HIRING a car is becoming more expensive because, at my age of 73, they tend to add some weighting to the costs. Many firms start adding on the extras once you reach 70, but after extensive perusal of the web, I came up with one site that was open to drivers up to 75.

It is a bit of a disappointment because having moved further south, nearer Carcassonne, the journey to Calais is somewhat daunting. Some 15 months ago, I arrived at Calais at noon on a Sunday morning, and drove south. I just kept going and nine hours, 1,033kms later, I was unpacking the car at home.

I sat down with a beer later and admitted to Ellie there is no fool like an old fool and I would never attempt such a journey again.

I flew to the UK in November and hired a car from Luton airport. It was a Fiat 500, which I found singularly unimpressive. After booking the car at a cost of £43 for three days, I noted that by landing at 7.30 that evening, I would be charged an out-of-hours fee as the office closed at 8pm. The fee was listed at £30 but efforts to cancel the booking failed.

So I paid the fee and took possession of an almost brand-new car at 8.15pm, the operative shining a torch quickly round it in the dark, assuring me the car was spotless.

When I returned it, he spotted a quarter-inch mark on the alloy wheel. “You have kerbed it,” he said almost triumphantly, while I searched the wheel to find the speck.

It transpired it cost me £213 for this (including a £60-odd pound charge for the paperwork). I have a policy covering excesses on car hire, so I was duly reimbursed.

I checked on the Internet upon my return home and discovered the customer complaints with regard to this car company even included signing for a dent they could not be seen but could be felt and then later being charged for an extra dent, added at a later date on their already signed paperwork.

When Christmas approached, I returned to the web seeking a 16-day hire. Ellie will only drive automatics, so it is an expensive undertaking, made even more so by the ramping up of charges over the Christmas holiday.

Adding up the extras for an automatic, an additional named driver, one of whom is over 70, I was in danger of paying around £700. I opted for paying around £250 for a manual transmission and undertaking all the driving myself and not drinking.

I expected to pay an additional £127 for being over the age of 70, which the contract informed me would be charged at the desk, but no additional payment was sought or charged. I amused my wife by stating that as I looked no more than 55, it had never occurred to the man behind the counter that I might qualify for extra weighting.

I have used a similar firm when visiting the USA. The cars are sound mechanically but have the odd bump and scrape. I recall in Rapid City picking up the car at the airport and going back to report quite a few bumps and bruises on the vehicle.

“It’s done 20,000 miles. What d’ya expect?” came the reply along with the assurance that as long as I did not have an accident causing serious damage, I would not be charged if I added “an itty bitty bump or bruise”.

I must admit, having established the car drove perfectly, I was far more relaxed driving a slightly bruised hire car.

At Christmas, we were given a Corsa, and I was impressed. We are not interested in lashing out on flash cars. We take the bargain basement offers, but unlike some of the other small cars, the Corsa seemed very firm and solid on the road.

It was also severely bruised and we were told, after picking it up in the dark, to inspect the vehicle in the morning and phone in should we find some marks not recorded on the chart. This we did, but were informed that marks less than two inches did not count.

I was fascinated by the bonnet, which had been keyed in a great wavy line right the way across and down the driver-side wing. It had been noted on the chart but I have always found such mindless acts of vandalism beyond my comprehension.

When we returned the car to Luton, it was raining. Further, the site had suffered a power cut and the inspectors were away and chaos reigned. They could not print out an all-clear certificate but the lady behind the counter, Kim, came out and checked the car and it was given the thumbs up.

I did point out one thing. We had filled up with petrol but the petrol gauge showed only three-quarters of the tank had been filled. I returned to the pump but was unable to force any further petrol down the tank.

We drove on a couple of miles to the hire-car centre, by which time the gauge had inched up to full. It would have been tricky proving the tank was full, had we opted for a garage closer to the hire centre, and the gauge had shown nothing more than three-quarters of a tank. I was told: Corsas can do that.

Another disconcerting aspect was that I had adopted to return the tank full. The alternative was to pay £68 for the petrol when I took possession. As it happened I ran the car to almost empty before I filled it at the cost of £43. You can learn the hard way when hiring cars.