signed post-dated cheque and return it when you return the car. Ask whoever you book with whether they do the same, because a cheque nobody mentions until pickup day is a bad start to a holiday. The deposit goes back on the spot when the car comes back, written into the terms of service rather than promised verbally.

If the answer is “don’t worry, it’s fully refundable”, ask again. Refundable tells you nothing about when. And an operator who will not say a number of hours out loud has told you something useful for the price of one question.

A self-drive offer with no deposit at all should make you more careful, not less. The operator still needs cover against a damaged car, so if it is not in a deposit it is somewhere else (the day rate, or whatever gets claimed against you afterwards).

Our chauffeured trips do carry no deposit, but only because the car never leaves our driver’s hands. Different product. Not a favour.

How many kilometres a day are included?

Two hundred, on every self-drive rental we do. Ask how the allowance is counted across a multi-day booking before you go.

Then ask the half almost nobody asks: what is the charge per kilometre once you pass it? We don’t publish ours, so ask for it when you enquire and keep the answer. An operator who won’t give you that number before you book is not one to book with.

Do the arithmetic first, because 200 km sounds like plenty and is not. Chandigarh to Shimla is roughly 115 km each way (230 there and back), so a day trip is already past it before you have driven anywhere in the hills. It covers a Tricity weekend comfortably. It doesn’t cover Manali.

Who pays for the fuel?

You do. On a self-drive rental the tank is yours, and the car comes back at the level it went out at. Fuel isn’t in the rate and it isn’t in the deposit.

Photograph the gauge at pickup with the ignition on, and again at return. Four seconds, and it settles the only argument that can follow. Chauffeured trips work the other way round: fuel sits inside the fare, agreed before you travel.

What is not included in the daily rate?

Ask for this list wherever you book, and compare it against ours:

• Fuel, always.
• Tolls, and state taxes if you cross a border. A Himachal run picks up both.
• The security deposit, which is separate money and comes back.
• The per-km charge beyond 200 km a day.
• A cleaning fee of Rs 250 to Rs 500 if the car comes back extremely dirty.
• Rs 2,000 if you exceed 120 km/h. The cars are GPS monitored, and we do not apologise for that one; 120 on an Indian highway in somebody else’s car is not a grey area.
• Parking and challans, which stay with whoever was driving (you).

What happens if you cancel?

Free with more than 48 hours’ notice. Inside 48 hours, the full rental is charged. That is our term and it is close to standard across this market, so read it wherever you book. Ours sits in the refund and cancellation policy.

If your plan is shaky, do not book three weeks out to feel organised. Wait until you know. Cancel more than 48 hours out and it costs nothing. Cancel inside 48 and you pay for the car whether you collect it or not.

Does the company own its cars?

Plenty of self-drive listings online are aggregators. You book through an app, the car belongs to somebody else, and the person answering the phone can’t make a decision about it. Fine, right up until 9pm on a Sunday past Solan with a flat tyre.

Ask directly, and look at whether the fleet is a real list of real cars or a stock-photo grid of “similar or equivalent”. Our 27+ cars are published with their day rates, Rs 1,200 for a Maruti S-Presso up to Rs 45,000 for a Land Rover Defender. “Or similar” can be honest; cars get damaged and bookings overlap. But it should be said to you at booking, not discovered at handover.

What should you check when the car is handed over?

Ten minutes here beats an hour of reading terms. Do all of it with the person handing over the car standing next to you; a record made together is the record that gets accepted later.

1. Film a walk-round before anything else. Video, not photos: one slow lap with the phone at about waist height, so the light catches the panels. Then stills of every scratch, scuff and kerbed alloy.
2. Photograph the odometer and the fuel gauge. Ignition on. Both numbers in one frame if the dashboard allows it.
3. Check the tyres, and then check the spare. Tread on all four, then lift the boot floor. A spare that is present but flat is the same as no spare at 11pm on the Kalka road. Confirm the jack and wheel spanner are down there with it.
4. Open the glovebox. Registration certificate, current insurance, valid PUC. Photograph all three. If the insurance has lapsed, do not take the car. Nothing else here matters next to that.
5. Test the boring things. Headlights, indicators, brake lights, wipers, horn, AC, and the seatbelt for every seat you will use. Two minutes.
6. Get the condition record agreed in writing. Existing damage listed on the handover sheet, or acknowledged in a WhatsApp message with your photos attached. A verbal “yes, we know about that dent” is worth nothing three days later.

Do the same in reverse at return, into the same WhatsApp thread. The deposit conversation goes very differently when both sets of pictures sit in one place, timestamped.

What documents do you need?

For a self-drive car: 21 or over, your original Indian driving licence (current, not expired), plus Aadhaar or another government photo ID. The original licence, not a photograph of it.

If your licence was issued outside India, our self-drive cars are not available to you. Not awkwardness, and not something we can waive. Take a car with a driver instead, often the better trip anyway if you don’t know the roads.

When is a self-drive car the wrong choice?

Two cases.

If you need three or four short trips inside Chandigarh in a day, autos and app cabs beat Rs 1,200 plus fuel plus a Rs 5,000 deposit parked for 48 hours. Rent when the car has to sit outside your door all day, or when you’re leaving the city. Not for errands.

And if the drive itself is the hard part, hire the driver. A late-night return from Manali after a full day out is the trip people misjudge on the way in and regret on the way home. Chauffeured means no deposit, fuel in the quote, and a fare agreed before you set off.

The short version

Five answers before you book: deposit amount and refund hours, kilometres per day, per-km rate beyond that, fuel policy, cancellation cut-off. Six checks at handover: walk-round video, odometer and fuel gauge, spare and jack, glovebox papers, lights and belts, damage list in writing.

We deliver free across Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Zirakpur and Chandigarh airport (elsewhere in Punjab or into Haryana on request). Call or WhatsApp +91 88375 12728 and ask for the deposit and per-km figures before you commit.