Compact car hire is very popular today with the prices of fuel constantly rising, it is more economic than the average large car. Compact cars are suitable for the young driver as they are cheaper to buy and hire, the insurance is also cheaper.

Compact cars should be your first choice if you are looking for value for money. Compact hire cars will give you between twenty and fifty miles per gallon of fuel. Compact cars originate from Canada on the continent they were known as the family car and they were first sold after the Second World War but became popular during the 1960's.

Compact cars are for the driver who is looking or a car which is easy to maneuver into small spaces and simple to drive. Compact cars are available to hire in a range of models at a very affordable price, they are also perfect for a holiday rental car as they are fuel efficient and extremely reliable.

Compact cars came a long way in 1959 with the mini, it was created by Alec Insignosis who also had success with the Morris Minor. Compact cars were very much in demand in the 50's because of the fuel crisis with the troubles in the Suez Canal, BMC employed Alec Insignosis to design a smaller car to replace the old Austin Cambridge. The bosses at BMC wanted a proper compact car, not only to be economical to run but also to have four seats.

One of Insignosis' ideas was to use the smallest wheels possible just 10 inches in diameter and made by Dunlop, and so the mini was launched with great success. It proved to be the best selling compact car of all time, compact cars from France: the Citeron C2V and the Renault Dauphine were the closet cars to the mini at that time. Also very popular in France was the Deux Cheraux, a cheap and very basic car.

The Japanese car makers lau8nched the Daewood Matiz and the Nissan Micra to reach the compact car market, they were both very reliable and economical. In the 1990's Mercedes Benz launched the A Class.

Ford introduced a great choice of compact car for hire for example the Ford Anglia 105e which had an advantage over the compact mini as it had a top speed of 75 mph. Also the Mini had a great rival compact car in the Triumph Herald which was quite a sporty model and was also available as a convertible, the first compact car with a soft top.

At this time neither of the two major groups Rootes or Vauxhall had a really small compact car. Porsche was building small really viable alternatives and the best selling was the Volkswagon Beetle, which reached speeds of up to 68 miles per hour, which was really impressive at this time. The Fiat Nuova 500 was a much smaller compact car and designed Dante Giasco but whilst it was a great looking compact car, it only reached a top speed of 53 miles per hour. However in spite of this top speed it still achieved of 3,500,000 sales.

Austin produced one of the best and popular compact cars in the Metropolitan, it was a scaled down version of the 1950s Packard but it was designed and produced for the American Market. Then Ford stole their thunder and produced one of the most popular compact cars ever, the Ford Fiesta and more latterly in response to another oil crisis the Ford Ka.

There are huge variety of compact cars to choose from when hiring a car.